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This is why Esri is in business and how we look for great talent (data science or otherwise) accordingly. Esri focuses on mapping and data for conservation, disaster aid and relief, climate change mitigation and adaptation, geodesigning land and ocean space use to more closely follow natural systems, protecting freshwater resources, in short, using maps and geographic analysis to make the world a better place. 2
We tend to look for people with geography expertise and so are following data science trends within that discipline. We know that data professionals may be trained in at least one of two ways TRADITIONALLY (left) or what is still considered to be non-traditional (right) where data science is concerned. We at Esri realize that many students are still being trained under the T model, but are actually looking for Pi folks or Venn folks. Universities sticking to T may want to consider revamping curricula to be Pi or Venn. 3
Some issues being discussed at universities across the US that we know of. This comes from a data science panel session at the 2016 American Association of Geographers (AAG) Annual Meeting (the largest meeting of geographers in the world) 4
A very encouraging INDUSTRY trend is that GIS is becoming more and more OPEN, and we need the perspectives and expertise of data scientists. The main message of this slide is that GIS is becoming more integrated into open science. Some are still of a mind that GIS exists only to serve business communities such as insurance, retail, manufacturing, real estate, utilities, telecomm, banking, public works, etc. But Esri s goal (and we hope other geospatial companies agree) is to contribute to the 6 spokes coming out of the little cloud on the right of the slide, which are 6 principles of open science as expressed at RDA Plenary 7. This where GIS companies such as Esri will provide or enable open web services of GIS functions as well as open data. This is decidedly for serving the science that is going on in the Academia/ Government/Industry/Non-Profit sectors. So this is a new trend that is overtaking the closed, proprietary approach of the past with geospatial companies. Being open means that you have to be able to look under the hood and customize/fix/extend accordingly, which is part of data science in my view. Hence the slide is titled, Building GIS as Part of 'Open Science' [means] Providing a Platform for Open and Intelligent' Access [and this] Will Require Data Scientists" Twitter reference: https://twitter.com/heidiklaine/status/704135333034590208 5
This slide basically extends the idea of open to show how the geospatial industry is adopting open standards and open software, while focusing also on industry formats and integration of industry products (e.g., Esri, Microsoft, AutoCAD, Amazon Web Services, SAP HANA, IBM, Adobe often provide integration or crosswalks among their products), all careening toward interoperability. There may be detractors in the audience, but my point is that at least on the industry side there are those who are sincerely and actively trying to do this. And data scientists are at the core of it. 6
One of Esri s first ads with the words data science in the job title, so that we can readily attract top talent. At Esri we are seeing more and better applicants because of the term data science in our ads, which is recognizable and understood. And as Peter Fox may attest due to his curriculum at RPI, students have been duly prepared by their coursework and/or degrees specifically IN data science and are looking for data science jobs. I can speak only for Esri, but I believe that Microsoft is getting similar success by advertising explicitly for data scientists which Kristen Tolle may have spoken to. 7
This is where the prior job ad and all others come from 8
We also have a new Young Professionals Network (YPN). Note the faces. Not all young professionals need be young in age. We have a lot of mature people seeking new careers in GIS (including those with a data science emphasis), reinventing themselves, and thus participating in our network. YPN has both in-person and online/virtual components, including meet-ups at conferences that focus on the 5 white boxes. I would encourage those interested to check out the URL on the slide for more info or to join. 9
Esri provides resources not just for new professionals that we want to hire, but for those already in the profession seeking professional development, including those within our own company. For example, note this new MOOC on Skills for the Digital Earth which has quite a data science bent to it. 10
Please let people know that I am eager to answer questions should they want to contact me later. Thanks much! 11