Death of ESRI meme

Death of ESRI Meme

September 12th, 2007 · 14 Comments · ESRI

I guess why not, GIS news has been slow lately.

Angry Kirk reacts badly to the news that ESRI is dying

I haven’t seen any books canceled by ESRI and sales would appear strong as Roger Tomlinson’s “Thinking About GIS” is now in its third edition. I’m a DoD consultant and at least in my little corner of the military world, ESRI is as strong as I’ve ever seen.

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14 responses so far ↓

1 Sean Gillies // Sep 12, 2007 at 9:38 am

“The Enemy Within”: best. episode. ever.
2 Canuch // Sep 12, 2007 at 11:22 am

Yeah, ESRI is strong in local and state government as well. I have not heard of one local government in my state that has said they want to be using GE for “GIS”, or have even tried to equate the two. Sure, I’ve thought of using GE for some simple pin mapping, but that’s it. Friends in the US Geo-Int area indicate ESRI is growing in that field. Not canceling contracts. I don’t know how you can go from cancelling some books to woes at ESRI.
3 GeoMusings // Sep 12, 2007 at 12:32 pm

The Death of ESRI……

…has (most likely) been greatly exaggerated.
I have no specific inside information but I do a lot of DoD work and I’m not seeing any massive shift away from ESRI. Sure, there’s been a few instances of Google Earth appliances and indiv…
4 peepee // Sep 12, 2007 at 6:22 pm

Dawkins’ meme is a total joke! Just like all these rumors of ESRI’s demise
5 Christian Maire // Sep 13, 2007 at 6:11 am

From I have some contact with some Defense reps at ESRI, and from everything they’ve been saying, Defense is one of their most promising markets right now! The idea that ESRI is suffering, especially in Defense, is completely opposite to everything that I’ve heard and perceived to date.
6 Chris C. // Sep 13, 2007 at 6:20 am

Does seem like all speculation and no substance, but when did that stop us bloggers from stirring it up a bit

Of course ESRI is still doing fine from DoD contracts; the DoD keeps buying those $1000 rubber hammers.
7 Bill // Sep 13, 2007 at 6:43 am

But they’re REALLY nice rubber hammers!

I get the same impression: Defense is hot for ESRI right now. The whole concept makes no sense.
8 Jud Aster // Sep 13, 2007 at 7:20 am

Is JackD ill or something ?

… He is coming to Sweden @ ESRI EU07 in a couple of weeks.
9 Jack Dangermond // Sep 14, 2007 at 7:51 am

What’ll kill ESRI is that their pay is sh!t and they make do by bringing in inexperienced grads or foreign talent that’s willing to work for their wages to get in the US.

Sooner or later that’s gonna catch up with them.
10 Ron // Sep 14, 2007 at 12:53 pm

Half the IT industry is filled with grads and foreign nationals. So if your theory is correct, the entire IT industry should collapse soon. IT based grad programs are filled with foreign nationals - I wonder if that has anything to do with ESRI hiring them?
11 KoS // Sep 14, 2007 at 2:37 pm

hmmm can we say…..back-door.

Makes we wonder, if all these “break-ins” lately are the result of the current hiring practices.

KoS
12 TedC // Sep 14, 2007 at 3:57 pm

@ JackD

You are high. The grads coming in are pretty sharp. The foreign nationals are coming to work for the leader in GIS and are pretty smart. The World is Flat.

@Ron
You seem to be on the ball.
13 Canuck // Sep 14, 2007 at 6:16 pm

@Jack - Sh!t compared to what? From what I understand, they are pretty competitive. Maybe we need a thread on here to talk about salaries, ’cause I think that GIS salaries in both the private and public sectors are pretty dismal compared to mainstream IT in general. My friends at ESRI are pretty happy with the pay.
14 Nut // Sep 18, 2007 at 12:29 pm

I just read an article in the Economist that said that ESRI’s sales are up 20 percent… so this is just a rumor… ESRI is not dead nor is Jack Dangermond in trouble of losing his business.