My perusal through the given material on Cityworks, ESRI, and ArcGIS has been insightful to say the least. First and foremost: Jack Dangermond. That’s just a sick name. If I had to write an action movie and had to come up with a moniker for the main character, Dangermond would very much be at the top of my list. On a more serious note, Dangermond made some very good points in his speech, the most noticeable being that all of these seemingly disparate areas and problems can benefit from proper geographic insights and planning. Not only that, but how more interconnected these many different fields are through smart planning and cloud computing so that all data can be taken into account when making important decisions, all with the intent of trying to improve society and tackle the problems that it faces.

On another note, I do like that one of the highlighted points made throughout the videos and articles was the inter-connectivity between professionals who use these tools and the general populace. It’s important to me, personally, that there is a layer of transparency and translatability between those two groups. It’s akin to scientific writing: while it is easy to read for those in the field, others might have a hard time understanding the content, making it seemingly unrelatable to them. It is on the role of the professional to make it so their work can be understood by the vast majority of people, so that input can be received on such studies. I am happy that ESRI and Cityworks seem to be on the same page as I when it comes to this, and look forward to seeing where this internship goes.