I was visiting family in Tucson this week so I was pretty busy/absent minded all week. One of the notable things that I did this week though was that I took a class on GIS Program Management through URISA. It has been incredibly informative. Without going into boring details about the class there are two major things that I like about the class format so far. First off it is live cast online and then recorded and distributed after the fact. I like this format because the class is offered during the day and I am usually firmly entrenched in my workday. Having it available to stream after the fact is a great way to review the material. The other great feature about the class is that it has a chat attached so that participants can interact with each other without actually interrupting the instructor. We had informal polls, suggestions, tips, general discussion with 100 people. All that content and we did not have to worry about going over time. I am really excited about the third session. I am hoping to apply many of the concepts that I have learned so far.
I am also interested in the PMI set of certifications. I do not know much about them so if any of you do it please let me know about your experiences.
On with the content!
RESEARCHER TO TEST IF TWITTER CAN HELP SPOT FLU TRENDS
I have talked so many times about public health and how GIS can positively affect programs. This article is a little more light on the GIS techno babble, but it is worth a read if only to think about how easy it will be in the near future to figure out how the spread of any disease is progressing spatially. Public health officials could prioritize vaccines and more importantly an individual could go to a publicly available map and determine if they want to avoid areas where outbreaks are occurring.