North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

Training

Intro to QGIS Class June 22- 23rd 2021

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It’s happening again:

Here is a bit more “behind the scenes” on training and life. When covid was causing me massive issues last year (and it still is – just to a much lesser degree), I was fighting the idea of teaching online. I had taken and had done online classes and it was (for me) harder than I wanted. Coming out of 2020 I made the decision to do 2 to 3 QGIS classes and see what would happen.

Overall it’s not been too bad. Any difficulties that have been encountered were just the normal human error on my part or the participants. I’ve gotten about 24 people trained and raised 560 dollars for the QGIS Organization. Which not that many people or not that much money BUT – this was never attainable holding in person classes. I did decide to bump the class up 25 dollars to cover certificates. Each QGIS certificate is 22 to 24.50 and having that little bit extra helps.

With that I’m in the middle of finishing up the next class with a “final” one being draft out. The problem with the next few classes is time. The Intro class is pretty much 7 hours and 45 minutes. The next one is looking like 16 hours or longer. The last class will be 8 to 12.

Anyway – all of that to say that training is actually going well. Come take a class!

Oh no he’s talking about training again

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I’ve been debating shaking up the blog portion of the website for a bit. I start writing and then go “What’s the point” and I’m sitting on a half dozen technical/non-technical things I’ve been working on. So anyway – where to start for this one.

So the Virtual training seems to be working. I teach the first one his month (actually just finished), the next one in April and after that I’ll know what is working and what doesn’t. There have been a never ending stream of emails from people on ranging from “I want to take an advanced class” to “Introduction is too simple” and “what are your plans for something harder”. To which I have asked “What do you consider harder?” and the answer is always “Not Introduction”. So I got that going for me which is nice.

There is another class coming. Actually when I had made all the arrangements to teach in a classroom setting – the class had turned into a 2 day event with the possibility of a third happening. Way back when I was an ESRI instructor it seemed like Intro to Desktop was 2 or 3 days, Intermediate was 2 days, and Advanced was two days. Which I have no plans on doing for 7 or 8 days – BUT – the second class is proving problematic as I’m sitting on about 19 hours of information which is about over 2 full days and almost Five 4 hour days virtually. What to do……..

The thought is currently to call this QGIS: Tools and Processing. Which means I get to cover Processing Tools, Modeler, Editing, and Forms. The problem with that is currently that looks like 10 to 12 hours of “stuff” and I’d like to keep this at 8. Maybe I can’t. Maybe it turns into 3 days which are 4 hours long.

Which in my fever driven fantasies about training that gives me an:

  • Introduction covering the basics
  • The Intermediate part where we are building models and exposing editing tools like forms.
  • Advanced…………

Advanced would end up being PostGIS being brought into the mix with QGIS. So end it on an Enterprise worthy note. Your organization needs multiple editors and a data repository and the normal directory structure isn’t cutting it so you would want this class. Of course this doesn’t cover:

  • Reports/Atlas
  • Time manager
  • LIDAR
  • Stupid amounts of Symbology like the Geometry Generator.

Those 4 things don’t suck up much of my life. They are important though….so Decisions. I don’t want to turn this into a training business which is a problem I worry about. I like working with data and clients. I also don’t want a repeat of 2020 where I realize how fragile my business is against a very small germ.

Anyway – more on training later….

Intro to QGIS Virtual Training – April 27-28 2021

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With the first class filling up I’ve decided to do another Intro to QGIS Class. Which I know – 2 intro classes but it’s a popular subject for those that just want to know something about QGIS. Again it will be 4 hours a day for 2 days from 12 EST to 4 EST. Plus virtual – which means I’m live.

I’ve revamped the materials to take advantage of the current releases and cleaned up the exercises. So those are now shorter and more plentiful and the hope is you can just do them without me slowing down much. We have a lot of ground to cover.

Again we’ll be covering:

  • Interface
  • Data and Symbology
  • Processing tools
  • Editing
  • Plugins
  • Layouts

Everyone gets a certificate from the QGIS organization (which makes it easy for me to push some of the money back to QGIS).

Anyway – show up. Limit of 10. Cost is $150 US Dollars.

Register here!

Here’s the big change from the March Class:

  • I’m working on a refund policy for those that sign up but can’t attend. Since I’m using EventBrite I’m losing a small part of the cost for less headache. Anyway – I’ll have that posted shortly. Maybe I can put you in another class OR I’ll refund the money or something. We’ll figure it out.
  • If you’re a conservation group and you can’t swing the $150 give me a shout and we’ll figure out a way to get you in the class.

QGIS Workshop January 2020

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The first class of the revamped QGIS Workshop is coming up January 15th and 16th 2020. This class is going to be a little bit different than the other iterations. I’ve slowly been adding/taking away content to drive toward this being a class focused on an Enterprise Open Source implementation. It’s lead to a lot of back and forth on this end for the future of the training class.

Right now the 16 hour class covers:

  • Interface
  • Symbology
  • Geo-processing and Plugins
  • Editing
  • Layout manager
  • Raster Tools
  • Field Calculator
  • Forms
  • Processing

Day 1 is certified by the QGIS Community and I’m working on Day 2 getting certified – so I should have an answer on that shortly (so this class will support the QGIS Community). Of Course that leaves me wondering where Day 3 goes – and I’m staring down the barrel of PostGIS. Which has been my most talked about non-existent class at this point. Every time I start on it I back off and wonder if I’ve done enough in QGIS to prepare you for that angle.

Anyway – Hope to see you there! Any questions give me a shout!

QGIS Training Revisions

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Like I don’t talk about this enough……BUT – can I just say Training is difficult on a good day. You have to pick a day, pick a location, advertise your butt off, and then HOPE beyond hope someone signs up for it. This year has been odd in that I’ve taught three or four times now – all for conferences and clients. So I’ve been on the road bouncing out different versions of the basic classes and gymnastic skills to get training done. I hate flying – and I’ve been on more planes the first 6 months of this year than I have in a good while.

The last few training classes have been enjoyable. At one time I was using the Business Development Center here in town and that was a good spot overall just a bit of a pain to deal with as far as parking and food went. Plus it was more of a numbers game. To make it worth my while I really had to hold a lot of classes – and that went back to my days as an ESRI Certified Trainer.

So – what just changed?

  • Classes will be held again in Chattanooga once a quarter
  • The QGIS Class will now be 2 days and Cover QGIS I and II. It’s all Chattanooga Centric Data also from vector to raster – you’re going to be in the dataset we are going to use.
  • The classes will be held at the new Holiday Inn in Chattanooga. Holiday Inn? Yes. It’s in Downtown Chattanooga and within walking distance of everything you would want to do in Chattanooga at night or during the day (if you happen to bring anyone with you). There will be a special rate at the Holiday Inn for people wanting to stay there. For those not staying there we’ve got parking available and that’s not a hassle.
  • All Classes will be QGIS Certified – so you will get a certificate and funds go back to the QGIS Project.
  • It’s all prepaid. So if you don’t pay you don’t have a spot. This will keep the price lower because I’ll be less stressed.

I’m rounding out the Day 2 class to be more in line with Day 1. I may scrap the QGIS 3 class just because that’s a bit much. I’m still available to come to you vs you coming to me also.

I look forward to you coming to Chattanooga – it’s fun, centrally located, and makes for a good trip out. Plus Chattanooga has a massive mapping history no one knows about. Anyway – dates are coming soon.