I am going to make this one a short one. The article today is fun and straightforward. Also, it's raining and I have been cooped up in my house all week so it is definitely time to get outside. This is pretty cool. I had already heard about this since the system is already in effect in Arizona. Effectively a police vehicle can be equipped with a launching system that allows a GPS transmitter to be launched into another vehicle. The idea is that a police official can tag a vehicle during pursuit and then break off that pursuit. High speed chases are too unpredictable so having a way to track down violent suspects after the fact can save lives all around. There are concerns about privacy. The ability to tag any vehicle at any time and locate that persons house is a scary proposition. Even outside of corruption and illegal use, there is still a lot of room for negligence in use. On the other hand, like all new technologies, education is the key to pushing society forward .
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Look at that, a virtually on time post. A forming habit? Probably not... Cloud based distribution of anything is pretty much the future. I am a big supporter of cloud technology. I think that the technology has finally advanced enough that small business can really take advantage of these technologies. As some industries move away from brick and mortar offices they will have to rely on cloud servers for daily operation. More than that though, is that cloud technology allows anybody with the right permissions the ability to work from anywhere that has an internet connection. As 'offline' updating becomes more common place these people might not even need to have a constant broadband connection. They would just need enough to make the automated transfer. One of my biggest projects at work is setting up webapplications that are hosted in a cloud server. An extension of this project is to set up mobile and tablet devices for field recording. I like the idea that we can get anybody with a device set up with our data dictionary without the need for significant front end planning. Another major benefit is that they can work in any location offline and when they get back to their hotel they can simply set up the hotel WiFi on the device and let the auto update work overnight. This gives GIS and project managers immediate access to their I have been wanting to write this post for some time. I saw an article that was well written and interesting a week ago. Unfortunately I cannot find it, but I went through and found a few others that I think are worth the read.
Drones create 3D model of Matterhorn mountain I want to throw this in with the post today. It does not have anything to do with tourism, but look at the sweet video! LiDAR might provide big data, but let us be honest, we really just like the pretty pictures that they make. Google Glass – the Next Big Thing in the travel industry? New Kickstarter Projects Aims To Make Google Glass The Ultimate Tour Guide I have some browser formatting issues on the first one of these, so I apologize if you do too. I think that potential for GIS in tourism is interesting. The amount of app programming that will have to go into it is staggering. It would be a great opportunity for people just getting into the industry. It will also provide significant immersion in tourism. I can really see how museums would benefit from these. You could use a tablet that has audio translations for the entire museum and accompany it with additional text, high detail blow up photos, 3D scans, or any other additional media. These are just the tip of the possibilities. And using the location services in tablets and phones you can record your tour and distribute it through social media. You can create 'tour' albums and share them with your friends and family. How much fun would it be to look at photos of your family in front of tourist trap photo opportunities and then recreate it. You can totally be bumped into by a tourist who has their face in a tablet versus the museum guide. High tech tourist rage! And given the ease and low cost of these systems even small and underfunded museums could utilize them. Am I on time today? Maybe a few hours late, but still better than usual.
So just one article today. What details become apparent when disasters hit close to home? These days it really seems like US politicians have no forethought. The talking heads do not see how spending money on research and predictive modelling could really benefit people across the country. Then there is a disaster and people question where the research was, what could have been done differently to prevent the loss of human life. The thing though, is that the talking heads have no real desire to preserve life, just ratings. The only silver lining to events like this is that you can learn from this. We felt this way in Arizona when the Yarnel Hotshots died. It is a tragic event, but what can we learn from this so that no one has to experience it again. Responding to emergency situations produces a lot of data. I think the biggest highlight of this article is the use of UAVs for remote sensing in the flood area, or more to the point, the banning of UAVs in the area. It makes sense that you do not want aircraft flying around post disaster, but to completely ban a remote sensing platform? I am not sure that was an appropriate decision. Late as always. I think sometimes that I should change my post days, but I am sure that I will just be another day late.
Today I have two articles that feature GIS in the biosciences. Broad Ideas and Gory Details: The State of Health GIS I have spoken many times on public health and how GIS can affect it in a profound way. This article very briefly discusses the Esri Heath GIS Conference that took place last weekend in Massachusetts. One of the biggest things that I see in Health GIS is the ability to see long term trends across large geographic areas. There simply is not enough money to treat each individual for the symptoms that they are having. In this increasingly tech capably world we should concentrate on education and prevention of disease. Having GIS that is capable of showing areas where children are likely to develop into obese citizens would allow public health officials to focus on those areas and work with the community of developing exercise programs. I also like the end of the article where it talks about 'have' versus 'need'. GIS is sufficiently developed at this point that anybody can interact with it. At my company I have been trying very hard over the last year or so to get web applications into the hands of my coworkers. It is not an attempt to remove work from my plate, but instead it is an attempt to get the people who 'need' into the column of 'have'. Software Uses Cyborg Swarm To Map Unknown Environs This is a little creepy. Actually it is a lot creepy. It is also really interesting. Using a swarm of insects that have sensors on them to collect data in a collapsed building, mine, or other emergency situation could mean the difference between life and death. We have seen systems like this in science fiction. I think that terrible movie 'Prometheus' had flying orbs that mapped out a cavern. Despite the hokey plots often associated with these stories the idea that small robots and insects can carry remote sensing platforms is definitely in the realm of reality now. Today I have two articles on smart grids. I have written about them in the past, but these two articles provide a little more detail on the how and why than what I have previously linked.
Smart Grid 101 - The smart grid’s new systems In this article the writer describes the different systems that are involved in Smart Grids. He does a very good job making everything clear and concise. Obviously the part that I care about is the GIS, but it is important to understand how the system as a whole works. The system that most consumers will probably be concerned with is OMS or outage management system. These systems effectively tell the utility that there is a current outage. This replaces the traditional method of reporting done by the consumer. These systems are advanced enough that they can detect potential outages. With this kind of technology the consumer gets the very quickest response time and during emergency situations relief groups can efficiently help. Utilities Dumbstruck By Big Data From Smarter Grid On the flip side of the other article we can read about how all of the data collected by smart grids are overwhelming utility companies. The article primarily covers a panel presentation. I do not view the abundance of data as a bad thing. What this really means is that this is the perfect time to get into jobs in the geospatial industry. Applications will need to be coded, analysts will need to be on hand at major utilities, and data managers will be in high demand. Big data is only going to get bigger and the need to process it is a big opportunity. (EDITING NOTE: I'm not sure what happened on this post. I thought I published yesterday, but it doesn't seem to be the case. It's up now though.) Today is the start of the Arizona Geographic Information Council Symposium. I had planned to go this year. I even had a quick lightning talk presentation, but unfortunately at the last moment I was not able to go. I'm pretty bummed, but there are plenty of conferences out there to attend.
My GIS is Better Than Yours (and other Lies) I completely agree with the author of this article. As GIS professionals we here the debates all the time. We hear the fanboyism all the time. Full disclosure, I almost always us ESRI products, but I am open to any software or hardware set up. I use ESRI because that is what my company purchased when they made the choice many years ago and I am most experienced in it. To say that it is the best is silly. I once had a coworker tell me that he was not impressed with ArcMap because it crashed when he was watching. It is true that ArcMap crashes often, but I can crash any GIS software. I am just reckless enough to click on everything that I see. I also think that this sentiment should be extended to GIS work styles. Sometimes people find a solution that is quite successful and then never think about alternate ways to get the job done. I think it is important to always try to think about new/alternate ways to get the job done. Having a stable of techniques allow you to adapt as the job adapts. There are certainly correct and incorrect results, but how you get there is never better or worse. Each person has their own way of doing things and there is always room to learn something new from them. Late again. Wednesday just never seems to work out. Every week I think I'm going to get it done and then do not. If I move it to Thursday will I just be late again? Probably...
Mapping the Maya: Technology Integration Captures Cultural Heritage This first article was written by someone that I almost know. We met once and have talked a little. The project that he worked on is really interesting. I will admit that I am a little jealous that he was able to get out to this area and collect a significant amount of data. As he discusses, the equipment was capable of collecting indiscriminately throughout the project. This is an issue that many archaeologists fall too. They are concerned about not collecting everything. They are also concerned about collecting too much and destroying their budget. Using a scanner like this they are able to collect information without personal bias, environmental conditions, or financial concerns. Projects like this are becoming the norm. It is a very exciting time to be tangentially connected to archaeology. Google Earth is aiding landmine clearance efforts in Kosovo I have said it before, I will say it this time, and I will say it in the future, GIS shines best when it is helping humanity. It allows people in high position to influence on a large scale. More importantly it allows people in lower positions to influence their local areas on a level that could never be achieved before computers. This project and article show how Google Maps can help in the removal of landmines in Kosovo. Landmines are a significant blight on any community. The first benefit is that the teams removing the landmines can now plan well in advance and also keep track of areas that they have already surveyed. The second benefit is that they can get information from local members of the community. These people have a significant amount of knowledge of the area and can easily and safely point the team members toward live field locations. You cannot get much better than crowd sourcing for humanitarian missions. I am house sitting for some friends again. This time I made sure to plop my laptop down and write something.
URISA Announces GIS-Pro 2013 Virtual Conference I actually received several notices of this. I am a member of this organization so I received the registration information a couple days ago. I have seen an increasing presence of GIS conferences online. The ESRI conference had a lot of free content on their website this year. I think it is actually a pretty cool idea. There are a lot of people who just cannot make certain conferences. Whether it is scheduling conflict, lack of funding, or other issues. The point of conferences though is to network with peers, learn new techniques, see academically rigorous presentations, and drink. Having portions of a conference available online helps those people get information that they would normally not have access too. This got me thinking about archaeological conferences. My educational and professional background is rooted in archaeology. I have been to a few archaeology conferences as an attendee and a presenter. I have even sneaked into a couple. GIS certainly has ego issues and people who dismiss certain practices or conferences, but I think that archaeology is worse. Among the higher ups that I know in archaeology, they can be quite dismissive of the regional conferences. They say that these conferences do not have the academic rigor, that they are not operating at the same level as the 'good' conferences. I think that this is short sighted and a little elitist. Now, I know what you are thinking. I totally railed against the presentation I recently saw on fractal math in Chacoan Pueblos. I still want people to show up though. He had info and he presented it. I thought it was utter nonsense, but having information presented and available for interpretation is one of the core tenants of science. Providing limited access to conferences online is keeping with that. Unfortunately I think that archaeology will resist this idea. I think that the 'acceptable' conference ego will it back for a few more years. I is really too bad because there are a lot of students who could learn valuable career and life skills by being able to see them. What do other archaeologists think? First things first. I went to a colloquium at the University of Arizona that the Department of Geography puts on through out each academic year. Talbot Brooks provided an excellent discussion of GIS in emergency response. I was able to talk to him for a bit after the presentation and he was really nice and cordial to me (i.e. a person who has no real business talking to him).
So in honor of his presentation that included old school techniques and new school techniques merging together to get the job done and save lives, I have two things to share with you today. We will start with the new school because the old school will take up a lot of room. Experts Team Up on Tsunami Resilience in California I have already talked at length about how GIS can affect emergency relief. I have also talked about how pre-planning with GIS can increase to overall safety of citizens. Follow some of the links that are in this article because they lead to some interesting sites. I think that it is disheartening to hear politicians and talking heads on the news talk about emergency preparedness not worth being the tax payer dollar, but I think that the small investment in larger emergency response plans. The chances of larger emergencies are not that great, but they can devastate entire regions. The second thing I wanted to show you came through my email without a source. I don't know who assembled it and cannot give proper citation. If you set everything up or know who did please tell me because it is interesting and I would really like to give that person all of the credit for their good work. It is definitely worth checking out. It has larger images so just click on the "Read More" and check it out. |
AuthorI am a GIS professional in Walla Walla, WA. I use this blog to force myself to really read through all of the GIS news that I get in my inbox. It also helps me practice writing. Archives
January 2015
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