PE and RS PUBLIC November 2011 : Page-1084continued from page 1083 In what discipline is your degree/certificate? Check all that apply. Two Components of Phase VI of the Forecast The basis for Phase VI results and interpre-tations are an internet survey to individual members and a confidential, direct Gross Revenue Survey (GRS) of private sector, image-based geospatial firms. This approach is deemed the best to gather information and trends on issues across all employment sectors, as well as get a more detailed view of private sector activities. Internet Survey of Individual Mem-bers The internet-based survey was developed with input from the Phase VI sponsors, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the U.S. Na-tional Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) in the summer, 2010. The survey was pretested on respondents from the three primary em-ployment sectors in August, 2010. The survey was released in September, 2010 and closed to participation in November, 2010. The internet survey was administered to the membership of ASPRS; approximately 6000 individuals, 86% of whom list the U.S.A as primary residence. Forty percent of the ASPRS members are employed in private sector, 20% Academic, 20% Government (all levels) and 20% list as other. The membership of ASPRS represents the spectrum of geospatial information disci-plines and interest areas with 31% being in the GIS technical division, 34% in the Remote Sensing division, 26% in Photogrammetry and 9% of the membership being in the Primary Data Acquisition and Professional Practice Divisions The number of respondents to the internet survey varied depending on the individual question, but 420–450 complete and us-able responses were obtained for most of the questions in the survey. Members were notified by email three times throughout this period with a request to complete the on-line survey. This response number amounts to slightly over 7% of the target population. Figure 3. Educational degree areas of respondents Each survey was posted and sent electroni-cally to a specific high level management person in the firm. This person was contacted directly by email and phone as follow-up to help insure completion of the survey with the best information possible. The survey was conducted on behalf of ASPRS by the University of Utah Center for Public Policy and Administration (CPPA). Each firm was contacted by mail, telephone and through email in April-May, 2011. Recognizing the highly sensitive nature of the information be-ing collected, all survey forms were returned to CPPA. CPPA removed all identifying infor-mation from the survey forms, which were provided to the Forecast Team for analysis. the three employment sector stratifications, the results provide a useful stratification according to government, private and aca-demic sectors. Phase VI Internet Survey Results The profile of the respondents to the Phase VI internet survey aligned with the ASPRS survey and the larger geospatial community in several ways. The respondent’s primary employment sectors (Question 36) are 39% for the commercial-private sector; 28% for government at all levels; 30% in academic institutions, with 1-2% in both community college education and non-profit NGOs. This provides a representative basis for the analysis, approximately equaling the sector diversity of the ASPRS study population. More importantly, the results of the survey also represent the three primary employ-ment sectors of the greater remote sensing community. Approximately 34% of respondents have listed geography as one of their primary disciplines. This was followed by 30% in re-mote sensing, 28% in GIS and 23% “other”, which includes numerous other disciplines from atmospheric science to urban planning (Figure 3). This result is consistent with the results in previous phases of the Forecast, where comprehensive academic programs in remote sensing and geospatial informa-tion are centered in geography departments, but employees in government and private sector achieve degrees in numerous other disciplines, as well. Thirty-eight percent have master’s de-grees, 27% have a Ph.D., and 20% of the respondents have undergraduate degrees with approximately 10% having certificates, technical or two year college credentials. Question 4 (Figure 4) asked respondents in Photogrammetric engineering & remote SenSing Limitations on Interpretation This report summarizes responses to the in-ternet and confidential direct gross revenue survey. The report presents general trends occurring in the industry, not specific statisti-cal information with confidence sufficient for prediction. Generally, the sample size for the internet survey has approximately a (±) 4.8 confidence interval at 95% confidence level. The sufficiency of the sample size is-sue is confounded by the inability to control properly for assumptions of sampling theory (random, unbiased samples) that would allow rigorous statistical procedures. The internet delivery of the survey does not allow rigorous sampling protocols as it depended on voluntary response from the respondent population. The GRS was targeted to the selected firms in the private sector with a 15% response rate. Both of these survey in-struments primarily represent the trends and views of respondents from the civilian sector of the geospatial-remote sensing industry. Interpretations should be viewed with the survey limitations in mind. Although there was no means to randomize sampling within Gross Revenue Survey The Gross Revenue Survey was a direct elec-tronic and postal survey of the private sector firms only. The population of firms contacted to complete the survey was developed from the ASPRS Sustaining Members list supple-mented by firms engaged in citizen-based commercial geospatial activities. Also, large technology and information firms participat-ing in the geospatial arena were sent surveys. 1084 November 2011 Publication List Using a screen reader? Click Here |
