Author Archives: socalgovgis - Michael Carson

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About socalgovgis - Michael Carson

Michael Carson, GIS Manager (retired) for the City of Burbank and President of Southern California Government GIS User Group. Currently teaching GIS at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita.

Hack For Pasadena

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Hack for Pasadena is two-days of open sourced talks and hands-on problem solving, to re-imagine the way the web, applications, technology, and community participation will shape the future of the City of Pasadena. Hack for Pasadena brings together the tech community with businesses, nonprofits, academia and city officials to work together to solve complex social problems through technology innovation. Anyone can pitch an idea or problem. Ideas may range from coming up with creative ways to address the city’s biggest challenges like homelessness, transportation, crime, affordable housing and public safety, to beautification projects and business ideas that will make the city more livable. From there, small groups form to brainstorm solutions and start tackling the issue with design and code. Publicly accessible data sets will be used to support the solutions. At the end of two days, each group will present a workable solution that improves the daily life for real people in our community.

And here are the prizes!

  • $5,000 Cash Prizes
  • $1,000 cash prize for most effective and creative use of Esri’s ArcGIS apps, APIs, maps, or services
  • $1,000+ value of donated gifts
  • Meet and greet with VCs from Lion Wells Capital, Mucker Capital & Karlin Ventures
  • Free new business advisory services with the Small Business Development Center at Pasadena City College
  • Event organizers are finding even more prizes so stay tuned…

Hack For Pasadena will be Saturday March 15 to Sunday March 16.  For more information and to register, visit www.hackforpasadena.com .

Wind Farm Mapping App

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The USGS has release a Wind Farm Mapping Application, which allows users to access the more than 47,000 individual wind turbines contained within the national wind turbine database.  You can filter data by total height, capacity, and blade length and also download the wind energy data.

The purpose of the project was to provide a publically available, spatially referenced, national dataset of onshore wind turbine locations and their corresponding facility information and turbine technical specifications. The project compiles wind turbine information from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Digital Obstacle File, as well as other manually digitized turbine locations.

windfarm

Daylight Savings Time Nears

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Ah yes, Daylight Savings Time is here again on Sunday.  Don’t forget to move your clock forward an hour.  If you want to be exact, do it at 2am Sunday morning!  If you are in Hawaii, Arizona (except the Navajo Nation), and Alaska Aleutian Islands, just ignore it.  For some reason animals ignore DST.  I try to convince my dog that meal time is an hour later … like a teenager he refuses to understand!

I bought this book a few years ago about DST.  It’s really good and explains the detailed history of DST.  Get your copy today! (PS – I do not make any money from the sale of this book, I just enjoyed reading it.)  -mike

 

 

URISA Workshop on Deploying Mobile Solutions

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Deploying Mobile Solutions: What to Consider – URISA Certified Workshop Presented virtually for the first time!

URISA is pleased to announce the presentation of one of its most popular Certified Workshops, Deploying Mobile Solutions: What to Consider, via instructor-led web based training.  URISA’s Deploying Mobile Solutions: What to Consider workshop is regularly presented at URISA conferences, chapter events, and at regional conferences. Normally a full-day classroom session, the workshop has been re-packaged into three sections and will be presented online this March to meet the constant demand for the subject matter without the travel expense and time away from work.  The workshop content is thoroughly peer-reviewed and updated each year and is eligible for GISP Education credit (8 hours of EDU-2).

This 8-hour workshop will be presented over three days:

  • Wednesday, March 19, 2014 – 1:00– 4:00 pm EST
  • Thursday, March 20, 2014  – 1:00– 4:00 pm EST
  • Friday, March 21, 2014 – 1:00– 3:00 pm EST

Cost: URISA International Members: $195 Non-members: $295

Attendees will receive all of the benefits of traditional classroom learning in an interactive online classroom while not having the expense of traveling to onsite training locations.  Interactive communication between the instructor and other attendees is accomplished through communication tools within the training platform. Participants will receive an electronic workbook to accompany the instruction and certificate of completion.

Course Description: One way to meet demands for providing superior service levels and operational efficiencies under tightening budget constraints is to leverage new technology that places GIS data in the hands of field crews. This allows for improved management and better maintenance of work processes to properly appraise infrastructure assets and to meet service request response times.

This workshop is designed to provide local government managers with practical guidelines for building an effective mobile GIS program across multiple departments.

Specific topics include:

  • Practical guidelines for building a mobile GIS
  • Business drivers for moving GIS technology and data into the field
  • Alternative strategies for implementing GIS-based field solutions
  • Overcoming obstacles to automating field processes
  • Steps in the mobility implementation process

Intended Audience: Supervisors and managers responsible for public works operations. GIS and IT department managers interested in mobilizing user applications and Mobile GIS project managers.

Instructor Profile: Tripp Corbin, MCP, CFM, GISP, eGIS Associates, Atlanta, GA. Tripp Corbin, MCP, CFM, GISP, eGIS Associates, Atlanta, GA. Tripp Corbin is the Chief Executive Officer and Lead Instructor for eGIS Associates. He is an award winning Esri Certified Trainer with over twenty years of experience orchestrating and managing surveying, mapping and GIS projects. He is recognized as an industry expert with a variety of geospatial software packages including Esri, Autodesk and Trimble products. Tripp was the primary author of several popular GIS courses including: Using AutoCAD data in ArcGIS,  Performing GIS Analysis with ArcGIS, and ArcGIS Desktop Associate Exam Prep. He created the online GIS Analyst Certificate program offered by the University of North Alabama Continuing Studies Center as well as teaching classes for the Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) at North Carolina State University.

Tripp is a member of the Board of Directors for URISA International and the GITA Southeast Chapter. He holds many certifications including GIS Certified Professional, ArcGIS Desktop Associate, Esri Certified Trainer, CompTia Certified Technical Trainer, Microsoft Certified Professional, URISA Workshop Instructor and Certified Floodplain Manager.

Limited Participation: Sign up early as the online ‘classroom’ is limited to only 100 participants. Consider pulling your team together to participate in the workshop together.

If your schedule will not allow your attendance at all three sessions, note that the sessions will be recorded and archived for participants’ access.
Register today to reserve your spot!

GISCI Map Contest 2014

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The GIS Certification Institute is conducting it’s 3rd annual map contest.  This year’s competition is to produce a high quality map of a portion of the U.S. National Bridge Inventory (NBI). This will require parsing and geocoding  ASCII files in which the NBI is stored, as well as the production of a quality map which could be viewed on the web. First, second, third place and honorable mentions will be awarded.  The winning poster will be taken to the ESRI User Conference and submitted to the ESRI map book, if it was generated with ESRI products.

Who may enter: Anyone is eligible, except those who are going to judge.

Submission Time Frame: March 1 to 31, 2014 – Online portal to accept files along with a required submission form.

Prizes:

  • 1st – $500, 2nd – $250, 3rd – $100, People’s Choice $500 and Honorable Mentions
  • Each winner (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and People’s Choice) will also have their initial certification fee waived if the application is submitted within one year of the date the winners are announced.  Current GISPs will have their renewal fees waived at their next recertification date
  • Map submittal earns / qualifies for 1 point under the Contribution to the Profession category

More information here.

National Map and National Atlas Merge

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From the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP):

During this year, National Atlas of the United States and The National Map will transition into a combined single source for geospatial and cartographic information. This transformation is projected to streamline access to maps, data and information from the USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP). This action will prioritize our civilian mapping role and consolidate core investments while maintaining top-quality customer service.

The USGS will continue its long history of providing topographic maps, geospatial data and other geographic information by offering a range of scales and layers of geospatial information on The National Map Viewer and through US Topo maps. As a result of the conversion to an integrated single source for geospatial and cartographic information, nationalatlas.gov will be removed from service on September 30, 2014.

“We recognize how important it is for citizens to have access to the cartographic and geographic information of our nation. We are committed to providing that access through nationalmap.gov”, said Mark DeMulder, NGP Director.

“We value the National Atlas customers and stakeholders and want to make this transition as easy as possible,” explained Jay Donnelly, the National Atlas Program Manager.” We will post updates to The National Map and National Atlas Websites as this transition unfolds, including information on the future availability of the products and services currently delivered by nationalatlas.gov.”

Further information is available at: http://nationalatlas.gov/transitionfaq.html.

… Perhaps downloading data now might not be a bad idea if you need it!

Atlas of True Names USA

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The Atlas of True Names reveals the etymological roots, or original meanings, of the familiar terms on today’s maps of the World, Europe, the British Isles, Canada and the United States.

For instance, where you would normally expect to see the Sahara indicated, the Atlas gives you “The Tawny One”, derived from Arab. es-sahra “the fawn coloured, desert”.

Here is a True Names map of the USA.  Click for more info.