Archives for February 8, 2011

The topic of GIS industry certification seems to has come to light once again recently. This topic is always a hot one, often dividing long time, old schoolers, academics, contractors, and students with varying opinions. We’ve provided the opinions of a couple of our experts along with feedback from both sides of the user community. My thoughts are that the GIS technology, potential applications and uses, the users, etc… are so broad and to some extent, gone mainstream, that the idea of certifying anyone as a professional is less likely to take off as every year passes and the industry and its professionals evolve. Recently, the GISCI (http://www.gisci.org) added a little fuel to the fire in this debate by announcing they are considering the addition of a testing component (uhoh… here we go again!) Coming at us from another angle, Esri is also adding some fuel to the debate, albeit from a platform specific proposal (a very different matter really) with the addition of technical competency testing and certification – personally, I’m all for this! Read on for some expert feedback and input from the user community (both sides of the fence)

See GIS Industry Certification, The Debate Continues – Some Community Input