North River Geographic Systems Inc

Geospatial Problem Solving

Spatial Connect

QGIS Workshop and the NRGS Economic Stimulus Package

I’ve got 9 seats left in the QGIS workshop. Almost everyone is there for the two day fun so far.

Training has always been one of those hit or miss things with me. Back when I was an ESRI BP it was a needed thing…Well – Let me backup. I approached work  more like a three legged stool: advertise, teach, work. To be honest I’ve never been thrilled with the idea of training as of late. There are a lot of businesses that teach the geospatial dark arts for a living. I’d rather have you as a client and work with you to further the cause – vs – have you listen to me for 8 or more hours.

Since I started teaching QGIS I’ve been keeping a list of notable phrases:

  • How good can it be – it’s free.
  • Get what you pay for.
  • We can’t afford training
  • We can’t afford any more software purchases.
  • We can’t afford more maintenance.

So I can be either proactive…or reactive. Come take the Workshop. If you’re organization is so broke you can’t do $325 or $500 talk to me. If you can – then you get me for 4 hours (give or take – mostly give).  I want you to succeed. I also want you to see that GIS is a big world and you can save money with QGIS. The idea of Spatial Connect is process over more software.Worry about your data. If we burn through the four hours and you need more help – we can talk.

For those of you screaming “I CAN’T BUY MORE SOFTWARE” you may not have to purchase more software. “I’M NOT GETTING RID OF MY ARCGIS LICENSE” – I don’t want you to – it makes excellent cartographic products and there are a ton of extensions out that only support ESRI Desktop…… except you can extend and expand what you are doing with FOSS4G. Come hear about Fulcrum (not taught but it is part of the examples given).

Anyway – why do this? Because I can. Show up. Learn something new and useful. Email me (rjhale@northrivergeographic.com) for more info.

 

 

 

 

Managing Data from a Different Angle.

I wonder how many people read this blog and go “You’re nuts”. Well – yes.

I do a number of things here. One of the things is managing a database for a forestry client. This year has been rough on the data end of life. I had everything stored in a file based geodatabase. I wasn’t particularly happy with that setup as the data was growing more than I could keep up with it (not the fault of the data format at all). I ended up moving back to shapefiles with gave more ability with other software (QGIS). Still wasn’t happy with that as I was now having to do a ton of post processing with model builder to straighten out mistakes.

Databases are one of those things we don’t deal with well in GIS (or at least I never have). I’ve had this ever increasing fascination with PostGIS. I’ve always shied away from databases just because I’m visual. I want to look at data vs text. Except this client is slowly killing me with data.

So I started the trek into postgis. Granted my setup isn’t elegant but it’s working. I’m actually managing data and instead of repeating columns and fields at every corner I’ve now built in foreign keys and triggers Plus I’m now keeping up with dates of edits. It’s not a full audit (yet) but I’m getting there.

postgres_connectA big amount of heartburn has been ArcGIS. Not for any other reason except it’s slowly getting morphed into a cartography tool. Except I’ve stored all my data in postgis/postgres and for the uninitiated – the two don’t blend well. Let me back up – Didn’t. Over the last year or more there has been more of a push from ESRI to support in some shape or fashion Postgresql. You can use it as a backend with SDE to edit. Except my clients can’t afford that route. If you haven’t notived the minute you go past ArcView…or ArcGIS for Desktop Basic it’s pretty much a cluster of ArcGISOnline, ArcServer, ArcEditor and “OMG JUST BUY SOMETHING”. Hah. I’m kidding (not really).

Anyway – I’m running postgresql 9.3 on ubuntu 14.04. I’ve got ArcGIS 10.2.2 running over on a virtual machine (because I’m weird that way). So the ESRI customer site has downloads for library support for Postgresql. Download the Postgresql 9.2.2 libraries. Install them and copy the libraries (32 bit) into the ESRI bin directory. Then – connect. There’s a bit more magic that happens with definition layers….but it works. I can view postgresql/postgis (but not edit) tables.

There was a whole issue a few months back with maps. I opened the MXD’s and reconnected the data source to be Postgresql. I started pumping out more maps.

So what did we learn.

As you guys are going to hear me say more and more. Process trumps software. I’ve now moved a client that sits and wonders every year should they pay the $500 dollars worth of software maintenance into an better environment. PostGIS to store their data. QGIS for Editing which now enables their three employees three copies of desktop software. ArcGIS for map production. Total cost: $500 (if you ignore my time in moving and cleaning up the data which was actually ignored – I did this to prove it would work and to get the first client into what I’m calling the “Spatial Connect” Product). All that is left is some more data cleaning and training on using QGIS to maintain their data.

The big question – Should I toss ArcGIS? My answer is no. No reason as it still plays a role. If they were just starting out now would I tell them to purchase it? That’s a whole different discussion considering their industry.

 

Announcing Spatial Connect

Consulting is always a mixed bag. For me it’s always been a bit inconsistent – but there have been incredibly piles of consistency from clients:

  • Don’t sell me more software
  • I’m tired of paying maintenance
  • We bought a pile of software and it’s not helping

Over the last year or so there have been several interesting things happen:

  • The Intro to QGIS class   has actually gotten wildly successful. When it’s presented in a “You can edit your data and make a map” easy to understand way – People get excited.
  • There was a unexpected detour into the US Virgin Islands which led to a talk called “Expand your GIS Toolbox”. The work down there lead to an idea of process over software because we used about every software under the sun to produce data for the client.
  • I’ve moved to a point where I’m using Open Source for more and more clients with no degradation of data or increase in cost for anyone. In fact – it’s lead to things getting cheaper and people being happier. I’m still using commercial GIS products (like arcgis) and always will – but I’ve gleefully expanded the GIS toolbox.

All of this has (plus a bit more) led to the formation of Spatial Connect. In essence Spatial Connect is process over software. You don’t need to buy more extensions/software (in some cases you do if it’s a specialty extension). You don’t have to eliminate software you have already purchased. If you’ve got a full ESRI Enterprise implementation – this isn’t for you. If you’re working along with a budget that won’t allow a full commercial GIS – this will work. Especially if you’re struggling with Arceditor, a pile of shapefiles, and a budget that won’t allow more software. Even better – you’ve nothing. If you have no clue where to start – why not start here.

Software supported in Spatial Connect:

  • QGIS – Open Source Desktop editing Package. It runs on Mac, Linux, Windows and is a very capable at manipulating and displaying GIS data.
  • PostGIS/Postgresql – Spatial Database for maintaining your data. PLus it gets you out of shapefiles and into something more enterprise worthy.
  • Geoserver – Share your data through standard OGC services to other software.
  • Fulcrum – Mobile data collection. It’s not open source but it is the best mobile data collection software out. We aren’t a reseller for this software…but it is the only one we will support in Spatial Connect.

Before you go “YOU’RE SELLING MORE SOFTWARE”. NRGS is selling a service. Let us help you maintain and grow your GIS using this software. Money normally used for software purchase, software maintenance, etc, can be used for equipment, services, and software you might need but couldn’t afford before.  The best part is we try to take the pain out of the setup. We can help you set it up, maintain it, and grow it. We’ve moved one client into this setup and will be moving a second shortly.  It’s also flexible. Nothing is locking your data away or making it unusable by other software.

There are classes to support the concept of Spatial Connect:

  • Introduction to QGIS
  • QGIS: data and editing – Coming Soon
  • QGIS: Serving, Storing, and Sharing Data – Coming Soon
  • Introduction to Fulcrum Mobile Application – Coming Soon

So what does this cost? I’m currently looking at different models for pricing for services.  Right now I’m leaning into a “size of the client” model. Larger clients will pay more – smaller clients pay less. Ultimately – it’s all about cost. This has to be affordable for you. To that end we will work to make sure it is affordable.

Who are we targeting? Everyone. You are the expert on what you need to do – let us help you push that knowledge into a GIS.

Finally – this isn’t a static product. It’s going to change as the software grows changes. We hope to continue adding software, ideas, and pieces to Spatial Connect to better serve you.