got geoint?

Jeff Thurston, co-founder and edi­tor of V1 Mag­a­zine who is based in Berlin, recently penned a highly compelling editorial on the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the rise of geospatial technologies. Written from the perspective of someone who has lived in Germany since 1994, and whose spouse actually lived in Germany during this historic event, Thurston highlights how much things have changed in the past 20 years from a point of view that carries tremendous meaning for us: from a geospatial perspective.

One passage from the article that caught our attention was this one:

“The fall of the Berlin Wall has meant many geospa­tial related projects involv­ing the Euro­pean Union, increased expen­di­ture toward infra­struc­ture devel­op­ment in trans­port, nat­ural resources, GPS related activites and a unique ori­en­ta­tion toward spa­tial data infra­struc­ture (SDI), par­tic­u­larly along the bor­ders of Ger­many where other coun­tries are involved.”

Thurston goes on to highlight how things have changed over the past 10 years:

“In ten years I‘ve seen lots of geospa­tial activ­ity in Berlin and other parts of Ger­many grow. To my mind there are few or no restric­tions for prac­tis­ing geospa­tial activ­i­ties across the coun­try. Ger­many has a strong ori­en­ta­tion toward export­ing geot­ech­nolo­gies — which is not wholly sur­pris­ing given that bar­ri­ers to EU trade are decreas­ing, most peo­ple can speak or under­stand two or more lan­guages and pro­duc­tion capac­ity is sup­ported. What I would really like to see is a pro­gram to trade stu­dents in geo­sciences between Ger­many and other parts of the world, more frequently.Also, the tax sys­tem does not favor indi­vid­ual entre­pre­neurs want­ing to start a geospa­tial busi­ness — this can be hard for recent graduates.”

It’s exciting to see an article that ties the concept of GEOINT into a major historical/global event like the fall of the Berlin Wall. We recommend you read the full article here.

Tags: Fall of Berlin Wall, GEOINT, geospatial technologies, got geoint?, Jeff Thurston, USGIF, V1 Magazine