I’m moving. I’m cleaning out the house. Something I found that I had packed away 5 years ago was this typed few pieces of paper. I worked at TVA – in the Maps and Surveys Department. I learned what I know there – so you can argue they taught me all I know and I still don’t know a dam thing (<- that’s the joke).
Anyway – I deal with GIS now and all the fun that comes with that. I was unpacking one box and repacking another and found the 13 types pages that were a small history of the place I worked. I’m guessing this was written in the late 80’s . It is typed and by 93 things were starting to go digital and were run off printers.
When I teach classes in Chattanooga I always tell people this place was a mapping mecca – and no one knows or understands why I say that. I go over what little I know and try to tell people why.
The link below is hand typed history. There will never be another document or initiative like this ever. On page three there are five principals for mapping and surveying in the Tennessee Valley: Personnel, Cooperation, Control, Specifications, and Instrumentation.
I can change that to: Personnel, Cooperation, Software, Specifications, and Hardware. For all of your very expensive software – it all boils down to that. It’s why I could argue your GIS software (ESRI or OpenSource) is only 20 percent of the total picture. Some would have you believe its 80 percent. If you don’t have the other 4 you are fighting an uphill battle. Any consultant that tells you otherwise is just a shill for the man (or software company). It’s why I’m also taking incredible pride these days in not being a business partner with any software company. I’d rather tell you the truth than ignore the other 80% of the GIS problem.
Read – Enjoy
