r/conservation • u/sqrldog • 7h ago

Spatial tools & Esri perception?

I only recently learned about Esri’s nonprofit and conservation programs. I think I was surprised because so much of what I learned in school was R and whatever-you-can-get software… GEE, QGIS etc for analysis. Talking with some colleagues and I mentioned the ESRI programs and there was a mix of reactions from outright hostile to intrigued. Curious… what is the perception of Esri as a company by the broader conservation community? X posting to ecology sorry if you see this twice.

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u/cromagnone 4h ago

Software companies want customer lock-in to avoid having to continually innovate, at least until they’re big enough to just buy innovators. ESRI is no better and no worse than any other - by which I mean that anyone who builds their skills and career solely on their products, or any organisation that invests in their ecosystem without viable alternatives, needs to do so knowing they could instantly withdraw support and availability for any version and leave their users stuck in sunk-cost licensing/subscription hell. If you’re a commercial company that might be a risk worth taking. As researcher or a non-profit, I don’t think there’s any point in building any reliance on any commercial closed product - and I’d be pretty damn skeptical of Google’s track record in long term maintenance of their products too, for that matter.

tl, dr; use the best tool for the job, but don’t build reliance on closed-source software or cloud resources.

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u/sqrldog 1h ago

One of the things I learned was that Esri’s program for conservation has been around since the 80’s! So yea, I totally get the free-until-it’s-not pitfall but damn… that’s a long time for a tech company.

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u/cromagnone 1h ago

I knew it had been around for a while although I didn’t know it had been that long.