Safe Software - The Spatial ETL Experts

I have posted some negative comments in the past about how Safe Software feeds off the proliferation of formats. It is clear that this tendency toward proliferation must be a law of the universe...for even in the standards community we cannot seem to follow our own standards some of the time.

This last week I saw that an awful lot of effort can go into the harmonization of specifications. The cost of harmonizing late in the specification development process is much higher than early in the process. In fact, the burden of doing so later on can lead to decisions that simply result in a proliferation of models.

Does human nature celebrate in non-conformance or are we simply tired out when apparent costs become too high? Or perhaps human creativity is bustling about trying to escape the conformity that holds it in; a creativity simply sparked from a desire to be different, to see differently, and to do what's different.

Well, I have learned one important thing this week: Safe Software isn't out there deliberately making a muck of the market to enhance its financial rewards...we make a muck of it ourselves. Even in the standards communities, there is a risk of confusing the market place if we do not harmonize early but our hope is that we can attenuate these variabilities before standards are released. My apologies to Safe for harsh words in the past and my gratitude to Huntsville for bringing thoughts of unconformity out of conformity.

BTW: I have used Safe's software recently to move some of the varied formats into GML2 and when I have needed specific help, or suggested specific improvements, they have been very responsive. I look forward to their support of GML3.