The Military-Industrial Complex and Geography

Geography is a racket.  Well, professional and academic Geography can be, anyways.  The crooked relationship between professional geography, academic geography, and the military is not universal but it does exist.  While many academic geographers are on the political Left and would go well out of their way not to be associated with the military while they feed off public money via salaries and grants, some in the more conservative geospatial realm of Geography are forming a military-industrial-academic iron triangle.

The main main alliance is between ESRI and the government and the military.  ESRI controls GIS in the government via ArcGIS.  One will never find another GIS program on closed government systems.  ESRI does not need to make a popular GIS program which people can afford as it can rely on high cost (up to $1,500 per user) licences.

Another example is the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation.  The USGIF is an organization which lobbies for federal funding for geospatial technology and tools.  Its board is comprised of member of the geospatial business community and former government officials.  The USGIF has a close working relationship Department of Defense bodies like the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency.  It hosts the GEOINT conferences which brings the directors of these agencies to speak to the crowd of government officials, military officers, and professionals.

Finally, the Geography Military-Industrial-Academic Complex self sustains itself by giving federal funds to academic to produce overpriced textbooks which could not be profitable without forcing students to by them for classes.

Now the latter two examples are true for many subjects not just Geography.  The first example is common in many computer science fields as well.  It is just depressing that Geography is playing part in this game too.

Growing Jobs Market for Geographic Minded People

Not everyone is meant to be a geographer is a geography degree a must.  However, spatial knowledge (the understanding what is where, why there, and why care) and skills to not only "map" out what needs to be studied but also being able to analyze are needed skills in many jobs.  ESRI, the United States Department of Labor, and the British Royal Geographical Society (PDF) are all emphasizing how businesses need not necessarily "geographers" but people who can do geography to improve business.  The Department of Labor even predicts the geospatial technology field will continue to be a "high growth industry."

So if you or someone you know is educating themselves for a future career, consider taking geography courses that will emphasize spatial thinking.  You never know who will look at your resume and see spatial thinking as a plus.

Interviews with Geographical Professionals on Their Career Field

I am frequently asked by readers what sort of careers can one obtain with a geography degree or GIS knowledge.  I have always been searching for information on the vast array of jobs that one can get which use geographical knowledge (not necessarily a geography degree).  MapPros!, an older site, is a recent find which I recommend one check out.  There is a Meet page which allows one to see all sorts of careers one can work in.  Each career field offers at least one interview with a person who works in said career field.

As for those who are looking for actual employment opportunities in geography there are plenty of websites to use to help one's search.  Besides the normal job-hunting websites there is GeoSearch, GIS Jobs Clearance House, GIS Jobs, and Geography Jobs.

Videos about GIS Careers

Right now one of the major markets for those interested in doing geography is in a GIS-related field.  These videos below offer some insight into various positions that GIS skills are employed.

Convert Garmen GPS Waypoints and Tracks Directly to GIS Shapefiles

Last week I was preparing for field work when I encountered a technical issue. ArcGIS would not synch up with my GPS unit. After trying and failing to get ArcGIS to synch I decided to use Garmin' MapSource program to download the waypoints and tracks and then upload them to ArcGIS. However, MapSource would not allow me to save my data in shapefile (.SHP) format. (To make matters worse my field laptop cannot handle Google Earth so I feared I was doomed).

Fortunately; however, I managed to find the Minnesotan Department of Natural Resource's Garmin Application. The program allow gives "users the ability to directly transfer data between Garmin GPS handheld receivers and various GIS software packages. Using this program a user can use point features (graphics or shapefile) and upload them to the GPS as Waypoints. Line and Polygon Graphics or shapes can be uploaded to the GPS as Track Logs or Routes. Conversely, Waypoints, Track Logs, and Routes collected using the GPS can be transferred directly to ArcView/ArcMap/Google Earth/Landview and saved as Graphics or Shapefiles."

So this program allows for easy back and forth data sharing between GIS and GPS. While many GIS programs now allow for easy data sharing this program can be of use to geographers and others who for some reason or another lack that ability.

State Magazine Features the Office of the Geographer

Office of the Geographer is located in the United States State Department. Originally the office was created after World War I in order to help the United States better understand and comprehend the way borders and geopolitical changes impact diplomacy. Well known government geographers like Isaiah Bowman later became involved and helped design the globe after World War II. In the 1980s the office expanded from purely diplomatic matters by looking at refugee and liberalization issues.

The official State Department magazine, State, has a short but good feature on the Office of the Geographer starting on page 30 (PDF). It is a nice introduction to anyone who wants to know one way how geographers help the world.