North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

Training

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.

Year in Review: Training 2016

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I threw out the first two editions because I was dwelling on the Gov’t Agency in North Georgia that refused to pay for training but took the class. Eh – it’s almost a new year and that is old news. I almost bared all with that one – posted correspondence and everything. Heh. I considered that “Not cool”.

Training was a bit hit or miss this year. Sometimes the class was full – sometimes not. Overall it wasn’t bad as I didn’t put a ton of effort into it. To be honest I was burned out after the spring class where I didn’t get paid and half the class ruined the class for the other half. I just really sorta sat there going “I hate training” and explored the grumpiness that comes with it.

The biggest class was at FOSS4GNA in Raleigh this year. I think there were well over 60 participants and it ranged from Government employees to Teachers to “hey whats this QGIS thing I keep hearing about” people. I crammed 8 hours of information into 4 hours (probably too much) and it went well. It’s just tiring. I equate training to a 4 or 8 hour stand up comedy special where it just doesn’t stop. It is interesting at the number of people looking at QGIS who are ArcGIS users. I can’t say that there is a “war for desktop users”. I can say that the Open Source side is providing a compelling argument on switching if you can. If you’re an ESRI user I believe that ArcGIS Pro will lock you in from here on out and breaking free will get harder with each passing year (not necessarily a bad thing overall – just boring IMO). I’m blown away by the passion on the QGIS end. ArcGIS is sorta slipping into irrelevancy currently for me (jut me). I hate it – as a consultant I need to remain up to speed on both – but……….

I did decide to change things a wee bit and  move the class into Sphinx That’s going to let me get a bit more long winded and provide a search tool for the Class. Plus updates will be quicker. So I’m learning Sphinx. Yippee for new Job skills.

I did bump the price up to $375 from $325. I’m also attempting regularly scheduled classes like once a quarter. I actually had more success from agencies looking to not purchase ESRI products. The quote was “We can bring you in cheaper than buying an Arcview license”. So I did that quite a few times which was unscheduled and random. I didn’t even attempt online training. I thought about it and decided no again.

After diving head over heels into PostGIS this year I’m going to try to add a second day centered on databases. I started it and then wavered as I want it to tie into the QGIS class – but not stretch out. If I do it the way I’m currently doing it – it’s bordering on 3 full days. It will be good – but I don’t know who wants to listen to me for 3 days. Which leads me to wanting to do a few other things in which I turn this into a week long boot camp and no one is going to want to listen to me for a week (I guess). I can dream though. If I gave myself a dollar for every time I mentioned the PostGIS class I’d have more money than I’d probably make on the class.

I wrestle with the original spirit of the business in regards to training. Way back when I was an ESRI Business Partner training was 1/3 of my business. Training is fun mostly – but I do mostly services oriented work and that has picked way up. Training is almost an outreach of sorts and I hope I break even doing it. I like work and I like problems and I like providing answers. Training is fun for meeting people…….but I don’t know how much of the core of my business I want to remain in training. Which really all comes down to $$$. Do I make enough to justify the time? Sorta. I did have a few instances where conferences contacted me wanting to do the QGIS class and those fell through. Which – no harm in that happening.

I did see a lot more people dive into providing QGIS training. Which is fine. I think a few are attempting to replicate what I’m doing and good for them. This class now has 4 years of teaching behind it – it’s pretty solid at this point. I use the software everyday – so it’s hard to replicate that. Hey – the more the merrier. It’s good for the QGIS Community as a whole.

Hmmmmmm – what to review next…..Maybe Personal…….

Class Schedule for QGIS and Postgis

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So the teaching schedule is starting to fill out. By this week I should have classes scheduled out by 6 months for the Intro to QGIS and Intro to Postgis classes.

As of right now I have these classes scheduled in Chattanooga (also – I can come to where you are if it’s feasible):

Date Class Spaces for Participants
Nov 17 2016 Intro to QGIS 10 Available Slots
– Intro to PostGIS Post-poned
Feb 8th 2017 Intro to QGIS 10 Available Slots
Feb 9th 2017 Intro to PostGIS 10 Available Slots

One thing I have had to do that I wasn’t crazy about is postpone the Intro to PostGIS class.

The brief history of me and class writing is this: was an ESRI Instructor, taught a lot of classes, wrote a model builder class, wasn’t an ESRI Certified instructor, wrote a QGIS Class which has morphed into a decent offering.  With every QGIS release I’m updating the class. It doesn’t take long to do as the class sticks to the core of QGIS. Most everyone knows something of GIS walking in the door so I’m hoping by the end I’m having a few converts.

The Intro to PostGIS class needs to join up with the next to last section of the QGIS Workshop. I’ve got a rough draft done but I’ve been struggling a bit on how to make the jump. In my head I’m losing potential students in a few spots. If I’m losing ME – I’m going to lose the student. So It can wait – I’m not rolling this out before I’m happy with it. I charge for this but it’s more about evangelism than money – Money is nice – but I don’t make a living out of teaching classes. I make a living out of happy clients. My ultimate goal is about 4 days worth of classes covering GDAL, GRASS, QGIS, PostGIS, and Fulcrum (what – that’s not open source – and I know that but I’ve got a plan for 2017).

Anyway – keep an eye on the training page as more dates appear. By December I should have the all of 2017 filled out PLUS more free training offerings starting to appear on the website.

Intro to QGIS and PostGIS – November 16-17 2016

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Date: November 16-17 2016
Location: Chattanooga (Address TBA)
Price: $375 per day

NRGS is holding a Introduction to QGIS and an Introduction to PostGIS on November 16-17 2016.

This is a 2 class endeavor. I’m going to strongly suggest you be familiar with GIS in general for the Intro to QGIS class (so strongly I may not let you in if you have no idea how GIS works). I’m also going to require the Intro to QGIS class before the Intro to PostGIS class.

You can read all you want on the Intro to QGIS here.  That one is pretty self explanatory. I’ve done this one a lot and the revamped class flows pretty well. In general it starts off with a slow build and by the end you’re asking more questions than I can answer during the class. It seems the light bulbs start going off about the time I go “Plugins” for some reason. Maybe I’ve covered enough by that point people see this as a decent alternative.

The Intro to PostGIS class is going to be a bit different.

I’ve had this idea for a while that I wanted to actually do a “theme” to training. Which is more or less “it’s a big world out there and there are plenty of tools”. This has also been at odds over the “I don’t want to turn training into a 52 week a year job” thought. I like my clients and I like training – so in 2017 training is going to be a structured event so that I’m happy and you’re happy. Right now there are two more classes slated for this endeavor. WILL I DO THIS ONLINE? Probably no. I’ve tried online and I wasn’t happy with the way it went. I’m better in person. You’re happier if you talk to people you are sitting near.

In 8 hours I can’t turn you into a PostGIS guru. I can take some of the fear out of it and make it at least productive enough you will know what to search for and how to find answers and be a part of the community. Combine PostGIS with QGIS (my two favorite things in the world) and you’ve got a powerful tool set for free.

Right now (and this changes every day) we are covering (in no order):

  • PostGresQL and how that fits into this
  • SQL – what the heck is that?
  • Connecting QGIS to PostGISL: DB Manager (we will cover about 3 ways to connect but DB Manager is going to be the theme)
  • Spatial SQL (it will make your head hurt especially if you are an ArcGIS user)
  • Workflows and Data.

It’s a bit fluid at the moment BUT – it’s shaping up. I’m trying to keep this at 8 hours. You won’t be a guru at the end but you’re going to understand this better than I did starting out. How did I start out? Sitting on St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands getting SQL files and wondering how all of this fit together. Why did I have tables that told me what the geometry was and how was all this happening. How did I load data. What do I do with it once it’s loaded. How do I dump data back out to something the other stuff can use. Projections go Where?

PLUS BOOK Recommendations at the end to help answer more questions. I’ve been buying books. Again. Stuff I need and stuff that is useful. My St Thomas experience was 3 years ago and I haven’t stopped learning. You can’t stop. Hopefully you won’t.

Anyway – more news coming shortly. Mark it on your calendars.

 

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