North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

ArcGIS Desktop

Introduction to ArcMAP or ArcGIS Desktop

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ESRI Training has been this mixed bag for me in 2012. With the CTP programing ending – I’ve been making some minor course corrections to the business. That started before I found out it was ending – but with that announcement it was time to do something different. NRGS training is changing – and in a good way. What? you expected me to say it’s getting worse?

I developed a Model Builder class – I’ve taught it once and once the Holidays are over I’ll be teaching it again. It will probably be a regular thing that is going to occur.Expect a Part II covering more python.

I developed a Quantum GIS class – it’s been taught once and I’m making changes to that – I’m really excited about this class. I think it has a ton of potential. Once I got through the first class I realized how excited I was about this class

I’m delving back into my old  stomping grounds now – ArcGIS. I received an email from someone last week: I need a step 1 ArcGIS Class. I have no clue what I’m doing. I teach that – ArcGIS Desktop I. Except it’s so hard to get people into the class I rarely teach it. So – a new one day class is forming. This thing is based off numerous clients and 20 years working with the software. What will be covered:

  • GIS
  • ArcGIS Interface
  • Data
  • Projections
  • Symbolizing Data
  • Editing
  • Map Layouts

What do you get? A days worth of probably not me (see what I did there) babbling about GIS. A years worth of support over email (Level III) and access (finally) to the support website that finally became a reality over Thanksgiving. So hopefully that makes this class slightly more appealing than the other ArcMap classes out and about. it’s priced at $425 per person – but that’s all negotiable. I’ll bring the software and hardware if you can’t make it. Doughnuts are on NRGS. Possibly lunch. I’m not sure how popular this one will be – but – it will be there as an offering.

Kennesaw State University GIS Day Nov 15 2012

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Dear KSU Students, Alumni, Faculty & Geospatial Community,

Another GIS Day is nearly upon us in this dynamic world of spatialness!

Kennesaw State University is again hosting their Annual GIS Day and you are cordially invited to attend.

The event will be held on Thursday, November 15, 2012 between 6:30 – 8:00 pm in the Leadership Room of the Carmichael Student Center (2nd floor next to Card Services).

This year’s event will include many spatial festivities. There will be a Google Earth Limerick Challenge, faculty, student, and GIS community presentations, and a couple Google Earth related events. In addition to these presentations and challenges, the new GIS website will be unveiled. Additionally, GIS certificates and awards will be presented (including the Alumni Award and GIS Community Award) in addition to the many event gifts and prizes (such as t-shirts, GIS goodies, and the like). There will be customary food and drink available to all attendees, and free parking for those who RSVP.

Finally, there will be an informal post GIS gathering at Mellow Mushroom after the event for those attendees who wish to continue their conversations beyond the time on campus.

On behalf of Kennesaw State University and the Geography & Anthropology Department, we hope to see you all there!  Map Happy!

Bang your head against the Training Wall.

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When you start a company you must have goals of some sort. You’re really supposed to have a business “plan”. Well – I built a plan in my head and pretty much stuck with it through all sorts of issues and problems. At any point when things got weird on my end (and they have a lot if you’ve been keeping up) I fell back on “the plan“. I grew to hate that plan toward the end of last year which made it hard to follow.

Training was always in the plan. I always thought aligning myself as an ESRI Business Partner and becoming an ESRI Authorized Trainer would be a step in the right direction. I’ve struggled with training. Mostly because it is (was) easy to get into the ATP program but nearly impossible as a new trainer to teach if you didn’t have connections into an organization. It’s tough…it’s competitive.

So last year ESRI changed from the ATP program to the CTP Program. There were a large number of hoop$ that needed to be jumped through. It was time-consuming and it was expensive…and mostly on purpose I think. Starvation is a great way to weed out trainers. So essentially from March of last year till now I haven’t trained. Over all looking back it was a good thing – because I had to scrounge up more work to fill in lost revenue. Last year was rough partially by design and partially I made it that way. I got introspective…I got annoyed and I developed The Plan Part II: Revenge of the Plan.

So I completed the last hoop – I’m temporarily Certified (or is it authorized) to teach ArcGIS Desktop I, II and III.

With all of that said please go to the training page and check out the prices. I am lowering them as low as I can even though materials have more or less doubled. I am currently working on a training facility as I type this. If prices are still too high – email me and we can work something out. If you can’t come to me, I go to you. I can’t keep the prices this low for long – they will go up. Yes it’s the same class as the big company teaches…yes this training will go toward your GISP. Yes – the last day (if held in town) is lunch on me. Yes – pay attention and take notes for it will help in your ESRI <fill in the blank> Certification

With that being said – I’m announcing a non ESRI class: Model Builder with a little bit of Python. I did a 1 hour workshop and had some interest so I decided to turn it into an 8 hour class. My price has yet to be determined because I have yet to finish putting it together.

Email me and let me know what you think. As updates roll in they will go to the training page and to the newsletter. The first newsletter will hopefully go out this week.

Diving into the Deep end….

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At least I think it’s a bit deeper. I will not be worried about hitting my head in this pool.

I seem to be a lightening rod for questions these days. I apparently am faking it better than I thought. My niece came over the other day. She’s taken on a project and amazingly enough hasn’t had any GIS classes. As the GA URISA Education chair for a few more days that mostly horrified me….as me the mild-mannered GIS dude it completely horrified me.  To me that is the equivalent of getting out of college and barely being able to turn on a computer (assuming your major has a component that will touch GIS).

Her project was simple enough…to me. To her it was a mountain. Two things needed to be done – generate random points and put those points on a GPS. I can do that in ArcGIS – at least the random point generator easy enough. I can load the data into a GPS several different ways. But I was bored and I…er we needed a challenge. A challenge that would get her close to finishing what she needed…and not going the ArcGIS route just yet.

I am currently a bit fascinated with Open Source GIS software….which you should be able to tell from the last few posts. I downloaded the OSSGeo4W installer from http://download.osgeo.org/osgeo4w/osgeo4w-setup.exe a few months back. Actually longer than that as I got to teach the Open Source GIS Workshop from URISA over the summer. Actually looking back over the year I’ve had two or three really good things that have happened. This being one of them.

I installed the basic setup on my niece’s computer. That basic setup gave her quite a few tools.

The best tool was QGIS – Quantum GIS. If you haven’t used it you should give it a try. It’s not ArcGIS. I consider that a good thing for now. If you’ve used ArcGIS it’s not going to be that hard to deal with. If you’ve never used any GIS – it’s not going to be that hard to deal with. QGOS 1.6 (Capiapo) was just released. For an open source project it’s quite robust. I actually used a search feature to pull in a WMS layer of Hamilton County TN in less than a minute. (I just searched for “WMS Tennessee” in the add WMS GUI).

In less than half an hour we had walked my street with a GPS unit. Used QGIS to download the data and symbolize it. Traced the empty lot at the end of the street and generated random points inside that lot. I have no doubt I ran through that too quickly and she will have questions. But the nice thing is I don’t have to worry about a 60 day timeout. At the end of this we will finish it up in ArcGIS. For all the niceties of Open Source GIS it still doesn’t make cartographically pleasing maps (In my opinion).

It does make me think though. A buffer is a buffer. Nodes are connected by a line. The science of GIS is the science – be it ESRI software or something else. I search for an answer…and really having more than one tool to get to that end point is a good thing…..Until I’m tossed out of the ESRI Business Partner Program for suggesting that. Hehe.

The real fun in all this…..I get to play the grumpy Uncle. The “just because we did it differently doesn’t make it any less right” Uncle if they are nuts enough to start asking questions on why she did it this way…..

At some point people are going to wise up and stop asking me questions.

A Conundrum

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Conundrum: A difficult and intricate problem.

I’m starting to resurface. A bit. I’ve been working on a job and just had a major breakthrough. One that will let me finish it I think. I’ve been busy wrestling with problems. Problems with work or problems at work and problems that have nothing to do with work. The personal ones are the worst. More on that later.

Anyway I had the chance to go and speak at the National Trails Conference that is being held in Chattanooga. GIS is making enough headway into everything that they had a lot of people that wanted an overview of ArcGIS. They had a mixup with the normal guy who does this and asked if I could come in and do the workshop. Ten years ago if you asked me to speak for four hours I would have had a coronary. Now it’s hard to stop in four hours. That’s the bad thing about workshops for me – knowing when and where to stop. I can’t explain ArcGIS in four hours. I can’t explain anything in four hours.

The conundrum hit me when I started speaking or actually it’s been hitting me for quite some time.  I’m an ESRI Certified/Authorized Trainer. I’m an ESRI Business Partner. I’m a business sponsor of URISA. I can teach the Open Source URISA Workshop. I’m also a GISP. My problem is turning into what /how do I answer certain things.

Problems started immediately at the workshop. People started asking questions. Good questions. Questions of a GIS nature and not so much questions about ArcGIS. How do I get my data on the web? How do I convert my GPS file from my Garmin Unit? How do I create a profile of my trail? What constitutes GIS data? Where does data come from…?

In starting this business I had a few goals. Two of them were become an ESRI Business Partner and become an ESRI Trainer.  I attained those goals. The fun started earlier this year when I became more heavily involved in GA URISA. I taught a workshop on Open Source GIS Software. I knew about Open Source ( I use Ubuntu. I ditched Microsoft Office for Open Office). I knew about Open Source GIS software (GRASS, QGIS, etc) before the workshop but I hadn’t used it. In order for me to teach it I needed to use it and I have. I like it.I like the history behind it. I like the fact that just about all the commercial GIS software have toes in the Open Source World.

The whole thing about Open Source GIS Software is that it’s standards based. It’s not flavored towards a particular vendor. A WMS is a WMS. Things work (not perfectly all the time). As a GISP I should give the best answer possible. My conundrum: what if it’s not an ESRI answer. I really wished the workshop had been an introduction to GIS. I would have felt better about giving it. We covered the basics of ArcGIS from adding data, symbology and plotting. I need to change a bit on what I did – I tried to cram too much into four hours. Probably out of the four hours we spent an hour talking about data and GIS Issues.

One gentleman wanted to share out his trail data with users. My suggestion was Open Street Map. One wanted to convert GPX files. My suggestion DNR Garmin, GPS Babel, or Quantum GIS.  How do we put a map on a web page? Geoserver, Open Layers, MapServer, ArcGIS Server. There wasn’t one answer to fit – but a lot of answers that would work.

At the end of the workshop one of the guys came up and asked if I was an ESRI representative. I answered yes….then no. Then sorta yes since I am a Business Partner. Then sorta no since they most likely wouldn’t claim affiliation with me (I think).

What am I? I’m a GIS Guy who owns a company that will solve geospatial problems. In front of me I’m running ArcGIS 10. To my left I have PostGIS and Quantum GIS running. It makes me more capable. It makes me more deadly. It makes me better.

…but I do worry.

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