"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Arthur C. Clarke

Is your GIS indistinguishable from magic? Having worked in GIS since 1985, I can tell you that magical systems are extremely rare. Often, in order for an organization's staff to utilize a GIS, the organization's staff must become database administrators, computer scientists and programmers to have the systems operate on even a fundamental level: this is the antithesis of magic.

Why can't GIS systems be easy to setup, easy to use and easy to distribute? I am the first to agree that those people responsible for setting up the GIS, collecting the data and performing the analysis should have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of geography. I am speaking of the unnecessary complexities associated with a majority of implementations and the failure of most of these systems to realize their potential.

Is this the fault of the GIS software vendors, computer system people or, god forbid, the consultants responsible for recommending and implementing the systems? I don't know.

I am the first to acknowledge that GIS has advanced in amazing ways over the past twenty five years. I am also aware that advancement came at a severe cost. Maybe we are expecting too much, but technology promised each of us a life of instant access to information and additional leisure time. Poorly implemented technology systems have caused the opposite to happen: we now work harder and longer to find, format and finalize the information we need. Programmers and system integrators have tried to build integrated systems utilizing their conceptual model of how and what a program should do without asking the user for input.

We need to change this behavior and pledge to provide only systems that are "indistinguishable from magic".