NOTE: This is an update to an original post from 2011 on our 4th birthday
As a kid, I spent every moment of time outside of school in a reprographics shop owned by my father, where surveyors and engineers were in and out all day. Somewhere along the line, I learned the needs of surveyors for getting their work done and at times worked really hard to help my dad meet deadlines by running prints, delivering equipment or whatever it took. As an adult and college graduate, I found myself gravitating back to this feeling of obligation and commitment to the surveying industry, but why? Anthropology.
This month commemorates the 10-year birthday of Land Surveyors United. Yesterday I began telling the story of the Land Surveyors United's creation so if you haven't read it yet,check it out here:
Happy Birthday Land Surveyors United! Part One
So for part two of this story, lets recap on the place where I left off...oh yeah, Karl Marx.
Land Surveyors United Circa 2008
"Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!"
A Bit about Critical Marxism
Let me first start out by stating that you do not have to agree with Marxist philosophy to understand why this phrase stuck out to me that particular evening, especially since I had read it one thousand times before. Nor is it important to understand why others who have implemented a Marxist perspective in their political agendas have failed. I am of the opinion that "Marxism" (as tried and failed politically) is much different than maintaining a "Critical Marxist" perspective. Critical Marxist theory has as its base a sharp eye upon historical materialism, which is why this is most applicable at this point in the story. Marx, a student of Hegal, looked at history like this: Every stage of history has within its essence the seeds of its own destruction. This is what is referred to as the Dialectic. When I began building Land Surveyors United, i had a strong sense that the history of land surveying as a profession was to blame for the various troubles that seemed to plague the common surveyors in unison. These were, like I mentioned before:
- Every time a surveyor tried to find support from a dealer, they always tried to sell them a new piece of equipment
- Every time a surveyor called the manufacturer for training and support, they told them to call a dealer.
- Every time a surveyor could actually find support, they needed to be at an office
- Every time a surveyor actually needed support, they were out in the field.
Now consider why this may have come about and you may first discover that historically, it was the media and publications involved in Surveyor news that created this situation. The fundamental flaws in the ways that surveying equipment and services are marketed may have played a part. The fact that the majority of land surveyors on the average have/had less access to the internet than most other professional and even less knowledge of computers and social media will surely factor in. And then you have those who do utilize the computer to solve problems in the field...where did they go to find answers? And once they got there, would they be belittled and bashed for asking a question? These ideas started to really create a brewing experiment in my mind that I needed to work out. I actually needed to find those seeds of destruction and create something which had the power to overcome history
I made a few choices right from the gate which I have stuck with throughout the entire process of building Land Surveyors United.
- I will not create a surveying support network which is driven by advertising because most surveyors who need support are either having problems with their existing equipment or are looking for unbiased advice about equipment that can solve their problems and provide solutions specific to their projects.
- I will not create a network which is built around driving the number of members up superficially, therefore no anonymous members will be allowed. Every comment, question or piece of content on the network must come attached to a profile which has a face, a name, a level of expertise and a background of experience. This is what will make LSU different, because it is fundamentally built on integrity and professionalism.
- I will not allow LSU to become a place where just anybody can jump in and offer unqualified advise or off-topic discussions, because this is where many of the other boards have failed. When you go to a surveying site and you see discussions on Daytona 500 and Superbowl being the most popular discussions, is there any question why the public no longer takes the surveying profession seriously? I mean, seriously...
- I will create what I consider to be a "Living Library" of topical discussions which in the future will serve as a database of Surveying related knowledge through which any question can be answered and any problem solved.
- I will create a place which is only discovered by surveyors who are searching for a solution and find it within the pages of LSU.
- I will not go to other surveying forums and spam those sites in hopes of deterring their members and converting them to LSU members, simply because LSU is not in any way shape or form like those boards. LSU would attract a different kind of surveyor..one who is comfortable sharing what they know and is possibly willing to become the authority on a subject related to surveying just by doing so.
Art is always and everywhere the secret confession, and at the same time the immortal movement of its time.~ Karl Marx
Surveying Equipment Art?
The truth is, I built land surveyors united during the first two years, operating under the alias of my Father, Skip Farrow and Palmetto Equipment. Initially,I felt as though having a place for land surveyors to come together to discuss equipment might make a great place to help my father sell his equipment. However, it wasn't long before I discovered this model to be flawed because it just didn't do enough for surveyors. And when the economy started to crumble I actually began feeling bad about placing new equipment advertisements in the face of surveyors who just needed support for the junk they already had, needed to get working and required to make a living.
The only way I knew how to change any of this was to do it through Art. I began to remix media into more attractive (or at least, amusing) chunks of information that I called equipment art. I consider this to be the least intrusive method of getting a point across and felt it to be, unlike many other forms of art, an "art with utility." In fact, several of the larger manufacturers started to realize how effective this was for grabbing the attention of surveyors and although they missed the point entirely, they began to create their own more-artistic-than-usual marketing pieces in hopes of grabbing some of the attention I was getting.
During 2007-2009, Palmetto Equipment and Supply virtually ruled the search engines for the types of equipment Skip sold. Even when we didn't have a penny to our names, we were still number 1 on Google, Yahoo and several others for any search term like "GSR2700 ISX" or "Sokkia SRX" or "Magellan GPS"...you name it. In fact, once we were involved with a Renewable Energy project with the Pickens Plan and it was to involve the sale of several GSR2700 ISX units, I made some art and a blog post and two days later, Magellan came out with an advertisement which looked strikingly similar.
My Art featuring a young T-Boone Pickens beside GSR2700 ISX
Magellan's Ad
More Equipment Art
Back in 2003 when I moved to NYC after undergrad, I became a real estate broker in Brooklyn. And although that is a story for an entirely different occasion, I became well known in my area as a real estate agent through use of a term and marketing method which I called "Artvertising." When I came down to Charleston and began helping with Palmetto, much of this carried over. It has been fun tracing my steps in reverse to celebrate Land Surveyors United's 4th birthday! I'm gonna show you a few more crazy art pieces I made during 2007-2008 and then we'll move on.
Sokkia SRX Artvertisement
Sokkia SCT6 Artvertisement
Robots Don't Have Brains, Surveyors Do...
Exchange of Surveying Ideology over Materialism
What has been most important through the entire process of building LSU is a de-emphasis of materialist perspectives of the land surveying industry and in turn, the preservation and promotion of ideas, methods and knowledge shared by surveyors which is truly unique to the profession. For example, by creating a venue for discussing methods of error reduction or Aerial photogrammetry, I am less interested in showcasing and selling equipment related to these ideas than I am troubleshooting the processes by which these concepts and practices are actuated in real life. That is to say, I am more interested in creating a database of possible solutions than I am a slideshow of material items (equipment) used to find these solutions, although it is important to know what is commonly used. If a surveyor's equipment is broken, they should know other methods for getting the same work done. Only history and experience surveyors can tell you how to do that.
Tomorrow I will discuss how all of these swirling concepts started to come together as Land Surveyors United celebrated the 100th member milestone and what it took to become serious enough to build such a place.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six |
Thoughts