80% of data has a spatial component, says who?
I just searched for "80% of data has a spatial component, says who?" and it returned this un-authoritative quote:
UPDATE: a couple of my ex-MapInfo colleagues contacted me to inform that the stat was used at MapInfo before sneeze was at the company. Further, one of them attributes the origins to MapInfo founders Laszlo Bardos and Sean O’Sullivan with Pixie later referencing it in MapMarker's marketing materials.
But a more reliable reference points to here:
The reference is: Franklin, Carl and Paula Hane, “An introduction to GIS: linking maps to databases,” Database. 15 (2) April, 1992, 17-22.
William Huxhold’s 1991 book ‘An Introduction to Urban Geographic Information Systems’ pages 22-23: ‘A 1986 brochure (Municipality of Burnaby) published by the Municipality of Burnaby, British Columbia, reported the results of a needs analysis for an urban geographic information system (GIS) in that municipality: eighty to ninety percent of all the information collected and used was related to geography.’
On page 236, the following statement can be found:
‘Chapter 1 reported that 80-90 percent of all the information used by local government is related to geography.’
https://povesham.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/the-source-of-the-assertion-that-80-of-all-organisational-information-is-geographic/
A recent article from GISLounge sheds some light on the topic. It would seem that a certain Robert E. Williams wrote a paper in 1987 entitled "Selling a geographical information system to government policy makers." He was the Director of the Alachua County Regional Information Center at that time. The article was published in "Papers from the 1987 Annual Conference of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association" by URISA. Here's the offending paragraph:
Automated mapping is probably an easier sell because, again, the policymakers are cognizant of the need for improved mapping capabilities. It has been estimated that approximately 80% of the informational needs of a local government policymaker is related to a geographical location. This information is usually supplied by a map rendering, e.g., maps showing the location of a parcel of land being considered for a rezoning petition.
He doesn't lists any sources or supporting references to his claim though.