Do Canadian Geomatics & GIS Professionals Dumb it Down for the Public?

Less than a week ago I was thinking about “Identity” and the Canadian geomatics community. Recently there have been a number of articles on what words we should use to describe ourselves as a sector and a community. It’s been interesting and more authors are asking to contribute articles on the subject. We will be publishing those in the coming weeks. If you have an opinion on “Identity” please contact me to get it published.

In an effort to widen the discourse and the understanding surrounding our identity as a sector and industry, I thought why not ask the community directly? How do the majority of us describe ourselves and the work we do when interacting with the public? That will tell us a lot about what we are actually saying. Not what we “should” be saying.

To do this GoGeomatics has created a survey. If you’re not a member already please join the GoGeomatics Canada LinkedIn Group and vote in our poll. You can see early results here. the poll will stay up for a month. check back to see the results.

The question we are asking is:

How do you describe your job in Geomatics? You’re at a party with lots of people you don’t know and someone you have never met asks you what work you do. What are you most likely to say?