THINK DIFFERENT! By: Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr
This may be my first dedicated GIS post, after my different musings on different facets of Jamaican life on this platform. What we do at MGI is so much more than GIS, and it’s
important that we understand the environment – social, physical and infrastructural – that we live in and apply GIS to. Those of you in the know already know what GIS is, and if you think it’s geographic information systems, you’re wrong. It’s way WAY more than that. It’s also more than the more recent definitions of the acronym: GIScience and GIServices. It’s also more than the people, both the operators and the consumers. It’s a philosophy and a way of thinking. It’s an approach towards problem-solving; the technological tools won’t solve the problems by themselves. Sort of reminds me what DMX said about guns not killing people… I have been fortunate to work with some great colleagues who have been able to grasp that philosophy. I’ve also been equally fortunate to work with clients and partners who have a similar grasp. We relish the non-traditional, when we are taken into areas even I never thought GIS could be applied to, across the private and public sectors, and across academic spectra, locally and internationally. We’ve been forced to think deeper and think more, and we’re better for doing it when we emerge on the other side. Being in a resource-constrained environment in Jamaica isn’t an excuse – it’s an opportunity to innovate and be creative. It’s not about the software either; in today’s day and age, content trumps software any day, especially in an era when we can (and we do) write whatever software we want. All of that is useless without data. It’s very easy to be attracted to the bright and shiny things out there; who isn’t? But bless the people (like my colleagues) who aren’t fazed by the nitty-gritty grimy stuff we have to do for content creation and maintenance. It is because of them that I don’t have to work for Disney (or Pixar for that matter) for my imagination to become reality. I’ve seen 3D worlds develop in front of me and Jamaica condensed into a box on my cars’ dashboards. I’ve seen complex crime and road safety patterns materialize across space and time. I’ve seen the world (not just the earth, but the world and its people and infrastructure etc) in the year 2100 and the effects of climate change. I’ve seen merely curious minds become savants at GIS. The challenges out there are endless, but that’s what makes what we do so exciting. But perhaps more than that, we are in a position to do something about these challenges, rather than sitting down and complaining about it. The infinite possibilities, scenarios and alternatives GIS allow you to conjure up mean that you can matter –
standing out in a world of committee meetings and long-winded speechifying… And so, on that note, I’m ending this long-winded speech and going back to making mad maps… Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr DIRECTOR Mona GeoInformatics Institute University of the West Indies, Mona Campus Kingston 7