One thing that often annoys me is the over-formality and over-professionalization of the GIS community on the Internet

One thing that often annoys me is the over-formality and over-professionalization of the GIS community on the Internet. There isn’t a lot out there for mapping hobbyists, most things and services are directed towards professional planners and scientists. Too much is devoted to expensive commercial tools and experts, and not enough towards open source and hobbyists.

While data has become much widely available on the internet and ESRI should be commended for it’s adoption of open formats like ArcMap REST/Services, WMS, ESRI Shapefiles, and Geopackages, the expansion of data access hasn’t come with a lot of good podcasts or blogs for the hobbyist interested in open technology. There are a wealth of QGIS tutorials and information on GRASS and GDAL but it seems like most of the podcasts and websites on GIS still a very much aimed at the high-brow, professional class rather then the curious hobbyist looking to make maps for his or her own use.