On the Map: 7 questions with Michael S. Scott, PhD

This is an excerpt from Ashley Buzzeo's blog for Towson University. To view the entire blog, please go to http://tuoutreach.com/author/abuzzeo/

On the Map: 7 questions with Michael S. Scott, PhD

I’m excited to bring you the first in my blog series with GIS colleagues in Maryland. As I have been working in the GIS field for 10 years in Maryland, I have met some interesting, talented, intelligent, and motivating GIS colleagues along the way.  Hopefully this blog series will share with you some exciting tidbits of information from each person who has touched my career in some way.

I first met Dr. Mike Scott when we started working on the Maryland Broadband Mapping Initiative project together.  He is outgoing and incredibly knowledgeable in the field of GIS and geography.  Throughout this project I have found myself looking forward to hearing his viewpoint on a topic or asking him for his opinion.  Dr. Scott’s advice is far reaching, and his passion for teaching and leadership with MSGIC is admirable.

Tell me something fun about your job.

Working with young people, teaching them about the power and possibilities of Geographic Information Systems, couldn’t be more fun!

What is one of your favorite hobbies?

I love solving jigsaw puzzles, although I don’t have much time for it.

Where are you from?

I was born just outside Washington, DC but my parents moved to the Eastern Shore to raise chickens when I was 3.  So I grew up on a chicken farm in Hebron, a little town near Salisbury, Maryland.

What is your favorite GIS book?

Analytical and Computer Cartography by Keith Clarke (1995).  It was formative for me as a GIS professional.

1. What resources would you recommend for learning about GIS?

I think it depends on your goal and your starting point.  Obviously, I’m biased towards a higher education-based approach for preparing for a GIS career.  I continue to believe and promote the idea that Geographic Information Science is actually specialized applied Geography – the science of solving problems using geographic information.  But I send a lot of true GIS neophytes to ESRI’s Virtual Campus to truly get started.  The online courses are well-crafted and begin to allow people who have had limited experience with GIS to begin to ask the right questions necessary to find a GIS program that fits their career goals and learning styles.

2. How has GIS changed since you first started your career?

Wow – a lot.  When I began in GIS (1992), there was no Internet to speak of and no World Wide Web.  Arc/INFO was manipulated with a sequential set of text commands and simple polygon overlay processes needed to be run overnight on stunningly expensive Sun SPARC UNIX workstations.  The only organizations using GIS were federal and (large) state agencies, universities, and major corporations.  Nearly any data of reasonable quality had to be created hunched over a massive backlit digitizing tablet.  To show a map in a slide presentation, we literally took photographs of our computer screens in darkened room!  Yes, things have changed a bit.

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