Here’s a thread of 10 strongly held opinions I have formed about the “geospatial industry”: 1. The most successful and ambitious mapping project of all time, Google Maps, is an advertising platform. There is no “geospatial industry,” only industries with spatial problems.

2. It follows, then, that the most valuable geospatial applications are always custom-built in service of a particular domain that doesn’t self-identify as “geospatial.” The closest you can get to a “geospatial app” is a UI on top of a dev tool.

3. In geo, you either die a hero or live long enough to make the majority of your revenue from defense and intelligence.