A recent conversation Mary Shacklett had with Boundless Geospatial ignited an oft neglected area of IT savings opportunity: the ability to use open source geospatial applications that come with no software licensing fees to pay for.

In my interview with Tiffany Perrin, GISP, featured in this month’s Geo Positions, a part of her answer to how she views the state of geographic information systems (GIS) is, “They can be used in any discipline.”

As GIS expands from strictly mapping functions to an ability to aggregate data along GIS parameters for more informed results, users of geospatial information will be asked to produce new products for their clients.

Increased availability of geospatial information is creating new demand for spatial data and opening new prospects for geospatial professionals.

Building information modeling (BIM) seems to be on a constant upward trend in the architecture, construction and facility maintenance spaces. For geospatial professionals, it is a promising young area for software, hardware and service solutions.

Surveying, like other field-based work, is fraught with the need to go back to the office to reference on-premises documents or to check in on work requirements. As a result, there have been efforts by commercial providers to give workers in the field more complete access to research and documentation so they can cut down on trips back to the office.

Summer is here and it’s, in many people’s opinions, the best time of year — particularly in Michigan, where the GeoDataPoint staff is headquartered.

The challenge for land surveyors and other field professionals is that critical information can't always be accessed when they need it.