Modern GIS and Geospatial
In 2021, I hit “post” on one of my first LinkedIn updates. It was a simple breakdown of the top Python packages being downloaded in geospatial. Nothing fancy. Nothing viral. I scrolled all the way back recently just to look at it. At the time, I had no strategy, no content plan, and no idea [ ] The post The Real Reason I Started Posting About Modern Geospatial (And Why a Roadmap Isn’t Enough)…
Most GIS professionals focus on learning new technical skills when they want to move forward in their career. Python, SQL, cloud tools, spatial data engineering, analytics. And yes, these skills matter. They open doors that traditional GIS workflows never could. But there is something most people miss. Learning the right skills is not enough to [ ] The post Why Skills Alone Won’t Prepare You for a…
Most GIS professionals reach a crossroads at some point in their career. You can stay where you are, relying on traditional desktop workflows, or you can step into the deep end of modern GIS: cloud systems, data engineering, automation, and scalable analysis. I faced that fork in the road years ago. I didn’t have a [ ] The post How I Transitioned from Traditional GIS to Modern GIS (And Why…
Cloud-native geospatial workflows are finally becoming accessible to everyday GIS analysts. Instead of downloading giant zip files or managing your own S3 buckets, you can now stream geospatial data directly into your tools using modern formats like GeoParquet, COG, and PMTiles. One of the platforms leading this shift is Source Cooperative, a data sharing project [ ] The post How to Use Source…
Foundation models are changing what’s possible in geospatial analysis. Tasks that once required thousands of labeled samples and expensive GPU training can now be performed instantly using pre-trained models built on massive Earth observation datasets. One of the best examples is the new NASA–IBM Prithvi model, hosted on Hugging Face. It can classify cropland types, [ ] The post AI-Powered Crop…
GIS is changing fast. The datasets are bigger, the workflows are more complex, and the expectations for what a GIS professional can do have never been higher. Yet despite this shift, most GIS analysts are still relying on the same desktop tools and button-driven workflows they learned years ago. That gap is exactly where opportunity [ ] The post The One Skill That Will 10x Your GIS Career (And Why…
One of the most talked-about issues in geospatial right now is the wide pay gap across GIS roles. You can find entry level jobs paying barely above the U.S. median income right next to roles at the same company paying well into the six figures. This is not just an isolated problem. It is a [ ] The post Why GIS Jobs Are So Underpaid (And How To Break Out of the Technician Trap) first appeared on…
Many GIS professionals eventually ask the same question. Is there a long term path for me in this field, and what should I expect from my career going forward? It is a fair question and one I hear constantly from beginners, mid career professionals, and people who have been in GIS for decades. The field [ ] The post Is There Still a Future in GIS? A Realistic Look at the Career Path and How to…
When most people think about data, they picture rows and columns. Tables, spreadsheets, and structured formats that help organize information. But there is another dimension to data that changes everything. It adds context, movement, and meaning by telling us where something happened, not just what happened. This is spatial data. And whether you are working [ ] The post Understanding Spatial Data:…
When most people hear the term “data warehouse,” they think of something built only for data engineers. Endless SQL, massive cloud infrastructure, and dashboards tracking billions of rows. But data warehouses are quietly becoming one of the most important tools in modern GIS. If you need to run spatial joins over millions or billions of [ ] The post How Data Warehouses Power Modern GIS Workflows…
