If you want something to read that sums up most of what I’ve been saying the past few months, read Stephen Mather’s post.
Now, there are a few things fueling shifts in the GeoSpatial industry. Notably, ESRI, for all their billions of dollars, brilliant (if un-hip), closed-source, and patented software, huge (and smallish and mediumish) government contracts is having an identity crisis. That makes everyone nervous. They are moving into the services (not just the proprietary licensing) portion of the sector, and streamlining workflows that before required technicians and analysts to complete, so they are directly competing with their a) resellers and b) users. That is a scary change indeed.
It gets more awesome from there…
Embrace change, don’t fear it
Spatially Adjusted 