North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

Fulcrum

The 11th day of XYMas….Mobile Data Collection

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So flash back to 2002 or so. My manager went to a conference and won a GPS Backpack unit with receiver running windows mobile or maybe Palm OS (it was a thing) or something. I don’t even remember the brand. We were rocking (at my federal job) year 3 or 4 of creating ortho imagery. Yes we would fly an area and get film (yes film) and scan it (it was a pain) and then create ortho photos.

Most of the time we did one of two things:

  • If the client did care we used USGS 7.5 minute quads for control.
  • If the client did care we sent the surveyors out to mark control.

BUT – we had this new Backpack unit that collected Submeter GPS. We had a job and I decided “You know – we don’t have much of a budget so lets to collect out own information with this shiny new GPS Unit”. What a pain. I went out and collected data on the ellipsoid and messed it all up. I had to drive back and recollect the data. The surveyors laughed at me. Rightly so – I deserved it.

My first year in business i bought a cheap yellow GPS unit from Trimble (Juno) with arcpad.

Flash forward to 2013 and in order of the 4 things I’ve used in 2019 to collect data:

  • Fulcrum – So I discovered this one on a job and after reaching out to Spatial networks  I was in business. Create forms. Save your data to a big “cloud bucket” in the sky. It’s pretty simple.
  • GeoPaparazzi – Discovered this one day just digging around some FOSS4G software. So I drove around town recording my tracks and fixing some OSM data. Granted the name is a bit off putting for me  – BUT – it works pretty well.
  • QField – “Hey – can I run QGIS on a mobile device?” Well – yes with QField. Create a project and move that and your data over to your Android Phone or Android Tablet and collect data.
  • Input – “Hey can I run QGIS on a mobile device?” Well – yes with Input. Create a project and move that and your data over to your Android/IOS Phone or Android/IOS Tablet and collect data. This option takes it one step further with Mergin so you can take data from any device and push it to Input and then pull it back to your main computer.

At some point all of these will be a longer blog article. I’ve been telling myself that for a bit and I’ve started the Input one. Are there more data collection options? Yes – ESRI has a whole suite of data collection apps as well as Trimble – but I’ve not touched those.

So for the 11th of XYMas – Mobile data Collection ain’t that hard anymore. In fact there’s a scratch for all your itches. So go out and collect some data.

 

Fulcrum Community and Hurricane Irma

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As of Saturday September 9th 2017 the graphic from the National Hurricane Center looks like:

For those of you in the path who are going to have immense fun with high winds, flooding, and possible flying houses carrying a small girl and her dog – Sign up for Fulcrum Community!

Fulcrum (http://Fulcrumapp.com) is providing Fulcrum Community Free to people dealing with Hurricane Irma. If your organization/group whoever needs a data collection app to use during this event all you need to do is download Fulcrum and request access.  It was (and still is) deployed for Hurricane Harvey in Texas.

Request Access Here: https://web.fulcrumapp.com/communities/hurricane-irma/?_ga=2.247777031.1408167726.1504721105-337609111.1500995109

Fulcrum runs on iOS and Android devices. Data (shapefile, File Based Geodatabase, PostGIS, excel, etc) can be retrieved from their cloud and used in any GIS Platform you might have (I use it with QGIS and feed the data live into there). It can also be pushed into any online accounts you might have (from Carto to ArcGIS Online).

It’s preloaded with:

  • Urban Search and rescue App
  • Disaster Shelters assessment App
  • Public Assistance Applicant Damage Report App
  • Individual Assistance for Inundation App
  • Aid Facility App
  • Hurricane Evacuee Info App
  • Wind Damage App
  • Damage Inspection App

Once again – It’s Free. Fulcrum has made employees available to help you with data collection.

Good luck to those of you dealing with the Hurricane.

Fulcrum Live at FOSS4G 2017

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While I was at FOSS4G 2017 this happened on the Tuesday before the Conference.

Yes – A one day conference on Fulcrum.

Fulcrum is one of those software programs I enjoy. It’s not open source but it has a lot of open source DNA built into it and it just works. NRGS is a business partner with them.  Customers can run it on Android or iOS. Your data gets pushed into the cloud. It works offline. It works with bluetooth GPS units.

I missed the first half of the conference. I was teaching a class for FOSS4G on using QGIS and Fulcrum as one workflow (Planning is for dullards). Not my best class – but I think with a few more edits it will blend in well with the QGIS Class I teach occasionally. I arrived at 12 and had a chance to watch as a number of people got up to discuss how Fulcrum is used in their organizations.

People discussed using Fulcrum with utility companies, environmental companies, engineering companies…..companies even my size using Fulcrum for about everything. Two days before the conference I used it to log equipment being used by the FOSS4G Conference. One company is using it to log time sheets in the Yukon. One group is using it to clear land mines.

For me personally I’m always curious how people are using Fulcrum. I know how I use it. Am I using it as well as I can? There is no right or wrong answer. You can do whatever you need to do with it as long as it’s providing what you need.

Three things I remember walking out of this conference:

  • Fulcrum has had 75% growth every year for the last three years. Two years ago I said “Fulcrum” and people would go “Huh?”. As of late I say Fulcrum and people go “yeah I’ve tried it or <fill in the blank> is using it”.
  • Fulcrum Desktop – I can now sync my account to a local postgis/spatialite database. Which is now giving me a few more “things” I can do to play with the data.
  • It’s flexible enough to allow you to hang yourself. You can collect all types of data to the point you should ask yourself “Do I need to collect this?”. I always lean more into “No” but sometimes complicated is needed. One person in my QGIS/Fulcrum class created a form that no doubt would stretch about 3 or 4 feet long if printed. All used on an Ipad. they gave statistics at the end and it seems like one application had well over 1000 photographs attached to it for one point. I may have that wrong but I don’t think I do.

I had a chance to talk about one of groups using Fulcrum Community: a local non profit collecting stream quality data. Not as exciting as oil drilling or utility location – but it’s important.

Update!

It’s been two weeks since the conference and I’ve been meaning to hit publish and life keeps getting in the way. I’m glad it did as an interesting thing happened called Hurricane Harvey:

The map you see is being generated out of Fulcrum Community. Spatial Networks stepped up and offered this to aid the recovery effort. People are crowdsourcing about everything you can think of and more. Fulcrumis making it’s way into first responders hands and people about to do damage assessment. Got a disaster bearing down on you? Worried about Data collection. Remember the good old days of paper forms?

Anyway, I hope this conference happens again. With as much growth as Fulcrumis having I can’t imagine it won’t. Something else to mark on your calendar and attend.

Caribbean SEA and Fulcrum’s Community Program

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I’m a business partner with Fulcrum.  Sometimes cool things happen and I get to play with with Fulcrum outside of “normal working hours” –  Like Fulcrum’s Community Program. So what am I doing with Community?

My volunteer time is a closely guarded thing. I’ve scaled back – but I’m still helping Caribbean SEA. “…But Randy that’s in the Caribbean….” – Well actually they are based out of TN and do quite a bit of work with local watersheds.  The big one right now is the Mountain Creek Watershed.

There has been a dream about a mobile application for a while. We’ve had some starts and some misses but that’s alway been a want: Something stupid simple that will let people go out and collect data about a stream. Plus a GIS of some sort. We’ve used a lot of maps but haven’t tried to actively maintain a Geographic Information System.

The Application is running off Fulcrum’s Community Plan – which means we can stick as many people on there as we need and Fulcrum was awesome enough to donate the plan. Right now we have about 40 people out collecting data in the world. The plan is to get this up to 50 people before we go “THIS IS A THING” and push it to as many people as we can.  What type of data are they collecting? Data about pollution and issues around a stream.  Data that is more “soft” as in “How do you feel about this area” and data like “Do you see trash in the water or on the banks” and “Do you see fish?”. Data that is pretty concrete as in water tests for turbidity and fecal coliform.

The App is in three parts:

  • An Emergency (you find an active problem)
  • A Survey (you describe the stream and it’s surroundings)
  • Water Sampling (you record some information and then perform a water test).

The big problem for me – trying to learn how people like the application or don’t like it. I’ve had a few ideas and I thought they were brilliant – only to have the users go “That’s Terrible”.  So I started a Google Group. I send out periodic emails and remind people to sync the app for more changes and attempt to engage (enrage as I call it) the users to make suggestions on what data we need to record we aren’t recording….. or how to make the app more self explanatory.

So far what have we done?

 

We’re leveraging a lot of data:

  • We have a GIS on the Watershed residing in PostGIS/QGIS.
  • We have data getting shoved into Fulcrum (the red dots)
  • We have LIDAR Data so I can break out the watershed into ever smaller pieces.
  • We’ve got a running record of data that is now digital.
  • We’re also collecting data in the Caribbean. Yes – How generic can I make this and still make it useful? We want one app to rule all the data collection.

 

Things I am working on around the data collection:

  • Assigning a value to the user experience so we can “rate a stream”.
  • Keeping the app up to date
  • Data clean up.

So – if you’re on the Facebook – Look them up: https://www.facebook.com/CaribbeanSEA/

If you happen to find yourself in St Lucia – Track them down.

If you happen to make it into Chattanooga – Buy some gear: http://gearcloset.org/

Year End Review: The Hook Up

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OK – so this will be less dramatic than it sounds – but….this year I stepped back into partnerships. Except Partnerships sounds so formal – I always looked at it as “businesses that complement what I am doing – and (hopefully) I complement what they are doing”. To keep it shorter than that – Partnerships.

I always enter into it the same way: “If this isn’t working fire me”. Back when I started business I used to partner with a lot of different firms. I slowly dropped them all when I figured out it wasn’t working for me. Plus I don’t want to be a “one stop shop”. I can’t do everything. The things I do I want to do well though. So I’ve got this whole opensource thing going on, except I’m also using proprietary tools….like ArcGIS AND

Fulcrum: From that fateful day back in 2013 when I had a project rescued by fulcrum – I’ve been a fan. I’ve been in GIS a long time and over the last bit I’ve submerged myself in databases and data. Fulcrum scratches that Mobile itch. It’s awesome you’ve got a giant yellow GPS that gets readings down to a 1/5 of a cubit – but what do you do after it’s collected? How do you maintain your data?

So this year I kept getting the “Hey we want to put our data on a map” crowd. Yes – ArcGISOnline is happening – but I’m not a fan. I one time set up a online map and blew through 100 credits. No one could tell me what happened to them – so I just sorta stopped. Yeah – you can go cold turkey off ArcGISonline. So what am I doing? MapGeo from AppGeo.

MapGeo: A little bit of open source and a little bit of Google and a little bit of Carto – it’s the perfect hybrid solution. You’re not wrapped up in Credits and tied to one vendor for your GIS Life. It’s mobile friendly. It’s fulcrum friendly. IT’S QGIS FRIENDLY. It’s PostGIS Friendly. So what do I bring to the equation? Help. Technical Hand Holding. If you go with the full package you can load your own data. They will load it. I’ll even help.

…and that’s it. How undramatic was that? For me it was a bit step. As a one man, a dream, and a laptop (and 2 desktop machines) essentially goes “I trust these two companies”. You know what? I even turned down a partnership this year. I was approached by one exceedingly large company and it didn’t make sense. So I said “Love you mean it but I can’t”.  I quickly walked away from that one. Not that it was a bad deal at all – it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.

Plans on partnering for 2017? I have none. Something may pop up but right now I’m happy with the 2 companies that I’m working with…or with which I am working to keep my english teacher from spinning in her grave….assuming she’s dead. She may not be. If you’re reading this I’m sorry. Anyway – I can help you collect data and put your “place” on the web. I can help you move your GIS life back into a good mix of open and proprietary – Or even better – Open source on the server and desktop, fulcrum for mobile, and MapGeo for your online presence.

Next up – another Year in Review and I’ll probably review training.

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