Date: November 16-17 2016
Location: Chattanooga (Address TBA)
Price: $375 per day
NRGS is holding a Introduction to QGIS and an Introduction to PostGIS on November 16-17 2016.
This is a 2 class endeavor. I’m going to strongly suggest you be familiar with GIS in general for the Intro to QGIS class (so strongly I may not let you in if you have no idea how GIS works). I’m also going to require the Intro to QGIS class before the Intro to PostGIS class.
You can read all you want on the Intro to QGIS here.  That one is pretty self explanatory. I’ve done this one a lot and the revamped class flows pretty well. In general it starts off with a slow build and by the end you’re asking more questions than I can answer during the class. It seems the light bulbs start going off about the time I go “Plugins” for some reason. Maybe I’ve covered enough by that point people see this as a decent alternative.
The Intro to PostGIS class is going to be a bit different.
I’ve had this idea for a while that I wanted to actually do a “theme” to training. Which is more or less “it’s a big world out there and there are plenty of tools”. This has also been at odds over the “I don’t want to turn training into a 52 week a year job” thought. I like my clients and I like training – so in 2017 training is going to be a structured event so that I’m happy and you’re happy. Right now there are two more classes slated for this endeavor. WILL I DO THIS ONLINE? Probably no. I’ve tried online and I wasn’t happy with the way it went. I’m better in person. You’re happier if you talk to people you are sitting near.
In 8 hours I can’t turn you into a PostGIS guru. I can take some of the fear out of it and make it at least productive enough you will know what to search for and how to find answers and be a part of the community. Combine PostGIS with QGIS (my two favorite things in the world) and you’ve got a powerful tool set for free.
Right now (and this changes every day) we are covering (in no order):
- PostGresQL and how that fits into this
- SQL – what the heck is that?
- Connecting QGIS to PostGISL: DB Manager (we will cover about 3 ways to connect but DB Manager is going to be the theme)
- Spatial SQL (it will make your head hurt especially if you are an ArcGIS user)
- Workflows and Data.
It’s a bit fluid at the moment BUT – it’s shaping up. I’m trying to keep this at 8 hours. You won’t be a guru at the end but you’re going to understand this better than I did starting out. How did I start out? Sitting on St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands getting SQL files and wondering how all of this fit together. Why did I have tables that told me what the geometry was and how was all this happening. How did I load data. What do I do with it once it’s loaded. How do I dump data back out to something the other stuff can use. Projections go Where?
PLUS BOOK Recommendations at the end to help answer more questions. I’ve been buying books. Again. Stuff I need and stuff that is useful. My St Thomas experience was 3 years ago and I haven’t stopped learning. You can’t stop. Hopefully you won’t.
Anyway – more news coming shortly. Mark it on your calendars.
