North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

Training

Introduction to QGIS Class in Chattanooga – 1st Quarter 2019

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…or somewhere close.  The QGIS class may be just outside of Downtown or in some trendy part where we can eat lunch. At some point……yeah I know nothing like specifics.

Due to popular demand – I’m actually going to attempt a QGIS Class locally. There are some people I’ve emailed BUT in the hope of more people I’m including a form for you to put some information so we can figure out when it’s a good time to hold the class. Everyone has different schedules and maybe this doesn’t happen, or it does happen, or it happens twice. Yeah – I know. This should happen early in 2019 and I’ll give everyone enough time to plan – but I need to know interest before I start putting this together.

Anyway – this will be the 1 day QGIS Workshop and this will be a “certified” class as we will throw money back towards the QGIS community. Price will be $325 for 1 day. Food not included. Fun included. Bring some questions, a laptop, and other things and we’ll learn something. I’m hoping for between 7 to 10 people.

Intro to QGIS Training – September 25th 2018 – Montgomery Alabama

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The Intro to QGIS class is going to Alabama! Actually – Montgomery Alabama September 25th 2018.

It was picked to start off the Alabama Damage Summit. Also – with much luck this will be certified! Actually – there is no luck about it. It’s a certified class. Which means approximately 25 dollars per student goes back to the QGIS Organization.

Anyway – if you’re coming to the conference sign up! If you’re not ding the conference organizers and maybe you can attend. The more the merrier at this event.

What will we cover?

    1. QGIS Community
    2. Navigating the Interface
    3. Data and Symbology
    4. Geoprocessing and Plugins
    5. Editing
    6. Layout Manager
    7. Databases

The Database section might change a bit depending on time constraints. It should be a blast – so come down/up/over/back and learn some new software.

The QGIS Class at TNGIC

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So for those of you just tuning in (https://wp.me/p244MI-2nT), I did a QGIS 4 hour intro class at TNGIC. TNGIC is the State GIS group. They’ve been around a good while. I don’t really participate that much anymore. Why? Eh – There’s  a few things I like doing and going to conferences doesn’t rate high anymore. I’m excited about FOSS4GNA because I get to see a lot of friends. Well – and the presentations. Mostly the people.

What happened – It was all pretty comical. Conferences are really just screw off time for a lot of people. This conference was at Montgomery Bell State Park. So you drive to Nashville, Head west for about 20 or so miles (maybe more) you end up in a pretty nice state park that has limited everything. 7 people signed up. By the time I gave everyone 15 minutes to get settled I had about 20 people in there. That set off a mad scramble to grab QGIS and follow along. We covered QGIS 3 in all it’s gory details – well as much gory detail as I could muster in 3.5 hours. There were questions. I had most of the answers. Three things stuck out at this event. Well – four.

  1. I broke my first rule of training in that “I’m not doing it for free”. We bartered and they paid for a room. So I had the chance to ride my bike and goof off a bit as I didn’t have great internet access. I worked a little that night. Did some pretty cool things I’ll talk about coming up. Plus hand out business cards. So overall – I’m OK with this.
  2. One guy walked up and went “you’re the website guy – with the tutorials?” and I said “probably”. Turns out he had been using them to get some much needed work down using QGIS. I had helped someone without even knowing. Which – made me take a hard look at the tutorial pages and realized I need to do something to make them easier to manage. They are behind – still useful but behind.
  3. A park ranger snuck into the class. We started talking and turns out he needed GIS help – as in he had to share with the entire state about 10 ArcGIS licenses. So we started looking at what he needed done vs what he was doing. 100% can be done with QGIS. Most of their data is stored locally. So that was a win. Hopefully he emails with more questions. I’m all for people becoming self sufficient.

I make a  decent living off the FOSS4G and my 26 years of being in the Geospatial Industry. These days I mostly try to focus on the data for work and really only get passionate about software during classes. I generally pitch QGIS as “another Tool in the Tool Box”. So part 4:

  • If you bought arcview and hate it – there’s no reason to stick with it. QGIS is better than an Arcview license. I ran into a few that just went “Well we already bought ESRI <fill in the blank> and we’re stuck”. Well – no you aren’t. Don’t get rid of it – just add to the tool set. It isn’t all or nothing these days.
  • Twenty six years ago we struggled to get and maintain data. Flash forward to 2018 and there are still people struggling to get and maintain data.
  • People in the class looked at QGIS similar to a software company. Do they make a “collector type of app”? Well no – this isn’t a company it’s a group of people. There are some mobile apps like this, that, and the other thing but it’s not a software company. QGIS grows as the community grows. Which caused me to play with QFIELD that night. It’s a mobile data collection app from the QGIS side of life.

So I’m adjusting the class. The first time I taught this class people had questions and problems. There are still questions and problems but it’s morphed into a more advanced line of thought. Can I get the data out into the field? My AutoCAD package can pull in spatialite…can I work in Spatialite? Those weren’t questions from 5 years ago. So I need to update and adjust. It’s a good thing – it’s been over a year or two since I’ve taught this large of a group and fielded questions.

Next outing is in St Loius at FOSS4GNA.

NRGS and QGIS Certification

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Certification? Yeah. Just calm down and let me explain.

I’m a fan and not a fan of certification. At some point I was a GISP. At some point I was ESRI Desktop Certified. There’s been talk of how to have QGIS Certification for a while. I’ve not been part of the conversation. The other day I found out it was a thing now. Usually I would go “Pfffbbbbt” and ignore it….BUT….here’s what hooked me.

In short (read up here)  – all the talk centered around QGIS certification boiled down to two camps: You had your GISP Approach where your portfolio speaks for it’s self. You have a test (IT Certifications) that certify you on an exam. QGIS isn’t an org that can really do either – so they went with option 3 – the community decides who can and can’t be certified. I submitted my class for review and it passed.

So what does that mean? I have an 8 hour class that you take. At the end I submit your name and 20 Euros back to QGIS and you get an ID that can be checked to see if you took the class. Will you win jobs and make your fortune based off this certification? No. You’re supporting the community by taking it though. You can still buy a book and read all your want and do awesome things with QGIS. You can download it for your platform of choice and use it with no certification. It’s made me think about giving the students a test at the end of the class.  Haven’t decided on that one. So we’ll see what happens. I want to “do this right” in my head for the community. I did decide that the classes I teach at Conferences that are compressed down to 4 hours aren’t going to qualify. You’ll have to sit with me with 8 hours.

To be mentioned in this group –  that’s pretty cool at least for me.

This gives me a way to donate back and not feel like I’m just leeching off the good work of other people. I still have other plans for financial support – but I’m getting to that one.

We will see what happens. I’ve got to start scheduling some classes. Want a class? Looking at breaking out of your commercial loop of software changes and portals and what not? Give QGIS a try.

 

 

QGIS Training and other fun

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OK it’s been a while since I’ve written anything exciting. It’s also bee a while since I’ve talked about training. It’s also about that time for the year end summary…..soooooo – Lets talk about training because it’s a slow day.

I taught one class (if I’m not mistaken) last year. I taught it for a conference. I had two thoughts walking out of that class. The first was I didn’t do that hot on the class (I didn’t think I had put together a decent offering). The second was – I sort of enjoy teaching the things I know. After a few spectacularly bad classes I took a break from instructing and tried to decide if I wanted to continue. I mostly have buried myself in work for the last year. I spent a few months trying to decide if I had enough info for a book of sorts – and really I can’t do any better than the books that are out and about already.

I’ve also installed QGIS 2.99 and have been working with that when and where I can. It’s exciting. I’ve also been working with a few people to reboot qgis.us . The original Intro to QGIS class has been around for almost 5 years. I’m not necessarily bored with teaching it but it does need a refresh.

I decided to do 3 things yesterday:

  • Start rewriting the Introduction to QGIS for 3. Which means I’m going to change up the formatting just a bit and put more exercises in and remove a few other things in the class. Which during the rewrite I leave it open finally for Part 2 – which never quite worked right every time I tried it. I actually wrote a “part 2” and taught it a few years ago and didn’t enjoy it that much. I was going to do a Postgis class this year and decided I didn’t know enough to make that happen. I think I might be there now.
  • Change the pricing model. So the biggest killer in teaching is finding a place to teach. I set up a class and declare “HEY I’M DOING A CLASS” and prepay for a facility and people bail and I’m lucky if I break even. So – I’m looking at organizations who want to do a training class in QGIS. Conference? Bar Mitzvahs? Weddings? I’ll work with you on a price and we will do it. It will change just a bit based on where you are – but – I think it gives me some flexibility. Of course it moves to prepay or pay a significant portion down for me to do the class.
  • The final part is donating back to QGIS with the class. I’ve debated every way under the sun to hold a class and give a portion back to QGIS. I wouldn’t be doing this if not for all the hard work of a lot of people.  So I think there is going to be a fee that gets donated back to the organization. I’m unsure if I do a percentage or money made or what – I expect this will be a bit experimental.  I tried this one other time and failed miserably. Usually a class ends up with a few people in it and I’m literally breaking even or losing just a bit to do it. It takes everything I make and then I have nothing left. Which ends up with me being grouchy. I’m tired of being grouchy.

Anyway – I know if you look back on other posts you might go “Eh – no different than what he said last year” and that probably wouldn’t be far off the mark….BUT – it’s a new year and this year proved training wasn’t a necessity in my life. Other years it’s been “OMG I have to” and I don’t. I want to give this a good shot though. It’s fun and disruptive.

We will see if I get to the end of 2018 with more than 1 class under my belt. I’m hoping for 4 classes at least and a running account of what I was able to donate back to QGIS.

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