North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

ASPRS

ESRI OSGEO Lidar and things

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I would go into greater detail but I’ll just let you guys read along. I think I can do this in Three links with three small summaries. Full disclosure – I don’t work with lidar data – but I work with a lot of GIS data and your data format is important. Your software is important. I’ve run into this more than once where a client gets lost through salesman double speak:

From Rapidlasso: http://rapidlasso.com/2014/11/06/keeping-esri-honest/

So Rapidlasso has a lidar format – LAS. It compresses. It’s open. Rapidlasso also publishes software that makes use of the format. Almost everyone uses it. There’s an open source library to help you along. Except ESRI forked it back in late 2013 or early 2014. When the fork (Named zLAS or Optimized LAS) happened like any good software company they started getting clients pulled into the format and moving forward. Which more or less isn’t cool. Taking an open format and closing it off isn’t a good thing. Especially when you the practitioner of GIS doesn’t take the time to get informed.

Finally from OSGEO: http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/LIDAR_Format_Letter

OSGEO Finally threw in and went “We’ve got a standard, quit naming your stuff like it’s approved by the working group, and keep your data open.” To me is a bit like talking to a wall but at least someone went on the record and said something. I’m also surprised at the continued silence of ASPRS in all of this. Does the letter do anything physically – well no – but it does show a group of people aren’t happy. Are the unhappy people ESRI users? More than likely not but it is a list of people with interest in the technology and the format.

ESRI responded: http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/discuss/2015-April/014141.html

In general – We support open standards and sorry not sorry. No mention of backing down or doing something different. Which is to be expected at this point – they need to sell software to you, the practitioner, and the only good way you do that is to control quite a bit of the market (disclaimer: I use ESRI Software) which they do.

So – what can you do? Sign the letter from OSGEO. Inform yourself. Salesman are everywhere and just be aware if you ask the advice of a salesman you’re going to get a lot of advice that may not be good for your organization. If you’re a 100% ESRI shop and you’re never gonna change – don’t worry about it. Continue. If you’re shop looking to grow and branch out – you might want to watch learn a bit more about all of this stuff.

ASPRS Releases Positional Accuracy Standard

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So my GIS life went something like this:

  • College – Cant’ find a job
  • Internship for Cranky Gov’t agency
  • Intership turns into Job in Mapping/Surveying/Photogrammetry
  • I have to learn skills from Cranky Gov’t employees
  • Consulting 16 years later

One of the things I became interested in was positional accuracy. Why? I had to make Orthoimagery at one point and I was always asked “How good is it?” and I was really tired of saying “Good enough”.  So I found ASPRS standards and learned why “Good enough” wasn’t in a lot of cases.

Well with the work I’m doing now it’s so subjective and qualitative in nature I’m back to good enough in some cases. GIS is about half Art and half Science.

I found this in my email: The ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards for Digital Geospatial Data (current version is posted above ) were approved by the ASPRS Board of Directors on November 17, 2014. This standard supersedes and replaces prior ASPRS accuracy standards, including the ASPRS Accuracy Standards for Large Scale Maps (1990) and ASPRS Vertical Accuracy Reporting for Lidar Data (2004).

A summary: Nope – I started reading it and just stopped. Not that it’s a bad read – it just doesn’t have any current bearing on my life.

Which then started the thought while stuck in traffic of “how much bearing does it have on anyone’s life?”. If you’re getting Imagery produced by one of the “big” companies (note the power point template) then you should probably read up and learn. If you’re one of the seemingly hundred of people flying “Drones” or UAVs – maybe you look at it to see what is happening in the world of positional accuracy. If you’re doing stupid data tricks all day maybe you read up and see what the fuss is about…..Maybe you just skip it and do what you were doing last week.

I’ve been having this internal argument on what role giant lumbering organizations play in the world of mapping/GIS. I’ve heard some of these orgs go “What is FOSS4G?”. I’ve seen a lot of these orgs by taken over  by private organizations. Eh – it just makes me wonder at times what role do they play.

  • Is it to advance standards?
  • Inform?
  • Teach?
  • Carry on the battle of informing the public of Geographic Information Systems….assuming GIS didn’t go mainstream a while back
  • Create certifications for some purpose?

Anyway – in all of my reading – this is an update to the 1990 standard. Standards are important – lets hope it’s not another 25 years before the next update. In another 25 I hope to be sipping rum in a grass hut somewhere not here.

Intro to QGIS Class is now online!

Metadata Maniacs

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I am passionate about metadata and every once in a while I meet someone else who is either also passionate about metadata or has had an interesting interaction with metadata and lived to tell the tale. A very small number of the people will tell me about their metadata mis-adventure while the rest of the people around us will slowly edge away from us as we discuss the necessity of the proper keyword thesaurus or some other metadata minutia. Those “other” people, well, they just don’t know what they’re missing. At the ASPRS / JACIE co-located conference in Louisville, KY in March I was lucky enough to catch the JACIE session on NED.  Little did I realize the presenter, who had some great metadata information in the presentation, was someone I had spoke with on the phone about LiDAR metadata. I was extremely lucky as she sat at my table for lunch the next day. We exchanged some great stories. First, I better preface this with a sad warning. If you are all lucky enough not to have nightmares (or dreams) about work related topics in your sleep, you will not be able to relate to the rest of the story. You can, however, laugh with me…at myself…yes, and I suppose you’ll be laughing at me. But I don’t mind since I laugh at myself as well. Once the panic settles down about not doing something major on that dataset I will laugh but anyway, one with the story itself. When the presenter and I were talking at lunch she mentioned one of her coworkers had a metadata nightmare. The coworker said to herself in the nightmare, “I can’t use this apple, it doesn’t have metadata!” So the presenter wrote some metadata for the apple. Bounding coordinates of an orchard and everything. It sounded like an absolutely awesome way to chase away work-related sleep states to me! Increased Accessibility - Metadata I just love this type of interaction and it is the reason I go to conferences. I have conversations with people who “get” my passion! And, you never know when this type of a connection will help you! I called on them for more metadata advice in late April. So sometimes it is who you know, but it is also who you connect with even if it is on a strange metadata topic!

All JACIE sessions are listed at http://calval.cr.usgs.gov/jacie/jacie-2014/ Read more about ASPRS at http://www.asprs.org and JACIE at http://calval.cr.usgs.gov/jacie/

Georgia URISA 2014 Conference

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I was sitting around the other day and realized something – My most attended conference is this one I think. This will be my 5th one and I think that either edges out TNGIC or ties it. Which is sorta funny since I’m actually getting tired of conferences in general.

So Georgia URISA holds a conference every two years. This year (as in 2010) I’ll be representing Midsouth ASPRS and GA URISA. It’s a good conference and I don’t say that often. It’s statewide….and we’ve even had people coming down from Canada for this….so nationwide. I’m going, I’m teaching, and I’m presenting.

I’m actually teaching an OSM workshop. I wrote one for URISA which is getting quite a bit of traction. This one is a bit different in that I may have 40ish slides to cover the whole day. We’re going to work, map, and go out and see how OSM works. I’m going to try at the last part of the day to show how you can leverage this data in your GIS operations. I’ve got a complete dataset for the county where the conference will be held….and we will at the end of the day compare and contrast with OSM.

So from the email bag – please attend:

Georgia URISA, ASPRS Mid South, SAMSOG and GITA Southeast are joining together again for the Georgia Geospatial Conference of 2014 to be held October 6th-8th at the Classic Center in downtown Athens.

 

Participants are welcome from federal, state, local governments; academic; private sector; non-profit and international organizations.

 

If you are a practitioner, student, or otherwise interested, in the fields of geographic information systems or surveying, please make plans to attend the largest geospatial conference in Georgia.  For three days, you will have the chance to network with peers, share projects and ideas, and learn.  On October 6th, there will be pre-conference workshops.  On October 7th and 8th, you will hear from leaders in the GIS and Surveying fields with practitioners sharing papers and presentations.  On Tuesday night we will have a social.  On Tuesday, we are also having an afternoon session devoted to future leaders in the GIS field: students.

 

Member Early Bird Costs

Full Day Workshop – $225

Half Day Workshop (does not include lunch) – $125

Conference Registration – $275

Conference Registration One Day – $150

 

Non-Member Early Bird Costs 

Full Day Workshop – $250

Half Day Workshop (does not include lunch) – $150

Conference Registration – $325

Conference Registration One Day – $200

 

Student Costs

Full Day Workshop – $100

Half Day Workshop (does not include lunch) – $50

Conference Registration – $100

Conference Registration One Day – $50 

 

Individual Registration 

Exhibitor/Sponsor Registration

Sponsor / Exhibitor Pricing

 

Bronze – $500 Social Sponsor Only

  • Company Signage at Social
  • Listing of company with a brief company description, logo, web address, and link on the Conference website sponsor page and social advertisements
  • Opportunity to introduce yourself and company at social 

Silver Exhibitor – $750 Member, $1000 non-member

  • Registration for 2 Attendees*
  • 10’x10′ pipe and drape booth, one dressed 8′ table, two chairs, wastebasket, electricity, and a black and white sign
  • Name Printed on back of t-shirts
  • Listing of company with a brief company description, logo, web address, and link on the Conference website exhibitor page
  • Quarter page advertisement in Conference Program 

Gold Exhibitor – $1000 Member, $1250 non-member

  • Registration for 2 Attendees*
  • 10’x10′ pipe and drape booth, one dressed 8′ table, two chairs, wastebasket, electricity, and a black and white sign
  • Logo Printed on back of t-shirts
  • Listing of company with a brief company description, logo, web address, and link on the Conference website exhibitor page
  • Half page advertisement in Conference Program
  • An advance copy of the Master Attendee List (as requested) 

Platinum Exhibitor – $1250 member, $1500 non-member (limited to 12 exhibitor booths)

  • Registration for 3 Attendees*
  • 10’x10′ pipe and drape booth, one dressed 8′ table, two chairs, wastebasket, electricity, and a black and white sign
  • Logo printed on back of t-shirts
  • Listing of company with a brief company description, logo, web address, and link on the Conference website exhibitor page
  • Full page advertisement in Conference Program
  • An advance copy of the Master Attendee List (as requested)
  • Guaranteed 30 minute presentation/demo slot 

*Additional Registration for Members of Exhibitor’s Organization- $200 each

Scholarship Funding from USGIF

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Since I am president of Mid South ASPRS and this just came out – I’ll toss this up here. You are correct – it has squat to do with NRGS.

Dear Colleagues,

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is excited to announce the opening of our 2014 Scholarship Program. USGIF is dedicated to assisting promising students interested in geospatial sciences with scholarship awards to further the advancement of the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.

With your help, we can make our 2014 Program the most successful yet. Please pass along this information to your contacts and/or students and download our 2014 Scholarship Program flyer.

  • Students studying geospatial intelligence or any related field are encouraged to submit their applications by the April 25, 2014 deadline.
  • Graduating high school seniors, undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students can download applications at http://usgif.org/education/scholarships.
  • Scholarship recipients are chosen based on their academic and professional excellence in a field related to the geospatial intelligence tradecraft.

Last year the Foundation awarded $107,000 to 25 recipients and plans to award at least $100,000 for the 2014 program. High school recipients are awarded $2,000 per scholarship and all others are awarded $5,000 each. Since 2004, USGIF has awarded $584,000 in scholarship funding to promising students in the geospatial intelligence field.

Students studying in fields such as geography, political science, physics, computer science, engineering, biology, anthropology, sociology or any field in the natural and social sciences are encouraged to apply. Through the USGIF Scholarship Program, the Foundation strives to communicate to students the breadth and power of GEOINT in serving national, global and human security interests.

The USGIF Scholarship Program endeavors to support students with innovative ideas for problem-solving with Geospatial Science and Technology. Please share information about this scholarship program with your students.

For more information on the USGIF Scholarship Program or to download applications, please visit: http://usgif.org/education/scholarships

Deadline to apply: April 25, 2014

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,

R. Maxwell Baber, Ph.D., FBCart.S
Director of Academic Programs
United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation