The statistic says so - it must be true.
I recently mentioned to a colleague of mine that it is estimated in any given municipality approximately 80% of it’s data has some kind of spatial reference. This struck a chord with him around the value of GIS and location Intelligence, but one of the last things he said to me about it, was hoping it was true. Well a little research indicates that “anything between 42.7% (very precise I know) and 90% of statistics are made up on the spot”, and I occasionally comment that if you say something seven times then people will start to believe it, I could see why he may have a shred of doubt about such a fact. Indeed I have convinced some people that I was once at a party where there were some very dodgy prawns, hence my illness the following morning.
But back on to the subject, I thought I would dig into this a little. I found a fellow blogger who did not believe this fact and said we should question this, in turn attributing the quote with comment:
“:Franklin, C. 1992. An Introduction to Geographic Information Systems: Linking Maps to Databases. Database, April, pp. 13-21.If I remember correctly this figure resulted from a study carried out for the US Government as part of an assessment to determine how much of the documents they (=a specific subset of gov) had carried a spatial reference. It’s important to note that this assessment was not solely focused on data but had a strong bend towards documents.”
However one quick look at Pierre’s blog and about 80% of the posts had some kind of spatial reference. I think when some people hear this statistic they feel it should have a grid reference, or unique spatial ID (we love those in the spatial world). But think about your organisation, and think about the data you hold. I would bet at least 80% has a place name, or an address, or even an XY co-ordinate – something that is a geographic reference. Indeed a quick search and some people are claiming the figure to be far higher. So next time someone comes and asks why your organisation is thinking of spending time and money, or indeed continues to spend on GIS software or digital mapping, remind them that at least 80% of data they own is spatial – and understanding that truly is valuable.
I’ll leave you with a slide from a presentation I gave last year on the Location Intelligence (LI) statistical theme (and I didn’t make this up – honest) with my interpretation:
How important does your organisation value Location Intelligence?
PS: There were no prawns served at all that night!
Chris M.
