You're the Expert

We're almost halfway through the year in which we refitted your GIM International
for the new decade. By now you're probably used to the refreshed layout, the new sections 'Report' and 'Mailbox', in which we seek your opinion, and the 'Young Geo' and 'Blog' columns, where we respectively give centre-stage to young professionals and publish the best, newest or most remarkable posting from our own GIM bloggers. But there is more change to come. From this issue onwards the Product Overview is undergoing a facelift. This time it's not the layout that is being revamped, but the contents. The change won?t all happen at once, but be introduced incrementally over time.

As I mentioned in January, GIM's new decade is one in which we will be seeking your opinion. As a reader of GIM International we consider you an expert in your field. We know and greatly appreciate how you value our bi-monthly Product Overviews. However, we want to take things a step further and facilitate you, the experts, in informing each other about your experiences! This will help you, and might also prompt manufacturers in improving their products. What will stay is our providing you with an overview. What will change is the way we provide it, and, perhaps more importantly, from now on you will be able to comment on the products we show you. Underneath every product on our website you will find a box for your comments on a particular item of equipment, or to respond to other postings.

So from now on you'll be able to compare your views on products through our website; and with a few clicks catch some of the products in which you are interested lined up side by side. For those who would like to (continue) printing off and filing Product Overviews in hardcopy, a PDF of the full overview will be there for download from our website. From now on the magazine will bring you a concise overview of the best, newest or most remarkable goods. Over time, and fed by you, we aim to be able to pass on detailed information regarding things like the usability of products as reported by GIM readers, their most frequently used products, etcetera.

GIM International is definitely no longer just a magazine, but a platform providing daily coverage of all you want and need to know in the geomatics field. GIM is a magazine, newsletter and a website. If you, for example, appreciate fast news updates, you go to our website. Or, easier, use the RSS feeds or follow our news headlines on Twitter (@gim_intl) or via our LinkedIn group Geomatics (415 members). And of course GIM is delivered to 167 countries; if English is not your native language, you can use its Google translate tool to turn the GIM International website into your own language. So take a look on our website when you've finished reading!