Parliamo Geo (part 2)

Oh dear! A few days ago I did a post about the language of geography and how sometimes the specialist language used by geographers to talk to geographers is incomprehensible to the layman. I didn't give any examples.

Little did I know that an example would arise so quickly. There is a new job advert in the Guardian for a Spatial Analysis Co-Ordinator in the Department of Communities and Local Government. It states the following - 'Traditional spatial analysis is embedded with our analysts but we wish to extend into quantitative techniques such as spatial statistics and spatial modelling. The second area we wish to strengthen is online publishing of geographic information. This is already well developed, but we want to go further, to explore the potential of emerging web techniques to sharing place related knowledge.'
No doubt those at whom it is aimed might know exactly what this job entails, but I think the language used could have been a bit more understandable.

And so, almost inevitably, the press has picked up on this. Here is an article in the Telegraph.
And then a follow-up article.

And so, just as we are trying to get the importance of place highlighted throughout government, we lay ourselves open to a degree of ridicule though our use of rather baffling language.

The frustrating thing is that this job is a useful and necessary one. But the language used confuses rather than clarifies.

I think we need to be more aware of the importance, and consequences, of language.