The mission of a GISer

GISer has its own technological improvement path. If you want to keep going on this road of GIS, please don't forget to look up at the road.

Unlike Java engineers and front-end engineers who have clear programming languages, GISer works more like a full-stack engineer. js, java, C#, Android, python seem to have some knowledge, but none of them seem to be very proficient.

At this time, GISer is often confused. Which one should I study in depth, which direction should I work hard in, and how should I improve myself.

There are a lot of GIS professionals around, many of whom no longer do GIS, some are doing Java, and some are doing front-end. A friend who has already switched to Java complained at a party that it would be a mistake to engage in GIS after graduation, and he should directly engage in Java.

There are many reasons for this phenomenon. One of the reasons is that it is easy for everyone to use the standards of software developers to measure the value of a GIS development, including GISer himself.

The value of GISer

So what standard should be used to measure the value of GISer?

We might as well think from another angle

Programming languages and professional software are actually just tools. The key is what problems you can solve with these tools

The mission of GISer is to use these tools to solve map-related problems

The difficulty level of solving the map problem can reflect the ability of a GISer

The value created by solving the map problem forms the value of a GISer

What to learn

When you don’t know what to learn, you might as well see what GIS problems you can’t solve by yourself

Here are some common map problems casually listed below, you can be a reference

There is a function in the business system that needs to mark the location on the map.
Still the above requirements, the system is deployed in the intranet, and cannot access the Internet.
The client has a large amount of surveying and mapping data and needs a web page system to display it.
These surveying and mapping data must be able to be modified in the web system.
The above data requires a CS system to check and analyze the data.
You also need a mobile phone to view data and report errors.
A large-screen display system is also needed to display data with three-dimensional GIS.
The 3D GIS display system needs to be cool and look like a movie.
In order to reduce the cost of the project, the company decided to use open source GIS software to achieve the above requirements.
The delivery driver can only navigate to one destination at a time using the AutoNavi map. He wants to navigate multiple destinations at a time, and also to avoid morning and evening peaks.
Through machine learning, vector data such as buildings, roads, green spaces, and rivers are automatically extracted from remote sensing images.
The company decided to create a set of its own Internet map, benchmarking Baidu map and Gaode map
。。。

Another way is to go to the job search website to check the technical requirements for GIS development and compare them with salary. You will know what to learn.

Technology improvement path

Share the GISer technology improvement path that I have summarized myself, the granularity is relatively coarse, just for your reference

I think the technological improvement path of GISer can be divided into four major stages

In the first stage, commercial GIS software can be used to solve the problem.

Such as ArcGIS, Hypermap and so on.

Phase two, can use open source GIS software to solve problems

This is not to say that open source GIS is better than commercial GIS. On the contrary, open source GIS software does not have complete documentation and a strong technical support team like commercial software. Many things need to be studied and explored by yourself.

Therefore, open source GIS has higher requirements for GISer, and requires GISer to have stronger development capabilities and a deeper understanding of the principles of GIS.

There is also an open source GIS that allows you to have access to the underlying code of the GIS, which is of great help to the improvement of your ability.

Stage three, have the ability to solve problems in open source GIS

At this stage, you will find that there are not so many ready-made answers on the Internet, and you start to get used to reading English materials.

The source code of open source GIS has gradually become more kind from the previous book, and can understand the ins and outs of it.

You start to be able to solve the bugs in the open source GIS software and start to contribute to the open source GIS.

This shows that you have gradually started to have the development capabilities of the bottom GIS.

Phase 4, capable of solving the cutting-edge problems of the GIS industry

At this stage, there are not too many ready-made GIS materials, and more need to study computer knowledge, mathematical knowledge and GIS theoretical knowledge. You have to integrate them and use these knowledge and tools to solve problems that no one has solved.

This is a very energy-consuming thing. You can only focus your energy in a certain direction according to your own interests, such as improving the display effect of the map, or improving the production efficiency of the vector map, etc., as long as you focus on a small point. Make a breakthrough and you will have an incomparable sense of accomplishment.

At this stage, your focus has returned to the computer field. The difference is that this time your goal is clear and you are no longer confused.

At last

I want to say one more thing here. The status quo of GISer is usually half GIS development, half full stack development, and then working on projects every day. Wherever you spend your time, there will be gains. If you want to keep doing GIS, please spend more time on the first one.

Finally, I want to remind everyone of GISer, including myself

GISer has its own technological improvement path. If you want to keep going on this road of GIS, please don't forget to look up at the road.

Original address: http://gisarmory.xyz/blog/index.html?blog=GISerMission

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