4 Myths About GIS

Before there were alternative facts and misinformation, there were myths. A myth is essentially a story that people believe, often without facts or details. Myths like lightening never strikes the same place twice, cracking your knuckles causes arthritis or that Medieval Europeans believed the earth was flat have all been dispelled. There are myths in technology too, but technology is a bit different. It changes, evolves and something that may have been believed (rightly or wrongly) years ago may no longer be true. Here are five myths of GIS that I have heard recently that may have been true in the past, but certainly are not today.

Myth #1 – GIS is Complicated.

Just like all technology, the early systems were complicated and required special knowledge. Take computers for example – in the early days one needed to know machine language to program even a simple operation. Then along came rudimentary languages, punch cards, then sophisticated languages, scripting languages et al, and now there are app builders and configuration tools that actually build and configure applications without any programming. As computers matured and became easier to use, the growth of those using computers grew exponentially. Now we use very sophisticated cloud based systems and apps on mobile phones without thinking of the past and how complicated things used to be. This is the same with GIS.

In the early days of software, GIS was complicated and required special knowledge and special hardware to use. This too is no longer true and GIS has evolved into simple-to use-technology that doesn’t require special training, knowledge or hardware. If you haven’t worked with today’s GIS technology, you will be very surprised.

Myth #2 – GIS is Expensive

Similar to Myth #1, technology used to be very expensive – it required specialized hardware, extensive training and custom data. GIS is now not only available as enterprise platform technology, but as desktop and SaaS software using common applications such as Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. GIS requires no special hardware, training or data to get started. Global basemaps, imagery and data are now just part of the platform. The Living Atlas is a curated set of geographic data that anyone using the Esri platform has access to. We will save return on investment analysis for a future blog, but the economic benefits of improved efficiency, increased productivity and the improved quality of critical decisions are obviously vast. 

Myth #3 – GIS Requires Customization

GIS technology was originally developed with broad goals to manage disparate data sets, invent and perform spatial analysis, and visualize geographic data in new ways. As the use of GIS has grown and has become an integral part of many organizations, common requirements, workflows and processes have emerged. Take for example, managing land records and mapping parcels. There are only eight or nine things you can do to a parcel - i.e. split, merge, subdivide, etc. In the past, these workflows were custom built and every country, province, state, city and country did them differently. GIS has matured into domain specific solutions including parcel editing. Now everyone can benefit from a standardized set of best practices and software configurations.

As mentioned above, applications now are deployed with ‘app builders’ and not with custom software code. This is the same for publishing web maps and sharing data internally and externally. These are all out-of-the-box capabilities accessible to us mere mortals.

Myth #4 – GIS is for Experts

No, GIS is for everyone. Whether you want to develop a map and app for local bike trails or build a story map that shows off the historic properties in your community, you can do it. The SaaS GIS, ArcGIS Online (if you don’t have one, you can create a free non-commercial account), provides mapping, analysis, and sharing capabilities that can anyone can do. There are widgets. wizards and app builders that give you the ability to create maps and apps that can be used on any device – iPhones, Androids, and desktops. This give you access to your maps and data on any device, anywhere and at any time. There are GIS experts, and there will always be experts, but to other GIS is an essential tool in their work. GIS now is for everyone.

GIS has evolved and it will continue. Without any customization, we can now collect a centimeter-accurate positon, connect your GPS to your phone, which is connected to ArcGIS Online, and use curated global data sets. It’s easy and inexpensive. If you’re new to GIS or you haven’t checked out today’s technology you may be adhering to old myths - get started here.

Send me your GIS myths and we will use them in future columns.