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A Conundrum

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Conundrum: A difficult and intricate problem.

I’m starting to resurface. A bit. I’ve been working on a job and just had a major breakthrough. One that will let me finish it I think. I’ve been busy wrestling with problems. Problems with work or problems at work and problems that have nothing to do with work. The personal ones are the worst. More on that later.

Anyway I had the chance to go and speak at the National Trails Conference that is being held in Chattanooga. GIS is making enough headway into everything that they had a lot of people that wanted an overview of ArcGIS. They had a mixup with the normal guy who does this and asked if I could come in and do the workshop. Ten years ago if you asked me to speak for four hours I would have had a coronary. Now it’s hard to stop in four hours. That’s the bad thing about workshops for me – knowing when and where to stop. I can’t explain ArcGIS in four hours. I can’t explain anything in four hours.

The conundrum hit me when I started speaking or actually it’s been hitting me for quite some time.  I’m an ESRI Certified/Authorized Trainer. I’m an ESRI Business Partner. I’m a business sponsor of URISA. I can teach the Open Source URISA Workshop. I’m also a GISP. My problem is turning into what /how do I answer certain things.

Problems started immediately at the workshop. People started asking questions. Good questions. Questions of a GIS nature and not so much questions about ArcGIS. How do I get my data on the web? How do I convert my GPS file from my Garmin Unit? How do I create a profile of my trail? What constitutes GIS data? Where does data come from…?

In starting this business I had a few goals. Two of them were become an ESRI Business Partner and become an ESRI Trainer.  I attained those goals. The fun started earlier this year when I became more heavily involved in GA URISA. I taught a workshop on Open Source GIS Software. I knew about Open Source ( I use Ubuntu. I ditched Microsoft Office for Open Office). I knew about Open Source GIS software (GRASS, QGIS, etc) before the workshop but I hadn’t used it. In order for me to teach it I needed to use it and I have. I like it.I like the history behind it. I like the fact that just about all the commercial GIS software have toes in the Open Source World.

The whole thing about Open Source GIS Software is that it’s standards based. It’s not flavored towards a particular vendor. A WMS is a WMS. Things work (not perfectly all the time). As a GISP I should give the best answer possible. My conundrum: what if it’s not an ESRI answer. I really wished the workshop had been an introduction to GIS. I would have felt better about giving it. We covered the basics of ArcGIS from adding data, symbology and plotting. I need to change a bit on what I did – I tried to cram too much into four hours. Probably out of the four hours we spent an hour talking about data and GIS Issues.

One gentleman wanted to share out his trail data with users. My suggestion was Open Street Map. One wanted to convert GPX files. My suggestion DNR Garmin, GPS Babel, or Quantum GIS.  How do we put a map on a web page? Geoserver, Open Layers, MapServer, ArcGIS Server. There wasn’t one answer to fit – but a lot of answers that would work.

At the end of the workshop one of the guys came up and asked if I was an ESRI representative. I answered yes….then no. Then sorta yes since I am a Business Partner. Then sorta no since they most likely wouldn’t claim affiliation with me (I think).

What am I? I’m a GIS Guy who owns a company that will solve geospatial problems. In front of me I’m running ArcGIS 10. To my left I have PostGIS and Quantum GIS running. It makes me more capable. It makes me more deadly. It makes me better.

…but I do worry.

US State of the Map Conference 2010

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If you missed it – you just missed it.

On August the 14th – a little over two weeks ago – the  US State of the Map conference was held in Atlanta. It was excellent – I think it will be one of those events where I will say “I was there” 5 years from now.

OpenStreetMap has been one of those things I’ve had a hard time wrapping my head around. It took me months to get comfortable editing. Once I did I found it hard to stop. I’ve made more mistakes than I care to admit. I’m trying to decide now how to fix some attribution mistakes I made in adding data. I think I’ll have to take the “eat the elephant approach” to fix them – but they will get fixed.

The big thing that struck me about this conference was….well two things.

The first was how these guys (non-gis people) were doing in essence GIS work. They had the luxury of not being bothered by all the stuff I worry about – and because of that they made an excellent map. I’ll toss data if I think it is bad. I would rather have no data than bad data. It actually got me to think that maybe bad data isn’t really all that bad – no data is the problem. If you have nothing – you truly have nothing. Anything is better than nothing (in most cases). I really began to understand the term “Crowd Sourcing”.

Second – OpenStreetMap is changing. The idea behind GIS data is changing. I watched Learon Dalby stand up in front of a group of maybe 100 people and offer all the roads in Arkansas to OSM. Free. No License. No Nothing. Take them please. There was dead silence in the room. It was beautiful. In reality – what good does it do a state/county to collect data and then do nothing with it…except sell it…oh yeah and serve it out in a map over the internet. Give it away – give it to Google, give it to OSM……Make it available to the people. Learon’s reasoning…the New Madrid Fault. When it lets loose what will we use for the rescue? The data he has given away. Look at Haiti and what happened. There was no data for rescuers. The New Madrid earthquake will make Katrina look like it never happened.

I watched as a representative of the US Census made a case for using the map and the data and contributing back to the map. I watched as representatives from local US Gov’t made cases for using the map and the data and contributing back to it. I found it interesting that both talks centered around this approach. Use the data – contribute back. Not get the data and share it out from an overpriced server with a flex front end.

I found it to be more interesting to watch the people in the audience. People I thought would be really overjoyed at this – didn’t seem to be. It was interesting….possibly a bit telling as to the internal state of OpenStreetMap. I like the politics of mapping – it’s always been a guilty little pleasure. How do people react…how do they not react…..how good is your poker face. Mine is terrible. I guess that’s why I try to watch everyone else in the room.

So OSM is starting to serve whether it likes it or not as a…a National Map of sorts. A data repository. A place that data can be stored and shared. It wasn’t built for this and the concern was evident at the conference. What do you do? My gut feeling is the recent deal with MapQuest is going to result in a better backend for OSM. I really think Google should take notice. Google should help. After all – The opposite of “Do no Evil” is “Do all Good”…correct…maybe. This would be a good thing to do.

Anyway – I’m rambling a bit. It was an excellent conference. Oh yeah – the price for admission. $35 dollars.Yes. $35 dollars.

I watched OSM grow just a bit in the US. Actually I think it grew a lot in two days.

…and today I counted….

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There’s a great quote in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:

“He started to count to ten. He was desperately worried that one day sentient life forms would forget how to do this. Only by counting could humans demonstrate their independence of computers.”

This is going to a be a long running story arc in the life or North River Geographic Systems, Inc so watch for updates.

Back in my former career of not that long ago I had this long running argument that would rear it’s ugly head. It would go something like “Am I a employee of <blank> or a GIS person?”.  I was both – you have to be both. I would find myself posing this question from time to time when I was asked to do something that I found to be off center as a GIS person. The thing I was asked to do would be great for the company – but I felt that it was of questionable GIS intent…and in general bad form. I find myself now – having been a business for just about 4 years – almost the same question. Am I a GIS person or an ESRI person? I’m a Business Partner and currently an Authorized Trainer…..so I’ve drunk the Kool-aid so to speak.

As a GISP – I think I owe it to myself and my clients to get more well rounded in the world of GIS.  I’m participating this week in a GA URISA workshop on Open Source GIS.  Being the education chair for GA URISA I’ve started perusing the material. Something happened….I feel woefully unprepared. I wanted to co-instruct  and I’m really beginning to think I can’t just yet. You see – I can make ArcGIS do what I need it to do. I’ve used ESRI software since my fledgling career started 16 years ago.  The open source stuff is a bit new to me. I want to know more – I need to know more. I know I’m not breaking new ground – but for those of you who read and keep up you might find this interesting. Open Source software – particularly Linux – has been a side to my life for some years that I have enjoyed immensely so why not let it be part of my career.

I pulled one of my lab laptops today and reformatted it with Linux. Which flavor? Ubuntu. So I abandoned Windows  and as a result I abandoned ArcGIS on this machine. What am I going to put on it? What can you put on it?

  • Mapserver
  • Geoserver
  • Quantum GIS
  • PostGIS
  • Open Jump
  • GRASS

…..and I am going to work on getting better as a GIS person. My Goal – share out data from that machine to my ArcGIS machine. Use my new linux machine to complement my work. Learn. Enjoy and immerse myself just a little bit deeper into GIS. It should make me a better “GIS Person” and a “ESRI Person”. I hope it will. At the absolute worst – I’m going to learn. I may even come up with some ideas that expand the business a bit.

Anyway – check back from time to time. I’m going to be doing some “stuff” and posting what I have learned back up here. So today I “counted”  using Open Source GIS Tools. It was kind of nice.

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.

We all need Theapy from time to time…..

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So on a recent drive up to a client’s office, a stop at a gas station revealed the following. Part of me wants to call and explain that they spelled the sign wrong.  Then again if your paying for Back Rubz – do you care that they probably aren’t licensed theapists and that they can’t spell.

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Perhaps it is best to leave well enough alone.