The TANTO blog posted: “Geo-smart cities: do we need an expert? One might think of a #BigGIM (Geographic Information Manager)”. This professional figure does not exist. Nevertheless "Geo-data is like a warp for weaving “smart” cities and geo-ICT floods the smart city ecosystem with applications”. There is no shortage of evidence. For example, a survey conducted in Sweden in the two-year period 2011-2012 of more than one hundred IT companies, which was subjected to the list of 12 geo-datasets of the Agency Cadastral and Land Survay, provided the following feedback: “The release of public sector data as Open Data has a practical, direct impact on increased entrepreneurial activity: many IT-start-ups and established companies have a significant interest in (and willingness to pay at marginal cost for) public sector information” (quoted in STUDY ON THE GEO-ICT SECTOR IN EUROPE, Smespire, 2013, p. 72).
To invest adequately in digital technologies, it is essential that the governance of "intelligent" processes, based on cooperation between the actors involved according to a network model, promotes creativity, curiosity, adaptation, and therefore also organizational redesign, relying internally on the presence of geo-skills in tune with those requirements.
The editorial staff of TANTO consulted 100 people, divided by category (technicians, officials, freelancers, companies ...), to whom it asked a few questions to gather different points of view on this embryonic idea.
Looking forward to hearing the outcome of this first investigation, who would like to comment on the contents of the post can leave a comment, write to tanto@spaziogis.it or spread a tweets using thehashtags #bigGIM.
