Comments on: Reference for 80% of Data Contains Geography Quote

By: Event Theme in ArcGIS Server | My Georamblings…

Event Theme in ArcGIS Server | My Georamblings… — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 20:24:33 +0000

[...] quote and source reference via Spatial Sustain [...]

By: 80 percent is not enough « Alexander Karnstedt

80 percent is not enough « Alexander Karnstedt — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:09:24 +0000

[...] August 9, 2010 If you are somewhat familiar with the GIS stuff, most likely you’ve heard about that gullible, urban-legend-like qoute that 80% of all data has spatial reference. It’s omnipresent in GIS product brochures and company ads – even though its empirical foundation is, hmm lets say …dubious. [...]

By: The source of the assertion that 80% of all organisational information is geographic « Po Ve Sham – Muki Haklay’s personal blog

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 22:40:41 +0000

[...] 22 February, 2010 A question from Jeremy Morley ‘An often quoted figure estimates that 80% of information contains some geographic reference.’ – anyone got the source reference for this?! led me to search for an answer. This is indeed often quoted in governmental documents, academic papers and trade magazines. [...]

By: Jay Rosalez

Jay Rosalez — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 04:12:44 +0000

In searching for this quote on the OGRIP site, I was only able to find reference in a draft for a white paper written in 2004. It can be found at http://ogrip.oit.ohio.gov/Portals/0/PDFs/LBRS%20Program%20Description_v3.0.pdf (their version of the statistic is “80% of data collected, stored, and maintained by local governments includes some reference to geography”). I am unsure as to how they came across this data, but I am beginning to wonder if this falls into the “90% of statistics are made up” category. If not, I would be really interested in seeing the study they conducted to gain this information.

By: Andrew Zolnai

Andrew Zolnai — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:50:48 +0000

Hi, this may be yesterday’s news, but have you found the source of that interesting quote? Cheers, Andrew

By: Archaeogeek

Archaeogeek — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:31:58 +0000

While I can’t help with the original article, I recently saw a different version of this quote, which is that “80% of all data stored in corporate databases has a spatial component”. This sounds more likely, but less exciting somehow. Do report back if you find the original article, which is now nearly 20 years out of date- it would be really interesting to see how they reached that figure, and what the modern figure would be…

By: Matt Ball

Matt Ball — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:58:30 +0000

UPDATE: I just received a copy of the original from Steve Romalewski, and turns out the quote references a 1990 report from the Ohio Geographically Referenced Information Program (OGRIP) [http://ogrip.oit.ohio.gov]. I’m busy tracking that down, and will report my findings.