GeoWorld

An Entire Issue that Answers: 'How Can This Help Me?' POSITION A BY TODD DANIELSON fter doing some quick calculations, I estimate that I've edited more than 700 feature articles for GeoWorld magazine in my career. I'm sure there are exceptions, but most fit into one of two categories: 1. Articles that describe what someone has done with geotechnology. 2. Articles that tell readers what they can do with geotechnology to better perform their jobs. The first category is important, as often the best way to learn about something is to see successful models that can be duplicated. This is true in all facets of life. It's why autobiographies and biographies perform so well on the book market. If someone is successful, they tell their story, and readers hope to take some of that knowledge and apply it to their own lives. The drawback is that such books and stories leave the "but what do I do" to the imagination. Readers have to find the salient points as well as decide if and how they can apply them to their own work and lives. You may read a biography on Nelson Mandela and become inspired, but it's up to you to take his lessons and find ways to incorporate them into your particular existence—we aren't all going to win Nobel Peace Prizes along the way. The 'How To' Story Todd Danielson is editor of GeoWorld magazine, PO Box 773498, Steamboat Springs, CO 80477; e-mail: tdanielson@geoplace.com. 4 G E O W O R L D / A U G U S T 2 O 1 3 Category 2, the articles that provide specific pointers on how to best do something, are more like a "self-help" book or even a cookbook. There's less abstract information to analyze, but more direction. And they can be very specific in their details (i.e., "do this exact thing, and you'll be rewarded with this exact benefit"). Such stories may appeal to a smaller range of readers, but if the article pertains to you and your work, they can be a gold mine of information, providing the exact direction you need, without doing all the research. Sometimes you don't need to know the chemistry and philosophy behind baking a cake—you just want to know how to bake the best and tastiest pastry. Get Ready for Direction This month's issue, which focuses on "Enterprise Applications," is loaded with articles that get right to it and tell you how some very important and successful elements of geotechnology can be done the proper way, without readers having to parse out what they need. We have "Seven Steps to Enterprise GIS," by Stephen McElroy, which, as you may expect, provides seven easyto-follow steps to build and operate an efficient and effective enterprise system. "A Survival Guide for GIS in the 21st Century," by Adam Carnow, lets you know which elements are key to creating an enterprise GIS that everyone in your organization will need on a daily basis—not one that's used by some only occasionally. In "Enterprise GIS Solutions— Overcoming the 'Big Data' Bottleneck," by John Gilmer, the author gives very specific solutions to a very specific problem. If you don't deal with large datasets, this may not be the article for you. But most geotechnology practitioners deal with this persistent problem, and it has everything they'll need to help overcome it. Even our lone article that's more toward category 1, describing a particular case and what was done to overcome a problem, has very specific details that can be applied to a wide range of users hoping to establish an enterprise GIS. It's called "Take It SLO—New Mexico Spatially Empowers Enterprisewide Land-Management Data," and the author, Courtney Moore, provides a slew of pointby-point examples of what worked for her office and how this can work for others. So sit back and enjoy this issue, and let the experts who have "been there and done that" tell you what works. Simply follow these directions, and you'll be baking a delicious "geotechnology cake" in no time.

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