June 07, 2007

McCartney, music, and mapping standards.. does it matter?

Interesting analogy as I watch a TV interview with Paul McCartney... apparently the music legend and song writer doesn't read music! So, think about how many in the traditional GIS space think of mashups and mashers and the lack of attention paid to open standards, map projections, principles of cartography, yadayada... does it really matter? If Paul can become an icon in the music industry without learning how, or caring how to read music does it matter if map mashers don't learn about geography, cartography, GIS, etc... hmmm

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Well, yes and no. If you have the innate talent and genius to produce something good without having "learned" cartography, more power to ya. Fact is, 90% of the amateur music out there on the Intertubes is unlistenable crap. So it's not a long stretch to think that 90% of the amateur cartography is going to be visual crap also.