North River Geographic Systems Inc

Spatial Problem Solving

year in review

The Year in Review – 2019 edition

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2019 was weird. If you want to stop there that will sum it up. This will be a long post.

2019 started as an anniversary for me. It was 10 years I have been full time in this business – by that I mean “I have fed myself and existed for one decade doing this”. Small dates took on more meaning. Small ripples turned into waves and small noises amplified. If you look back at 2009 I had recently left my job at the feds and started consulting, had recently become an ESRI business partner, and was recently single. 2019 – I’m still single, 10 years as a company, and up to my neck in Open Source. Looking back over the 10 years was a journey. Interns had come and gone. One employee came and went. I moved. Moved back. Lost Friends. Gained some new friends. People died. People were born. Screwed up some jobs. Nailed other ones. It has been a long year of looking back. On Dec 31st I went to bed early and woke up Jan 1 somewhat relieved I wasn’t dealing with this even number anymore. I actually got up and worked Jan 1st 2020.

Work

 I did two things I hadn’t done before this year: Made every new client sign a contract and started stepping away from the small jobs. I know – “You’re insane you always do contracts”. Well my normal base of clients didn’t either want them or refused to sign them. I have signed a lot of contracts. I’ve occasionally did them. Just not regularly. It’s no longer negotiable. In a lot of cases small jobs take as much effort in some cases as large ones. Couple that with “No Contract” and it was turning into a gamble I was starting to lose over 2019. I looked for larger jobs. NRGS refused some smaller clients. I networked/advertised more than I had done in the past.

 

NRGS made the IT Vendor List in North Carolina. With that I became (as far as I can tell) the only vendor centered on Free and Open Source Software for Geo. That took some time and some work to put together. The effort will hopefully be worth it this year as I start advertising that contract.

 

I spent half the year solidifying the TN 911 database I created for Henry County. Parts of it have been running for over a year now with no breakages and no crashes. That became a product I could market and sell. Out of that I actually got the NENA 911 standard running in QGIS/PostGIS but hadn’t said anything about that (well I just did). I started offering support for what people had called the “OpenGeo Suite” and the “Boundless Suite”. I’m just not calling it by anything that can get me sued. No I don’t build installers for them (already been asked). I hadn’t come up with a name yet…maybe “The software formerly known as the Boundless Suite” and then make some symbol for it….like Prince. It’s not anything magical – you too can install PostGIS/Geoserver with extensions. I’ll do it for you if you hate doing it though.

 

Oh – and I did one more thing. Offer a services based support contract. If you had QGIS/PostGIS/Geoserver/ETC running and wanted support here I am. I will continue advertising that this year. I’m making this more than “maintenance” as I’m actually going to work on your project/system/provide some sort of value add to your organization. Two organizations  signed up for it – I was a bit dumbfounded by that as I really didn’t expect anyone to sign up. I’ve done this before and had no takers – but this time people agreed and contracts went out.

 

My biggest questions of the year:
  • Can we switch to QGIS?
  • Can you help us fix our data?
  • Do you support open source software and how much do you charge?

Training

Training took me to Denver Colorado and Dumas Texas as well as Downtown Chattanooga.

Todd Barr brought me out to work with his employer on moving off Arc to QGIS. So I spent three days teaching a class out in the “flat part” of Colorado. Learned something about drones and watched as an organization worked with Amazon Services. Out of that the one day QGIS class was revamped to two days and there is a third day sketched out. Is there a need for 3 days of QGIS training? I have no clue. Maybe specialized training for companies is where that lies.

You occasionally get to meet a twitter person in some far away place called COLORADO – I present @geofeminina.

I went to Texas. I went there under Respec and taught a three day class for their client that was making a move from Arc to QGIS. Yes there is a theme for the Training.

 

The city of Chattanooga brought me in to talk to their Environmental people on using QGIS. So I did a one day class on “You too can do things with data”. It was a good experience. Someone yelled “Holy Sh*t” in the middle of class when they accomplished some analysis task they had been struggling with. While I do condone as much profanity as is appropriate – that caught me off guard and made me laugh in the middle of class more than I should have.

 

Conferences

February took me to the North Carolina GIS Conference. Yes I jumped in car and drove the long way to the middle of North Carolina. It’s a Good conference. It’s a great blend of open source and proprietary. Yes – there is a lot of “We made a story map” but you also get a GRASS Developer and some other open source aficionados roaming the hallways.

Nantahala Outdoor Center on the way to the NC GIS Conference

I made the FOSS4G-NA Conference out in San Diego. That was fun. It would have been more fun if I hadn’t caught a bug halfway through the conference. Granted it’s not a huge  like some conferences – but it’s a good time had by all. It’s a good crowd and well worth your time.


I made the TNGIC Conference and taught one class on QGIS. I did a couple of talks. Annoyed a lot of people. I struggle every year on the idea of getting a booth or just being a “mobile booth”. So if you ever see me at TNGIC sitting in the vendors area drinking a coke and eating whatever snack is out – “Welcome to my Mobile Booth”.

The biggest smallest conference happened in Chattanooga this year – The QGIS Chattanooga Conference. We had 50 people ranging from Canada, California, New York, Georgia, Boston, and Florida. We blew out the Tap House with half the conference coming out for a social. So what am I going to do in 2020? News is coming shortly.

Stu

If you go back to the first paragraph I had mentioned the work anniversary. In mid 2009 I was recently single and my neighbor brought me a cat. I said “I don’t want a stupid cat” and out of spite I named the cat Stupid. I shortened it to Stu.

For almost 10 years to the day Stu became my shadow. We talked. We hung out. We did some bird watching and some ball fetching. In a quiet house you’re going to do one of three things: talk to no one, talk to yourself, or talk to your pets. Stu grew on me. It was a rough relationship though. He desperately wanted to be the alpha male and that is my job as the bringer of food and the provider of cat litter. We would battle over who was running the show. He hated the cold so this time of year found him in my bed or hiding in a giant comforter I left crumpled on the floor for him.

In early 2018 Stu got sick. One trip to the vet left me with two possibilities. One treatable. One not. We tried the easiest treatment and one year later the problems resurfaced. I pretty much knew what the problem was….. I went to Texas for training and got a call from family: “He relapsed hard. He has a month at best”. I came home and he lasted a few days. I went to the vet and had him put to sleep. He was ready. I wasn’t ready.  I owe Stu a blog post. I have yet to be able to make one I’m happy with. It’s a tough thing losing a pet. It’s harder when you’ve attached a lot of emotional baggage to the pet. I had no clue that had happened. There is no doubt some psychological study that has this all laid out and fully explains my end of things and why. It did make me deal with a lot of baggage I had been ignoring since day 1 in 2009. So if there is a silver lining to this story I walk into 2020 with a clearer head.

Social Media

Linkedin is crawling with Fake Accounts. I started deleting people and refusing to “connect” if the connection was out of Russia, The Middle East, India, or an account with a glamour photo with no background image. I don’t pay for the service. It’s never helped me get work as far as I can tell. So I use it but sparingly.

My personal facebook account became harder to find. I clamped down on the service – thanks to politics I’ve unfollowed probably 1/4 of the people up there. Removed all the apps from my phone. I actually became a heavier user of whatsapp but I’m attempting to leave that one this year. If you follow my facebook business page you’ll notice posts are falling off as I’ve decided it’s not worth the effort I was putting into it. I will keep posting info – but maybe once a week or twice.

I started using twitter more than I had – with that increase in usage also brought the removal of a lot of accounts that were posting political info or just things not related to Geo. I started deleting my tweets slowly. I signed up for a service and I’m working in keeping nothing longer than 1 year. Which I think I have to manually delete anything older than 2011. That’s slowly happening.

Personal

Did a lot of Hiking.

I did a lot of Canoeing.

I need to do more bike riding and I have no good picture of that. I expect to get a new bike this year.

 

Giant Shout Out

A job resurfaced this year I’d been working off and on to land for 6 years. I didn’t get it.  My random shout out goes to – Michael Terner. I did a lot (and have done a lot) of talking to him about business and about life in general. He offered advice as he always does and it’s good advice. I have said and will continue to say not having a business background has hurt me – so I tend to rely on people for advice and direction. Sometimes it’s good. Sometimes it’s bad. His advice has always been solid and great. The best part is the advice is just the facts. I get to make my own mind up and “follow my bliss”.  I did. It was a good thing.

 

Anyway – the year that was. Work was done. Sweat was produced. Overall it was good. I look forward to 2020 as things get serious around here and I start the uphill hike of growing by the end of 2020.

 

 

 

2018 Year in Review

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I’m going to do this a bit different than in previous years – I would do these huge multi-posts covering all sorts of things from work to life to social media etc. As I’ve not been particularly motivated to write much over the last couple of months I’m going to boil this down into one longer post.

Social Media.

In general, this year Social Media was one giant dumpster fire. I started removing people off Twitter, Linkedin, and Facebook. I actually unfollowed probably half of my facebook crowd just because.  I’m still fairly active on twitter – but the posts aren’t that serious or relate to work. I put less out there on social media – which if you follow me you’re probably going “no you’re quite active”. While yes – it’s silly stuff or music. I decided my personal life and social media need some separation. I probably tossed 300 people on twitter. Maybe 100 off Linkedin. I need to toss more. Everyday I see less need to be on Facebook except I have people from far and wide on there and enjoy the stories. The increasing security blunders and data mining though makes it harder every month to stay.

After some internal arguing over the Newsletter – I restarted it and am doing one about every 2 months. It’s tough – I may stop doing it in 2019. I really feel like it’s outlived it’s purpose for me as people are finding me through the QGIS community or the open source community. It does serve as a “I’m not dead yet” reminder to people though. 

Geohipster

I didn’t get a ton of interviews done this year – but the ones I did were a blast. I think I ended up with 3 – and they were a good 3 (or 4). Howard Butler, Tina Cormier, and Maggie Cawley all made the pages.  I did a quick search and pulled those out – if I missed one Sorry! I’ve got a few more lined up – and I’ll get to you just bear with me.

Life

So 3 or so years ago I figured out I was working too much. Which – as a one person shop it’s easy to do. So I started Canoeing again. Biking. This year I probably biked and hiked more than I’ve done in a long time. I need to do more of it because I like junk food. My habits are slowly changing and I’m shedding some weight.

I did get some spectacular sunsets in my canoe though

On the personal personal front – A good friend died back in 2017 and this year we made large steps into wrapping up his personal affairs. No will and no plan will cost you about a year and a half of blood, sweat, and tears for those that are left. It’s tough. Many a day I would work here and leave to go to his place and work…then leave and come back and work more on my stuff. It’s hard – I do wished he was back – but if he was I’d probably kill him.

How much Crap do you need?

Double Bonus this year – the jeep made it’s appearance back on the roads of Chattanooga. Too much neglect had left it in disrepair – and the cure for that is money. So tires, thermostat, hoses, 2 U joints, a top, some fuses, some paint….and it’s back and sucking gas like it’s the year 1999. I should get rid of it but it makes me happy.

and in this picture I hadn’t yet to realize a u-joint was about to break. Luckily it didn’t.

Conferences

I made way too many conferences this year: TNGIC, FOSS4GNA (in STL), 2 FOSS4G SE Meetings, and the Alabama 811 Conference. With all of those I did some sort of training on QGIS or I spoke about Open Source Software. 

Slightly different view of the Arch in STL

I had the first ever flat on the way to the 811 conference which made me late rolling into Montgomery Alabama. I left with plenty of time – IF NOTHING HAPPENED – and something did. I did break a land speed record making up lost time – but I was still late. Planning is not for dullards.  I have to allow myself some wiggle room where people are relying on me to be “there”.  In general I don’t – and I have to break that bad habit.

Wooo – the teacher is late for class. 

Finally – WORK

Work was up. I moved two clients into a mixed environment this year of ArcGIS/QGIS/PostGIS/Fulcrum. In doing so I learned a lot. What did I ultimately learn though from these two exercises:

  • Both were were concerned with data and making sure that data remained accessible, usable by everyone, and was maintainable. 110% doable with all the software I’m using.
  • In both cases the movement from ArcGIS to QGIS/PostGIS was mostly painless. What was painful was process. Customers don’t want to change their process. You have to change the way you work. So almost every wall I hit fell back to process. That made me tired. When I point and go “You can’t do it this way anymore” I’d no more get out the door before the phone rang “Hey we tried it the old way and it doens’t work this ain’t good”. Which – as a reminder ArcMap has been out now 20 years(?) – so I understand the change isn’t easy and it’s something I’ve got to work on more and more.

I desperately need to spend more time with postgresql/postgis. One of my clients called with a problem: the database was slow. Things were not working and I spent an inordinate amount of time trouble shooting database size, table size, triggers, the VM it was running on, and anything else I could figure out. I don’t want to be a half-ass database admin – BUT – I need to be knowledgeable if something doesn’t work right. So – I’ll be a better than a half-ass database admin.

I talked to more people this year. There is a general “want” to know about Open Source Software – be it out of general “I want to know” or “I’m tired of doing what I’m doing”.  I’m also forgetting ArcGIS Skills and that bugs me a bit. I haven’t cracked open ArcGISPro and really have no desire to do it. On the one hand I need to as a consultant. On the other hand  I’m busy enough with plenty to learn and enjoy on this side of things.

Conclusion

Overall I felt fulfilled with work this year – and that’s a rarity. I’m not burying jars of money in the yard but things are working better, I’m busy, and I’m funding my existence. I want to do more – and in doing so I assume I’ll have to get pickier in what I pick up as far as work. No was once again my favorite word as I did turn some clients away as it was work I couldn’t do or didn’t want to do. It’s hard saying no when you’re pushing possible income away I always have to stop and weigh “Is this the right thing to do for me”. In general – I think it is if I remember to stop and ask that question. Which – A happier me is better for everyone these days.

It was a good year. That’s weird to say. I’ve had enough bad years to make any normal person insane. I always second guess myself – but this year there was less insanity and less second guessing. It’s a good thing. More work. More technical. More enjoyment.

So – for those of you who helped – thank you. If you lent an ear – thank you. If you hired me to do something – I thank you most of all. If you stopped to hassle me at a conference thanks for the conversation. I don’t do what I’m doing without a little bit of a push from all of you.

So what do I do in 2019? Fight until I can’t. There’s a ton of bad data out there that needs fixed and explored. Bills gotta get paid. I need to learn more.



Year in review: Conferences and Orgs

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I haven’t done a year in review in a while. To be honest I’m not entirely sure why I’m doing one now except I feel like writing about a great many things so I might as well.

2015 was the year of pulling back and re-organizing on several fronts. 2014 had personal and professional challenges beyond anything I had dealt with in a long time. 2015 wasn’t any better in some ways with a lot of personal issues cropping up. When New Years Day hit my first order of business was finding a heating pad for the small cat. Yes her ancient heating pad that never turned off did just that. In all of that driving around with one goal in mind I decided that  (and of all things to think about) I was too scattered. So I decided to get less scattered.

I dropped everything that looked like a professional affiliation. I kept one active – Georgia URISA – because that has pretty much been my dysfunctional family in Atlanta. Yes – putting the fun in dysfunctional. I’ll always be a fan. Period. So that may be the one organizational relationship I keep. ASPRS dropped rather gloriously. URISA ran out sometime in 2014. In 2013 I had dropped OSM. Depending on timelines my GISP may drop before 2015 starts. What? You’re dropping it? Yeah that’s a whole other blog article….and it’s not going to be a typical bashing article. Technically I only dropped two orgs in 2015 – but I stopped worrying about renewing the memberships of the others. That was something that always ate at me – I just stopped even thinking about it.

So what am I a member of currently? Well if you held a water balloon on me and say “PICK ONE” I guess it would be OSGEO for now. I’ve been trying to kickstart a Southeast Chapter. Will I continue – yes. What will it look like? Hell if I know. Will I serve on the board if one actually forms – probably not.

If I had to really pick something that isn’t an org that I’m a part of – geohipster. That has been quite rewarding although I fell silent this summer. It’s a good group of people and it’s challenging, it’s fun, and there’s no central organization except for this Bike Riding/Sailing man named Atanas Entchev….. Who will no doubt refuse to be the center point…..but he sorta is.

I’m currently on one conference committee – that is the FOSS4GNA 2016 conference committee. I don’t really count committees as organizations although it sorta kinda is one. So I guess I belong to that until they throw me off for either A. Violently offending someone B. Being a Disruption.  C. Both

Conferences? Three. That was two more than I planned on but all three were well worth the effort. North Carolina GIS put on a conference in a snow storm. I went. I drove close to 900 miles in 24 hours to make it. It was one of the best statewide conferences I’ve been to….and I’ve been to a lot of state conferences. I will never drive that far in a jeep again in one day. Two and a half tanks of gas. 4wd for 35% of the trip.

Selection_279

I went to FOSS4GNA in Burlingame CA. These are my people. It’s fun. There’s an energy to it. It’s different. I was shocked at how many people were there from State/Local Government this year. Open Source GIS is a thing and it’s not the “I don’t want to pay money for software because I’m cheap” thing. People recognize the professional aspect of it. These people are fired up about it. I was lucky enough to be provided a couch from Michael Terner from AppGeo. We even had a party when his mom left. It was good times all the way around. So much so that conference it headed to Raleigh in 2016. I also learned what Hoark is/was. Not that I hoarked.

I did one last conference this year and it was in NE Tennessee. TNGIC puts on three regional conferences and this year it fell again in the NetGIS Domain. So I drove up to Kingsport to learn about drones, preach the word on QGIS, and meet a lot of good people. I will always say that NE Corner of the State has some good things happening with GIS and the Community. You should go to anything they do in that corner.

The one oddball thing that was Part Conference/Part Workshop I did  with Georgia URISA on the coast. We went to Jekyll Island and I did a four hour QGIS Class. How do you do a four hour QGIS Class? Quickly. 29 people learning about some non traditional software and the fun part on that one is I turned it into I guess the closest thing I’ve had to a vacation – I spent one day on the beach. Sitting. Being Quiet. We had several people deviate from the class. One guy in particualr started doing “work” in the back. He started working through all his projects in QGIS and I lost him as a student – but QGIS gained a new fan quickly.

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I was busier than I had planned on being – but in general I felt like the word/work/outreach of North River Geographic Systems solidified a bit. For may of you in small business going “WELL I DO A, B, AND C AND IT WORKS”. I’ve always been a bit scattered in offerings and that hasn’t helped. Although I hate the word “reboot” maybe that’s what 2015 turned into – A “Randy Reboot”…a “NRGS reboot”. Am I now a company that offers a menu? No….BUT – I am a company that is getting more focused on clients and work and it’s showing with two more clients acquired the last half of this year. To quote the HVAC guy that came out to my rental a few months ago – “I’m a generalist – give me these tools and an hour and I can fix 90% of everything that is wrong with anything”.

2009 – The year in review for North River Geographic Systems, Inc.

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Dangit. What a Year……….

So for those of you that have been keeping up here’s a little bit of the insanity of 2009 here at North River Geographic Systems, Inc.

  • Dove in with both feet this year and went full time with the business. Up until late 2008 I was working for the federal government and was balancing work with…well – work. When I reached the tipping point I left in late 2008 and cranked NRGS up to 11 for 2009.
  • Owning a small business has been an experience. With the switch to full time how would the business fare economically? I started the new year with one estimate in hand and one customer. By the end of the year I had essentially four full time clients and an increase in Business income of about 500%. Impressive – sort of. if I tossed out actual numbers it wouldn’t be that impressive. Except I grew in a recession.
  • So now I’m balancing Home life with Work life. Unfortunately Home life lost out as I ended up divorced. Was the business at fault? Was it something inevitable? I could type for hours but I won’t. The problem with this is that I turned into a bit of an angry person this spring….and was a bit uglier than I needed to be to alot of people. So to anyone I was a stark raving jackass too – I apologize. Profusely.  Unfortunately, I learned my life at work and home doesn’t separate well anymore. I am the business and the business is me.  Luckily all the planning I did in setting up the business held true. I’ve just got to watch my personal barometer as I interact with people and customers.
  • Work picked up enough to get a plotter. Up until this year I had been using friends and other businesses to make prints. That really had me at a disadvantage. So I invested some time and money and am leasing a Canon IPF750. So far the plotter has paid for itself which was the whole plan for the plotter.
  • Jumped from North Georgia Sub Chapter Chair to education and Outreach for GA URISA.  While getting involved in a group doesn’t pay me anything, it does pay with networking, friends, and a chance to see how a whole group of professionals work and exist in the Geospatial world.
  • Became 2nd View President of the Mid South ASPRS Chapter. I have known the President, Ms Amy Zeller, for more years than I will admit and she encouraged me to run. She’s smart and I’ve learned to follow advice from smart people – even if it runs against what I think I should do.
  • Held my first and second ESRI Training Class. Overall I’m a bit torn about ESRI Training. The Authorized Trainer Program seems to be in flux but settling down. Overall it is unbelievably tough to set up classes and get all the dominoes to fall into place. Reviews of the first were positive – reviews of the second had me somewhere between terrible and beyond suck.  I’m taking the reviews from both and planning changes. One of my favorite comedians once said that you need to fail to know how to succeed. I’m taking all that and I believe training will be better and more fun this year.
  • I spent waaay too much time worrying about the competition. In constantly looking at ways to succeed it seemed I was always looking at ways to one up the competition. The minute I stop worrying about the competition I succeed. So in 2010, If people want to work with me they can…if they don’t that’s fine. They won’t have as much fun – but hey. I’m good.
  • To finish up everything, I sit with a pile of estimates that I have completed for 2010 and the chance that I will be picking up my largest job to date….and repeat customers. Gracious, very nice repeat customers.

On the Volunteer Front:

  • Am working with the Cumberland Trail to get it GPS’d.
  • Participated in several Open Street Map Events. If you haven’t tried it – Open Street Map is actually kinda relaxing. It’s fun.
  • Working on a Coyote Location Project at Berry College, Georgia (more on that later)
  • Working on locating a murder victim with a little bit of data, some clues, and my brain (more on this later). I dive into the world of Geographic Profiling.
  • Got a chance to work with the Tennessee River Gorge. Only made one map but I did get to do alot of digging.
  • Discovered The GIS Forum.

Got to meet the following GIS/Mapping user groups this last year:

  • Alabama URISA
  • Georgia URISA
  • TNGIC
  • NetGIS
  • Geonet
  • Cumberland County GIS Users Group
  • URISA Intl.
  • SAMSOG

Overall….2009 – it was the best of times and the worst of times. I survived a year that should have ended the business and possibly myself. I survived. I thrived. I’m in a good place now with the business. It moves, it grows. I’m not pushing it as hard or as much as the last three years. It’s dragging me.

Goodbye 2009. Hello 2010.

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