Toby Walker wrote:
>
> Hey list, I've been looking at a new company that deems themselves SIM guys.
> Im not sure what this paradigm is, but the Company is called
> TerraGraphics. I checked out their web site by fluke this morning, and I
> wanted to see what other GIScientests thought about this......
Well, the term "GIS" never did cut in the business world, and the
Canadians (who invented the discipline) dropped it in favor of
"Geomatics" as soon they realized that the Usonians (US
Americans) decided that it was cool and appropriated it. And now,
"Spatial Information Management," or SIM, appears in a web page
with phrases like "Convergent Technology," "Amplified Mapping at
Terminal Velocity," "market share," "competitive advantage,"
"businesss intelligence" and a great deal of additional
hyperbolic buzzword twaddle. I see no "science" here (other than
transparent propaganda.) But give them credit, sometimes a new
name is all that's required to sell a well-known technology.
Perhaps there's some science there in the background, but the web
page tells us only that they have a geek in residence (GIR), and
that he's just amazed the marketing staff with his brilliance.
(well of course... GIS, like any other suffciently advanced
technology, is indistinguishable from magic to hoi polloi.) But I
saw no examples of anything concrete; just colorful words. Good
job there though. Inspiring rhetoric with no visibles means of
support. That sort of thing is yet another kind of magic. This
web page makes my thaumometer pratically go off the scale. But
where's the science?
Finally, this line bothered me, especially on top of so much
vacuousness. From their web page:
> "At a time when Geographic Information Systems and Information Technology are
>converging into a new business discipline called Spatial Information Management, one
>company plans the complete infiltration and exploitation of geography in the
business marketplace�TerraGraphics..."
"...complete infiltration and exploitation of geography..."
"...complete infiltration and exploitation of geography..."
"...complete infiltration and exploitation of geography..."
Sort of like "total war" eh?
I guess the Wooden Ships really were just a hippie dream.
- Bill Thoen
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