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I read that article and found myself thinking... what else is left for geo if we've rejected as "unethical" all four of military, policing, oil/gas, and adverti

by jaspax 6y ago

I read that article and found myself thinking... what else is left for geo if we've rejected as "unethical" all four of military, policing, oil/gas, and advertising? I'm sure there's still some nice projects around the edges that have some use for this, but if you have ethical qualms about the industries that account for the vast bulk of money and effort in your field... maybe you should just find a different field, rather than trying to theorize your way into an ethical way to keep contributing.

krebby 6y ago
But that's the point. There are no resources to fund those "nice projects" that don't fall into resource extraction, military industrial complex, or advertising. There is absolutely a need for geo in other applications. Nonprofits, micromobility, real estate, and news organizations are big ones that come to mind. But funding, and the experts required to create those applications, not so much. The air has been sucked out of the room.
- tuukkah 6y ago
  To pick an example from the article, it's important that the simple MBTiles format exists if the OGC GeoPackage is too complicated. This way, more good can be achieved with less resources and fewer experts.
renewiltord 6y ago
There's lots. You can do site selection (what's a good place for my cafe), neighbourhood analytics (how am I doing relative to stores near me), transportation policy (where are people going from where), public health (are people complying with a request to shelter-in-place and if not, what should we expect), detecting trends (are census demographics correlated with crime / fire / medical emergencies). Honestly there's so much possible work here that isn't military, policing, oil/gas, or advertising.
cousin_it 6y ago
When I worked in geo, the main focus was travel directions / traffic jams / road closures / etc.
underbluewaters 6y ago
Conservation planning and scientific research are my focus. Funding is extremely hard to find but the problems are interesting and tend to be net positive. Some conservation efforts can have a colonial feel but since most people are in it to "do good" there are strong efforts to keep those tendencies in check.
- Nasrudith 6y ago
  And even then there is the issue of multiplicity of uses of tools. Like the classic cyberpunk quote of "Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human." Tracking wildlife and growth could be applied to humans and chasing squatters. Of course it still works on a direct and personal level in the same way you would microchip pets but object to doing it to humans.

by jaspax 6y ago

krebby 6y ago

But that's the point. There are no resources to fund those "nice projects" that don't fall into resource extraction, military industrial complex, or advertising. There is absolutely a need for geo in other applications. Nonprofits, micromobility, real estate, and news organizations are big ones that come to mind. But funding, and the experts required to create those applications, not so much. The air has been sucked out of the room.

tuukkah 6y ago
To pick an example from the article, it's important that the simple MBTiles format exists if the OGC GeoPackage is too complicated. This way, more good can be achieved with less resources and fewer experts.

renewiltord 6y ago

There's lots. You can do site selection (what's a good place for my cafe), neighbourhood analytics (how am I doing relative to stores near me), transportation policy (where are people going from where), public health (are people complying with a request to shelter-in-place and if not, what should we expect), detecting trends (are census demographics correlated with crime / fire / medical emergencies). Honestly there's so much possible work here that isn't military, policing, oil/gas, or advertising.

cousin_it 6y ago

When I worked in geo, the main focus was travel directions / traffic jams / road closures / etc.

underbluewaters 6y ago

Conservation planning and scientific research are my focus. Funding is extremely hard to find but the problems are interesting and tend to be net positive. Some conservation efforts can have a colonial feel but since most people are in it to "do good" there are strong efforts to keep those tendencies in check.

Nasrudith 6y ago
And even then there is the issue of multiplicity of uses of tools. Like the classic cyberpunk quote of "Anything that can be done to a rat can be done to a human." Tracking wildlife and growth could be applied to humans and chasing squatters. Of course it still works on a direct and personal level in the same way you would microchip pets but object to doing it to humans.