What Inspires Me
I saw a questions posed on Quora that asked what inspires a GIS Enthusiast?
The answer to this will be different for each person. For me, it is the following.
My first GIS job, I spent a lot of time working on preplanning apartment complexes and mobile home parks with the fire department. This meant that every time a specific crew was working, I would be on a ridealong with them, driving around each complex, marking things down on a map. We started simple, with addresses and fire hydrants.
You see, there isn't an universal addressing standard for apartment complexes or mobile home parks. Each apartment can have a letter, number, building number, building letter, address, and/or any combination of these. At the time, the 911 software they were using could get them to the gate, but no further. This meant precious minutes driving around until they found it. Mobile home parks start out with the homes in numerical order, but as homes move away, the next one in takes the next number. So one local park had homes 17, 62, and 43 right next to each other. Scary stuff when you're anxiously waiting for help!
One night, around 1:30am, my cell phone rang. It was one of the crew members I had been working with. He excitedly told me that they just had a call to one of the apartment complexes we had just mapped out the previous week, and that if we had not done so, they would not have known where to go. 30 more seconds, and this person would have died. He thanked me over and over again.
That is why I do GIS. Every map I make will not save a life, but some of the maps I make will make a difference. It is fulfilling to feel as though I have made a difference, and that is what inspires me.
The answer to this will be different for each person. For me, it is the following.
My first GIS job, I spent a lot of time working on preplanning apartment complexes and mobile home parks with the fire department. This meant that every time a specific crew was working, I would be on a ridealong with them, driving around each complex, marking things down on a map. We started simple, with addresses and fire hydrants.
You see, there isn't an universal addressing standard for apartment complexes or mobile home parks. Each apartment can have a letter, number, building number, building letter, address, and/or any combination of these. At the time, the 911 software they were using could get them to the gate, but no further. This meant precious minutes driving around until they found it. Mobile home parks start out with the homes in numerical order, but as homes move away, the next one in takes the next number. So one local park had homes 17, 62, and 43 right next to each other. Scary stuff when you're anxiously waiting for help!
One night, around 1:30am, my cell phone rang. It was one of the crew members I had been working with. He excitedly told me that they just had a call to one of the apartment complexes we had just mapped out the previous week, and that if we had not done so, they would not have known where to go. 30 more seconds, and this person would have died. He thanked me over and over again.
That is why I do GIS. Every map I make will not save a life, but some of the maps I make will make a difference. It is fulfilling to feel as though I have made a difference, and that is what inspires me.
