North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

Training

May 2020 Training Rescheduled for June 2020

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Well – this is all weird.

The Upcoming class in May is pushed off to June 24th and 25th. Hey – Is this a good idea? NO IDEA. I figure in about a month I’ll know whether to cancel it or go ahead with it. Of course we will be following the Guidelines of the CDC, Chattanooga State, State of TN and whoever else we can follow.

With that said – I’m starting to reformat the class for “virtual”. The class is built for in an person trainer and with that looking rather grim these days. I’m working on a slightly different setup using zoom/skype/something to work through the material. I could continue talking about that – but I’m pretty much tired of discussing virtual type of things as I suspect a good portion of you are.

Anyway – back to work. If you do wish to show up in June for a class – it’s 2 days in Sunny Chattanooga. We may knock off class early the first day and go canoeing.

Length of workshop: Approximately 16 hours

Topics Covered:

  • Interface
  • Vector Data
  • Raster Data
  • Plugins
  • Processing Tools
  • Field Calculator
  • Exercises Throughout

Registration: https://www.campusce.net/cscc/course/EventDetail.aspx?C=106

Cost: $700

Anyway – Good People Stay Safe and Learn some QGIS.

QGIS Workshop January 2020

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The first class of the revamped QGIS Workshop is coming up January 15th and 16th 2020. This class is going to be a little bit different than the other iterations. I’ve slowly been adding/taking away content to drive toward this being a class focused on an Enterprise Open Source implementation. It’s lead to a lot of back and forth on this end for the future of the training class.

Right now the 16 hour class covers:

  • Interface
  • Symbology
  • Geo-processing and Plugins
  • Editing
  • Layout manager
  • Raster Tools
  • Field Calculator
  • Forms
  • Processing

Day 1 is certified by the QGIS Community and I’m working on Day 2 getting certified – so I should have an answer on that shortly (so this class will support the QGIS Community). Of Course that leaves me wondering where Day 3 goes – and I’m staring down the barrel of PostGIS. Which has been my most talked about non-existent class at this point. Every time I start on it I back off and wonder if I’ve done enough in QGIS to prepare you for that angle.

Anyway – Hope to see you there! Any questions give me a shout!

Training Schedule for the QGIS Workshop for 2020

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QGIS Classes have been scheduled through 2020 – which is a first.

Changes – oh there are several:

  • QGIS Workshop is 2 days now making it 16 hours total. We’re covering everything from the interface to editing to building forms to symbology. It’s going to be a busy two days.
  • Class is still hands on – so show up with a little bit of background in GIS. We hit the ground running in this class.
  • We’re holding the class at Chattanooga State in an actual classroom. Which settles the massive issue of parking and facilities.
  • If you can’t come to Chattanooga – the class can come to you.
  • Bring your laptop with the latest and greatest of QGIS. We aren’t providing equipment (but I’ll help you get your equipment ready).

Dates for Chattanooga:

  • January 15-16 2020
  • May 13-14 2020
  • Sep 16-17 2020
  • Nov 18-19 2020

Cost: $700 for two days – and this comes with a certificate from the QGIS Community. I used to give people the option and it’s now mandatory for the class.

Registration: https://www.campusce.net/cscc/course/EventDetail.aspx?C=106

Location: Chattanooga TN

Where can you stay? Several places within 15 minutes of Chattanooga State. I would suggest downtown Chattanooga just for the fun of being in downtown. Plus if you bring significant others there is plenty to do.

Participants: Locked at 12 per class.

Anyway – I look forward to seeing you come to Chattanooga for a QGIS Class!

 

QGIS Training Revisions

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Like I don’t talk about this enough……BUT – can I just say Training is difficult on a good day. You have to pick a day, pick a location, advertise your butt off, and then HOPE beyond hope someone signs up for it. This year has been odd in that I’ve taught three or four times now – all for conferences and clients. So I’ve been on the road bouncing out different versions of the basic classes and gymnastic skills to get training done. I hate flying – and I’ve been on more planes the first 6 months of this year than I have in a good while.

The last few training classes have been enjoyable. At one time I was using the Business Development Center here in town and that was a good spot overall just a bit of a pain to deal with as far as parking and food went. Plus it was more of a numbers game. To make it worth my while I really had to hold a lot of classes – and that went back to my days as an ESRI Certified Trainer.

So – what just changed?

  • Classes will be held again in Chattanooga once a quarter
  • The QGIS Class will now be 2 days and Cover QGIS I and II. It’s all Chattanooga Centric Data also from vector to raster – you’re going to be in the dataset we are going to use.
  • The classes will be held at the new Holiday Inn in Chattanooga. Holiday Inn? Yes. It’s in Downtown Chattanooga and within walking distance of everything you would want to do in Chattanooga at night or during the day (if you happen to bring anyone with you). There will be a special rate at the Holiday Inn for people wanting to stay there. For those not staying there we’ve got parking available and that’s not a hassle.
  • All Classes will be QGIS Certified – so you will get a certificate and funds go back to the QGIS Project.
  • It’s all prepaid. So if you don’t pay you don’t have a spot. This will keep the price lower because I’ll be less stressed.

I’m rounding out the Day 2 class to be more in line with Day 1. I may scrap the QGIS 3 class just because that’s a bit much. I’m still available to come to you vs you coming to me also.

I look forward to you coming to Chattanooga – it’s fun, centrally located, and makes for a good trip out. Plus Chattanooga has a massive mapping history no one knows about. Anyway – dates are coming soon.

 

Teaching in Dumas TX

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QGIS Training usually goes one of two ways: Mediocre or great. With a class of 10 you have 2 or 3 that are really excited about QGIS and 2 or 3 that are glad they aren’t at work while the rest scratch their heads and go “Why won’t this guy shut up”. In the training in Dumas Texas – Someone yelled “Holy Sh*t” and I was caught off guard……

 

I’ve been getting more training requests from organizations looking at moving off their COTS system or integrating QGIS into their workflow.  So far I’ve been to 2 conferences to talk about QGIS and 2 organizations to teach QGIS. Last week had me in Dumas Texas. If you fly to Dallas TX and get in a car it’s almost exactly one tank of gas away. Dumas is a town of 16,000 but they also house the North Plains Groundwater Conservation District. NPGCD is moving off their commercial system – actually have moved and have dived fully into Open Source Software. RESPEC had built a backend system for them and most of the work happens there – but work happens in QGIS. RESPEC called and asked if I could do some training. My answer was yes and off I went.

NPGCD is in the groundwater protection business. They work with the local population from farming to industry to protect the water supply. The water supply being the Ogallala Aquifer. Fun part for me – it’s been a bit since I’ve been this close to my old job of “environmental GIS” work and since I’m a geologist by training I find the whole thing of aquifers fascinating.

tractor
I went to the Dumas Museum while I was there. If you like Tractors – have I got the place for you.

One of the fun things with the Intro Class is the exercises – well at least I think it’s the exercises. It took a while but I have them to a point to where I can rip them out and replace them in about half a day. The Problems cover the basics of what I think people struggle with in QGIS …. well GIS in general. So in walking to meet the group the day before class I realized I had all the exercises wrong. What I thought they needed wasn’t what they needed. So – I replaced them the night before class. Granted they were still not perfect but I caught the spirit of the problem. We ran through slides for 4 hours and then I went and sat with each person individually and answering questions.

In 27 years of doing this – people are always stuck with editing and attributes. You can run through toolboxes and python and talk about colors – but it always falls down at editing and attributes .

  • How do we find stuff?
  • How do we edit the stuff we find?
  • How do I save stuff?
  • (plus the How do I make a PDF to print because we need a paper map).

There aren’t many times I get to sit with a client during training and learn what works and what doesn’t. Day 2 we just threw the class out and played “Stump the instructor”. When we touched on editing that’s when the “Holy Sh*t” moment happened. We covered how to edit and merge data and move vertices and not create more problems than you started off with. No one has ever been happy enough in class to curse. It was great.

sunrise
Leaving Dumas while listening to Waylon Jennings

I’ve had some horrid classes. I’ve had some mediocre classes. I think this one was probably the best classes I’ve had the pleasure of conducting….way out in the middle of North Texas. Heading out Saturday morning I stopped on the side of the road and caught the sunrise while Waylon Jennings blared from the radio.

 

 

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