North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

QGIS

QGIS Class on May 21 at FOSS4GNA

So the class makes an appearance the day before Foss4GNA – May 21 2013:

This one day class is an introduction to Quantum GIS. Quantum GIS is a user friendly Open Source GIS Package that runs under Linux, Unix, Mac OSX and Windows. It supports multiple raster and vector formats. The software has a wide community base and is adding new functionality with every release. See how this software can compliment an existing GIS installation and save your organization time and money over the life of your GIS program.

QGIS Topics Covered:

  • Installation of QGIS and an Overview of GIS
  • Interface
  • Adding Vector Data
  • Adding Raster Data
  • Plugins
  • Data Attribution
  • Creating Data and editing
  • Map Layouts

There are still seats available – get registered and show up. It will be fun if nothing else.

http://www.mngislis.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=653.  Online registration closed on May 3rd, but there will be registration the day of the workshops.

Field Work and a Phone and QGIS

Sorry for the quiet – had a lot going. So much so – let me start off here: Greetings from the US Virgin Islands.

scenic

There’s a lot to discuss and let me start off with Field Work. Yesterday I found myself and my handy coworker Zac roaming Charlotte Amalie. I also am in the possession of a new phone. A Google Nexus 4. We were trying a couple of things. One of which turned into Geotagging pics. You can with (I assume) every android phone (and Iphone) embed your lattitude and longitude into a pic. So that’s what I did. I ended up shooting about 20 pics and a few scenic tourist shots (above). I came back and the plan was to rip them into a shapefile. I think I even uttered that standard phrase of GIS Professionals everywhere “Well – I’ll just write a script to do this.”.  Well – I’ve got work to do and script writing is for fun – so here is what I did.

  1. Open QGIS
  2. Download the Photo2shape plugin
  3. Download the pics from the phone to a directory
  4. Run Photo2shape

At the end I had a shapefile with the photo path and photo filename. What was nice I ended up with (red dots).

photo2shape

The Orange line is a different story. Every photo has a recorded location and the reported accuracy of the phone is 9 feet. I’ve noticed that with this phone GPS Status bottoms out there. So I’m guessing this is a software lock or something – because the points when matched to NAIP/Google are pretty close to what was expected. I know – I’m mixing all sorts of accuracies but that’s what I have to check it against. Three meters in general isn’t great – but for what we’re doing it’s pretty good.

Next up – Hyperlinking on QGIS……..

 

Introduction to QGIS Class January 11th 2013

qgis….and I’m doing it again. The Introduction to QGIS class will be held on January 11th 2013.

This one day class will cover the basics of QGIS and should give you a good idea of the capabilities and possibilities with the software.

Subjects Covered:

  • Overview of GIS
  • Introduction to Quantum GIS
  • Vector Data
  • Raster Data
  • Plugins
  • Fields and Attribution
  • Creating Data
  • Map Layout

As always you get 1 year of Level III support. Part of the class fees also get contributed back – so while you are learning you are also helping further the development of the software.

  • Class Price:$350 dollars.
  • Location: Chattanooga TN
  • Date January 11th 2013

Contact me (rjhale@northrivergeographic.com) for more information.

GIS Bubble

I spent the day working and thinking. I saw this earlier last week and it popped up again either on twitter, facebook, or somewhere:

It’s an interesting look at Google Maps and how it got to where it is now. Plus some nifty editing tools. Of course if you watch that – then you must watch this:

Yeah – it’s two separate things. Search and Mapping – but not really. It’s why I like working on OSM – I map what I want. You can do the same with Google – but I do worry about the filter bubble with Google Maps. Things can go wrong. Things can be ignored. It’s not anything inherent in google maps – I think it’s more the way we perceive things. You get used to one thing – be it Google or ESRI and you develop blinders. Hence my new love affair with Quantum GIS, PostGIS, and DuckDuckGO.

Change is good. Change up your GIS. Change up the way you look at maps. Stand on your head if you need to – it helps.

Commercial QGIS Support

So here comes the Great Experiment. Software Support.

I’ve been a 19 year veteran of watching ESRI produce software. Probably 90% of my customers are ESRI based. The other 10% can’t afford a GIS system due to budget. As an ESRI Business Partner I convinced some of the 10% to make the investment. Over the last year I’ve been working with Open Source Software and have decided to branch out. So I dropped my ESRI Business Partner Status and I’m now working openly with Open Source GIS software and ESRI Software. As a GIS business I’m feeling a bit more robust than I was last year.I’m working with more data formats and working with databases (notably Postgresql/PostGIS) more. I’m also working with data – because no matter what you do with ArcGISOnline, or Web Maps, or whatever it’s the data that matters.

To that end I’ve been working on a support page with different options. As was often said in my favorite Chinese restaurant: If you don’t find something you like – we’ll make it.

QGIS has turned into my new favorite software package. So I’m now offering paid support for an open source software package. Some companies are hesitant to use Open Source GIS packages because you don’t have someone to call for support. If I fall back to the old 80/20 rule – I can argue QGIS can do about 80% of what ArcGIS does – in particular ArcView. There are things that are missing but they are few. So what do you get:

  • Cost is $500 dollars for up to 5 installs (computers) of QGIS (How will I know – I won’t).
  • Newsletter and Access to the support website
  • Email Support
  • Phone Support during core business hours
  • Includes a discount on our Introduction to QGIS Class.
  • Time Frame is one year.

More importantly some of this money goes back to QGIS. So your use of the software is going to help the QGIS progress and develop. This is something I’m still feeling out and working on so there will be changes along the way.

Anyway – let the fun begin.