North River Geographic Systems Inc
Spatial Problem Solving
FOSS4G-NA popped up on my radar this week.
So from just the website and a few twitter noise makers it looks like It’s headed to Mission Beach California (San Diego) April 16-18 2019. I’ve made the last 3 – so It looks like I’m going to do my best to make this one. Road Trip? I encourage you to attend and support the FOSS4G North America Community.
I love a good road trip. FOSS4GNA was in St Louis Missouri this year. Close enough for me to get in the car and tune out for 5 to 6 hours.
First thing on the Agenda – QGIS. I did the 4 hour “Intro to QGIS” for about 60 something people. You had people who had worked around gis for a good while and were curious about this Open Source desktop. You had some people who had been using it and had questions. Overall it was a bit much with that many people – but worth the effort. I hope everyone walked out with something new they didn’t know. I was inspired – 4 years ago you’d scream “QGIS” and there were a few who knew. I think this year I’ve taught the 4 hour class to about 100 people. This is going well – watch for QGIS Part II coming shortly. I’m hopeful to do the 8 hour one at some point. Seriously – I know you people love 3.5 hours of me talking but the 8 hours of me talking is magnificent (it’s actually not).
I did a really technical “Copy and paste” of the paper abstracts as listed on the website and filtered out a few words that were throwing everything off. You could pick and poke and over analyze this very happy looking word cloud a bunch – I wouldn’t. Do notice the giant work “DATA” in the middle of it though. There is a very small word: GIS. So I’ve gotten the question several times over the last bit “Why go to this one?”. My consulting life has taken a very data centric turn and to deal with that data I use open source tools. So I spend a lot of time talking to people at the conference. I spend time talking to the developers who make the software I like…at this conference. This one scratches an itch for me. There are a lot of smart people. It’s a good thing. if I go to an event and have all the answers what’s the point in going. So what I walked out with is this following:
Other noteworthy things:
If there was a keynote that stuck out – it was the final one.
To be clear, @opencholmes just gave the most consequential #geospatial tech talk of the decade @foss4gna. #FOSS4GNA @planetlabs @opengeospatial pic.twitter.com/bmKZrl2hWi
— Christopher Tucker (@PLANETucker) May 16, 2018
Chris Holmes brought the conference to an end with a discussion…of….well….Deep Learning…Machine learning….imagery……..the idea of a queryable earth. In other words there’s enough imagery being taken you should be able to “ask” it questions. Planet Labs it pulling down something like 10 terrabytes of imagery a day. One snapshot of the earth. A DAY. So train the computers to classify the imagery and start asking questions.
There was a lot more that happened. Walking across St Louis at night. Food. City Park. Talking to total strangers. Meeting random people I bump into over the interwebs and hassling them. I stuck my foot in the Mississippi River. I got to play Geohipster for a day and tweet random insanity. Having served on multiple conference committees – I find I’m happier not on them. This was a good event. I enjoyed it. I walked away feeling overwhelmed and hopeful for the path I’m barely scratching after 26 years. So where is FOSS4GNA in 2019? Stay Tuned.
Holy crap its @brymcbride @bitnerd @TernerGeo #FOSS4GNA pic.twitter.com/7FUWwmju1f
— Randal Hale (@rjhale) May 15, 2018
FOSS4GNA is happening May 14-16 2018 in St Louis Missouri. Speaking of – I’ve only accidentally driven in to Missouri once so this should be fun.
They also put out the call for Papers and I won’t bore you with a rehash of what papers they are looking for – I will only bore you with the dates:
Why the dates? Because that’s the one thing I’ll forget but I’ll see this post until I make about 6 more and it will force me to submit something.
If you haven’t been to one of these things I’ll make my case here – you need to go.
So show up. Toss this into your budget and go – you’ll learn something I swear.
It’s over.
As one friend pointed out there are something like 4 stages of conference attendance:
On most everything I’m at 4. It takes a lot to drag me to a conference these days. I think my most attended conference is the Georgia URISA Conference. I’ve made three FOSS4G Conferences. For FOSS4G events I’m still at a 1 and 2.
There’s going to be several blog posts over the next few days on the conference. I can’t cram all my thoughts into one post. Plus my posts have been getting longer and longer and I really want to shorten them up a bit.
I’ve made the conferences in 2013, 2015, and 2016. Each one gets a little bit bigger…..BUT – each one has the same community feel I’ve missed elsewhere and enjoy. It really doesn’t matter who is the super star rolling into this conference – you’re going to have the same good group of people finely arrayed from business casual to “Well Day 3 for these Cargo pants”. You have people who really get don’t enjoy crowds and then you have the people who can command a room full of people. This conference accepts all kinds and it’s nice. It’s refreshing. It’s the way GIS should be.
We were somewhere around 550 strong for FOSS4GNA – which if you noticed there was also the ESRI SERUG or whatever conference running at the same time during this event. Overall – didn’t hurt us a bit. In fact – ESRI – please plan competing ones from here on out. It actually may have helped.
If you haven’t been to a FOSS4G Event you should go. This is coming from a guy who is at a 4 for everything. You will meet friends, you’ll learn something, you will walk away refreshed (and a little tired).
Like I said – more posts coming shortly. This was my get up and “stretch and warm up” post for the rest of this week.
Just in case you’re debating going to something:
Oh my sweet Carolina – What compels me to go?
For those of you who have done nothing else but show up here from time to time and read my ramblings. Prepare for more rambling. Rambling with a point. Probably the two things I joke about the most but never bring up in business life is religion and politics. Why? Because those two things will get you in trouble quicker than anything you could talk about.
Growing up I spent a lot of time in Church. It’s what you do in most of the south. Twice a day on Sunday and once on Wednesday night. I did a string of denominations from Southern Methodist to Presbyterian (PCA) an even a few years ago was convinced to go to a Unitarian church for a few meetings. I gave up my Unitarian leanings when everyone started dancing and handing out flowers…my comments post dancing probably helped get me fired by the then current girlfriend. I haven’t made organized religion a part of life for quite some time. Why? Politics. I was tired of people dancing a fine line of separation of church and state. BUT WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE? It’s not important. It would horrify most of you if we got into that discussion.
Same things with Politics – I tend to vote Democratic for about everything. When I started a business everyone told me “YOU GOTTA BE A REPUBLICAN TO OWN A BUSINESS”. They were dead serious about it and in general – no. I don’t.
So when I woke up and saw North Carolina had imposed a law that more or less allowed discrimination – I pretty much beat my head against my desk for a minute or three. I lobbied hard to get FOSS4GNA to North Carolina. GIS people are some of the most inclusive people around (at least for me). I’ve got the pick of gay/straight/TG/Lesbian whatever in this group. Do I care who you are and how you self identify? Nope – as long as you aren’t mean to other people. I know church people. I get it. I can see where something like this would gain traction and the best way to combat it? Vote everyone in public office out for mixing church and politics. Then teach the church people to quit misreading their book.
FOSS4GNA released a statement asking people to still come and it will be a safe environment. It will be. No kidding. I lobbied hard to get it there and so I’ll work to make it safe and happy. You will be happy if I have to make you be happy and cheerful at this event dammit.
Of course my next problem – QGIS. I was just asked to teach a class at a local community college in North Carolina. I have no idea if I’ll get through the red tape or if they’ve dropped the idea. I’m waiting for more emails and phone calls. The problem I have now as me – Randy – they guy with a business is “Do I do it?”. Teaching QGIS relies on students. I want people to come to the class – everyone – Blue/Green/TG/Lesbian/gay/straight/weird to come to the class. I want you to learn about the software….BUT – I’ve survived up until now not teaching at a college. I want everyone happy and safe. If I can’t guarantee that due to a bunch of politicians…..ugh. So I’ve got some decisions to make. I’ve got to make money as a business – BUT………….
So anyway – the class may or may not happen. I have no idea now. “It’s nothing personal it’s just business” rules my life these days…but as someone else told me “It’s all personal”.
Come to Raleigh. The good people outside the politicians that voted on this mean you no harm. You can almost fill your car up at the border and not have to get out again until you hit Raleigh if you are worried. If you are flying in and I’m there I’ll come get you at the airport if you’re worried. Come to the QGIS Class at the Conference – we’re going to tell a lot of lies during those 4 hours. The worst thing you will endure is me.