Need Scholarship? Study GIS

From David Tulloch's blog, I wanted to pass along some information about scholarships to study geospatial sciences. These awards are for high schoolers through doctoral candidates. 

Info about the USGIF:

The United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF) is the only organization dedicated to promoting the geospatial intelligence tradecraft and building a stronger community of interest across industry, academia, government, professional organizations and individuals.

Info about the scholarships:

USGIF hopes to inspire students who are interested in all that GEOINT has to offer to invest their futures in this incredibly exciting and relevant field of study....Last year the Foundation awarded $94,000 to 20 recipients and plans to award equal or greater amounts for the 2012 program. Five Ph.D. candidates, eight master’s students, five undergraduates and two graduating high school seniors received scholarships from the 2011 program. High school recipients received $2,000 scholarships, and all others received $5,000 scholarships.

What Participatory GIS Looks Like

I've been following the work of Aly DeGraff and her mentor, Kim Baldwin, as they continue building a space-use planning dataset for the Grenadine Islands. Here is a blog post from Aly showing the sausage-making that goes into participatory GIS or PGIS.

3rd Workshop for the Marine Multi-Use Zoning Plan for the Grenadine Islands: February 2012

 This event was the final workshop in the Marine Multi-Use Zoning Plan that brought together stakeholders to review the potential multiuse zoning scenarios. Since the second workshop (August 18-19, Union Island), Kim Baldwin (UWI), John Knowles (TNC), and I spent countless hours creating maps of the various marine multi-use zoning scenarios. Following this, a marine resource users (MRU) sub-committee convened in Mayreau in November to provide feedback on these scenarios and a smaller number of feasible zoning scenarios were selected as the foundation for Workshop 3. These multi-use zoning scenarios were then used as a decision-support tool to assist the group with the drafting of a marine multi-use zoning plan for the Grenadines. 

We held the third workshop in Hillsborough, Carriacou, Grenada and had 38 MRUs, government officials, SusGren interns, and facilitators attend. Here a group from the Grenada side of the Grenadines discuss the marine space-use planning of Carriacou, Petite Martinique, and the cays all the way south to Isle de Rhonde (just north of Grenada mainland):

  I facilitated the central Grenadines group of participants from Canouan, Mayreau, and Union with Katie McLean (SusGren Intern) as my note taker:

The group felt pretty good about the results that the computer program Marxan with Zones had given us but hoped to remove the Tobago Cays Marine Park boundary from the leeward side of Mayreau so that the entire island is not inaccessible to fishermen.

  We had a long debate about how to zone Chatham Bay on Union to accommodate fishing and tourism while minimizing tourism impacts (damage from anchoring yachts) on sea grass which is an essential food for sea turtles. There needs to be better conservation practices in the area, but not necessarily a conservation zone. Unfortunately, the northern part of the bay is the best for fishing, sea grass, and mooring causing a conflict of interest. In the end we decided on an eco-tourism zone which would limit further development on land but continue to allow for recreational uses and local fishing.

Read more ...

Another Mapping iPad App to List - GIS Kit

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm looking into mapping solutions for an iPad 2. I listed apps I had tried and got lots of retweets from the post. I think there's a lot of interest in the geospatial community in finding an app that can meet the needs that I stated yesterday: create new data; accurate location; import maps; export map data; and use a pen.

An app not on the list is GIS Kit by Garafa. When I heard about it last summer or fall, I had already been well into the project and I ran out of funding for apps. Plus, the cost is high. GIS Kit is $99.99 (for iPad and iPhone) and the higher-end version, GIS Pro, is $299.99 (also for iPad and iPhone). There is an educator's discount, however (50% discount for purchases of 20 or more copies). But thanks to the kindness of Garafa (and from a little Twitter outreach), I was sent a promotional copy to test out. There. Full disclosure.

The iTunes page for GIS Kit is accurate (click on More...). You really don't, in my opinion, need previous GIS experience to use GIS Kit. Check out the match up between GIS Kit and GIS Pro (scroll down) to see the featured left out of GIS Kit.

From their site: "The ‘Kit’ version of this software is intended to allow individuals to collect accurate & sophisticated field data without being tied to an expensive server or IT unit. Anyone can easily create their own feature classes & datasets and use them to gather & interpret useful data in the field."

If you want to import rasters and export shapefiles and CSVs, you'll need the 'Pro' version. If you're good with exporting KMZ and GPX, then the 'Kit' version may be for you.

I uploaded GIS Kit to an iPad (with 3G turned back on) and figured out how to use it relatively quickly. Here's some of what I observed in a pretty short test run.

Adding your own data points, as above, is quite simple. There's a lot of templates, many natural sciencees-related, already within the GIS Kit app that makes data collection easier. You can also, through iTunes interface, add shapefiles and KML/KMZ files. Above is a hydrography shapefile for the state New York, colored blue. It loaded somewhat slowly but loaded nontheless.

This is a simple line file showing the Bing Image basemap...

...and Google Satellite basemap, same location. There are many other basemap options. I still like to import my own USGS topo quads for the area I'm mapping (I tried last night and it didn't work), but that will require the 'Pro' version. For Poughkeepsie aficionados: Notice the Bing image above shows the Arlington District prior to the roundabouts going in and the Google image for the same intersection, but with the (awesome and totally safe) traffic circle, corner of College View and Raymond. I digress.

Exporting: The point file and the line file shown in these images easily exported as KMZ and opened in Google Earth. It will also open in ArcGIS or other geospatial programs. I could email the files to myself or copy them over from iTunes on my computer.

The above and below images are screen shots from my Grenadines KMZ work. I tried with other apps (listed yesterday)  to upload my project KMZ and couldn't get it to work. This Grenadines project, which has multiple layers and sublayers, opened rather easily and looked great, if I do say so myself.

This shot is of shallow water habitat, dive sites, and shipping lanes near Mayreau.

GIS Kit never crashed. I still need to really get out in the field and kick it around a bit, but it looks like GIS Kit is the closest thing to a smooth and easy mapping application that I've come across. It's just not free. But 'free' wasn't on my list, right?

More to come.

iPad Investigation - Field Mapping on an iPad 2

In June 2011 I had access to an iPad 2 with 3G connectivity. I used it on a summer project with a student to  investigate whether the iPad 2 could be used to collect geographic and geologic field data.  The student was making a geologic map of a summer camp and the idea was to do a head-to-head test using the new iPad 2 and a tablet PC while he mapped. Prior to the project, in January 2011, I put out a call on a GIS list and on Twitter to see what was being done with iPads and mapping. Not all that much. “But keep us posted.” Long overdue, here is some of what I found out.

To make a long story short, the student and I decided to forgo the match-up investigation and just map using the tried-and-true tablet PC. It just works and there was limited time to do the mapping.

First, let me state that the goal of using an iPad 2 for field mapping is to 1) create new data on the device,  those data can be points, lines or polygons; 2) locate ourselves fairly accurately from within the app (using the 3G); 3) load maps (shapefiles, KML/KMZ and/or raster maps) that we want to use as a basemap; 4) export our points, lines or polygons as shapefiles or KML/KMZ; and 5) use a pen (aftermarket purchase) to tap and draw points, line and polygons.

Now, for what we did find out about using an iPad for field mapping. The work is on-going, by the way. But we are giving a poster at the northeast GSA on what we did find out, geologically if not technologically.

Purchased (or free) apps that have GIS/geospatial capabilities or potentially so:
ArcGIS - A visual aid, nothing more. This make no sense to me. I cannot make or create any new data on this app. Why, ESRI? Or is that Esri? If I’m wrond, please let me know. (free)
Avenza PDF Map - Has potential to allow for data creation. “Dropbox integration. Easily export and import maps and waypoints to and from Dropbox.” I would like this to work. (free)

EarthObserver - Good for educational purposes. ($0.99)

Google Earth - A visual aid, nothing more. Can there be a Google Earth Pro app some day? Please? (free)
GISRoam - A GIS that I couldn’t get to work. This app is free, but to make your GIS data available you need to purchase a subscription on their server (free app - subscription is about $20, I think)
GPSNote - Add a note in geospace. Not all that useful. (free)
KMZ Loader - Loads Google Earth KMZ files for use in other apps. Couldn’t figure out the usefulness of this one. (free)
QuakeWatch - Good for educational purposes. Real-time EQ information. ($0.99)
Terrapad Lite - Free, but has ads. “Terrapad gives you the flexibility to enter, query, modify and export your geographic data” This app has potential but kept crashing. (free)
Terrapad Pro - “The pro version is also more feature-packed allowing Shapefile import and export, GPS tracking, raster map imagery, spatial queries, detailed information about geometries and a host of other features. All extensions are free in Terrapad Pro.” Sounds good, right? This was very crashy. Please send information on how to use it! ($49.99)

 

Geology NY - It was recommended that I get this one because I live in New York and the mapping was to be done in NY. It was not all that informative but might be useful for educational purposes. (iPhone app only $9.99)
Star walk - Love this! But it’s not a mapping app. Never mind that, if you’ve got 3G on your iPad, take it out in the evening and look to the sky! Very fun and certainly educational. ($4.99)
Strike and Dip - Works great. Forget your Brunton Compass and take your iPad (or iPhone (this is an iPhone app) Save outcrop fieldnotes to the app and send them to yourself or to someone else on the mapping team. ($4.99)
Strike Line - Also works great for getting a strike and dip, or trend and plunge, minus the note-taking feature. (free)

Compass HD - This is a compass. (free)

Emerald Observer - I’m not recalling why I bought this app. I don’t see it listed on the iTunes store anymore but I paid $0.99. It may have been replaced by the Emerald Chronometer HD. A watch on your iPad. ($4.99)

Coordinates - “Coordinates makes it a snap to convert between the three formats for latitude and longitude: decimal degrees, degrees and decimal minutes, and degrees-minutes-seconds.” So useful! ($0.99)
iCMTGIS - This is a real GIS. And it really worked. It was not elegant to use but it did do mapping. And the cost cannot be beat. Here was a nice tutorial showing how to iCMTGIS provided by John Van Hoesen, a professor at Green Mtn College. (free)
iGIS for iPad - “iGIS represents a new era in mobile GIS solutions by enabling users to load, view, investigate, create and export their own data over a background of Google maps satellite imagery.” I couldn’t get this to work. Would love to have some help on this. (free for a limited time(?))
MotionX GPS Drive - Useful for replacing your in-car navigation system. ($2.99)
MotionX GPS HD -  Same as above? Not sure the difference. Sorry about that. ($1.99)
MapBox - This is a GIS. “MapBox has a suite of open source map-making tools. Use this app to take your maps offline and on the go.” I want this to work. Can’t figure out how to do that. (free)
iSeismograph - An educational tool for showing students how earthquakes are measured “using the internal G-Force Sensor.” ($0.99)
Theodolite HD - This app allows you to take photos that encode the direction that you are viewing, levels out the shot, which is really useful for field work. “Theodolite is a multi-function augmented reality app that serves as a compass, GPS, map, zoom camera, rangefinder, and two-axis inclinometer.” Their words, not mine. I like using this app. Example below. ($3.99)

Keep in mind that, if you’re using an iPad for field work, you should buy a case, ideally a rugged one. Check out this one. I saw these for sale at Best Buy. Also, you need a 3G data plan and the minimum cost per month for that is $20.

One very unfortunate aspect of using an iPad for field mapping is the tie you must have to a desktop (or laptop) machine. The apps are housed on your office Mac or Windows PC and so are your data. If you want to upload more data (or download them) you have to go back to that computer. If I’m wrong about that, please let me know because I found that to be a total hassle. I did not have my home computer (where I downloaded the apps to) out in the field with me.

I will continue to hone in on how to use the iPad for mapping, but for now, this is the update.

Geospatial Data Collection on an iPad 2

I picked up the latest ESRI ArcUser magazine and saw that there's an article called "Developing a Custom ArcGIS Application for the iPad 2." This is a great new development and something that I've been anticipating for a few months now. I just want someone else to develop that app. The writer explains how to develop your own mobile app but I think I'll just wait until it's available on iTunes, thank you very much. Readers of this blog have expressed an interest in mapping on an iPad so everyone should go check out the article. It's free.

I did notice one early comment that the writer made and should be mentioned. He talks about how the rise of iPads and mobile internet and geolocation all in one, may spell the demise of the PC (I guess he means Windows machines). He says: "Using ArcGIS on a mobile device in the field, in combination with geolocation (GPS), provides the context missing from existing GIS interaction." Missing? Not when you're using the original Windows-based tablet PCs in the field. GIS interaction in the field has been available on a mobile device since the early 00s. But perhaps the writer means missing from the "I-hold-the-internet-in-my-hands" iPad tablet PC.

But anyway, this is promising for those who wish to map using their iPad 2s.

School (K-12) Geographic Data Available (SABINS)

A new GIS data engine has come along - SABINS (School Attendance Boundary Information System) and seems much like the incredibly rich dataset at NHGIS (National Historical GIS). Tell your Education department members or others on campus who study school systems, student walking distances, and demographic variables within the public schools. I haven't tried using the SABINS site but I used the very similar NHGIS site and wrote about it in the past (here). From the email announcement:

The College of William & Mary and the Minnesota Population Center are pleased to announce the launch of the new School Attendance Boundary Information System (SABINS) website. SABINS is a project funded by the National Science Foundation to assemble, harmonize, and disseminate GIS data for grade-specific school attendance boundaries embedded within school districts throughout the United States. In addition to GIS data for school attendance boundaries, SABINS also provides:

• Census data tabulated for the school attendance boundaries


• Crosswalk tables that link school attendance boundaries to data from the U.S. Department of Education's Common Core of Data

When users visit the SABINS website, they will find:

• A front page providing access to crosswalk tables, FAQs, user guides and data documentation


• A data extract system where they can:
  
  
  
  • download Census data for multiple grade levels in one extract,
  
  
  • download GIS data for multiple grade levels in one extract, and
  
  
  • constrain or expand data searches by specifying any combination of topics or datasets.
  
  
  
  

Looks great and very useful!

Mapping the Grenadine Islands: This Time It's Terrestrial

Recent Middlebury College grad and geographer, Aly DeGraff, has a blog...Carto-island-graphy ... documenting her Compton Mentor Fellowship year working on a participatory mapping project in the Grenadines. If you had any interest in my work in 2009-10 in the Grendadines or like reading about mapping in the developing world, I encourage you to check out Aly's work. She sprinkles maps and photos throughout her posts that will make you pine for the Caribbean. 

Aly's mentor on her project is the PhD candidate, Kim Baldwin and project leader on Grenadines MarSIS, whom I worked with by helping assemble the KML of Kim's marine-based dataset. Aly will be collecting and collating the terrestrial-based GIS dataset and exporting that data into a KML. A table of some of the datasets is shown below.

I gave a talk on my Grenadines Google Earth project for the Woodin Colloquium at Middlebury about a year ago and Aly was a very enthusiastic undergraduate in attendance. She wanted to do a mapping project similar to mine and wanted to be in the Caribbean. I'm so thrilled that the work that I participated on through the Fulbright program is living on in Aly. Not a bad place to do some fieldwork!

shhh...there's a new mystery map...

Here's the scoop...just posted a new mystery map on the OnLocation blog. Go check it out:

Mystery Map IX

Can you figure out what it is? 

Mystery Map from the Skidmore GIS Center for Interdisciplinary Research

This is my first post to this blog, so I figured I would post some content from the Skidmore College GIS Center blog to test it out. Here is our most recent "Mystery Map." All last year we posted maps of different kinds of spatial distributions over the landscape to get people thinking spatially. (Check some old mystery maps out here). This is the first map for the 2011/12 academic year. Can you guess what it is? Leave a guess in the comments on this blog or on the GIS Center blog "on location" here. Typically to get the word out on campus about the mystery map I would tweet it on the @geoparadigm Twitter account, post it on the GIS Center facebook page, and even get it in th student announcements. Some mystery maps also have a reward for the first student on campus who guesses correctly in the blog comments. The prize this time is a NEARC t-shirt. I can't take full responsibility for the Mystery Map idea...I have to give some credit to Jon Caris at Smith College who spoke a little about Smith's program and Mystery Maps in this NITLE: Spatial Perspectives podcast.

So, check out the podcast and try to guess the mystery map! Good luck.

Once you have pondered this unique spatial distribution, check on the solution to the mystery map here.

Rugged Cover for the iPad2

I've been trying out an iPad2 for use in the field this summer. One must have 3G/wifi but it does seem like one could do real-time mapping on these things. Now I found a rugged case. It's by Griffin Technologies and it's called a Survivor.

Funny thing is is that this case looks just like the ruggedized case we used on our circa 2003 tablet PCs (HP TC1100, to be exact). Those were awesome but when the newer tablet PCs came out, there was no similar rugged case to buy, the new models were strictly business use-style.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Google's Chromebook, Will It Eliminate the High-end Computer Lab?

I'm a huge fan of Google products. I love Google Docs, Gmail, Google Earth (naturally!), Google Maps (of course), and I use no other search engine but the Google. So I suppose I should be fanatically happy about the coming Google Chromebook which operates solely in the cloud. I'm there already, right?! Maybe not.

I use software that does not run well (if at all) in the cloud...ESRI's ArcGIS.  I also use drawing programs and photo editing software but Google Draw and Picasa do not do nearly what I need them to do. They are merely okay.  For a long time I have had a not-so-silent dream...Google buys ESRI and turns GIS software into something that 1) is easy to use, 2) has an intuitive interface, 3) is robust, and 4) can truly operate in the cloud. Google already makes geospatial visualization a breeze with their mapping products, why wouldn't they want to go the next step and allow folks to do some real geospatial analyses within Google Earth and Google Maps?

Alas, a Chromebook does not solve my need for having all my "apps" on one device. Will it be a gamer-changer in higher education that so many seem to think the iPad is? Can we remove the Windows or Apple computer labs and replace those stations with Chromebooks? No. We cannot. Sergey Brin says "And I think Chromebooks are a new model that doesn't put the burden of managing your computer on yourself." Hallelujah!  I've argued that academic technologists should not be managing computer labs (though I don't think Mr Brin was thinking of me and my compadres when he made that statement), we all want life to be easier.  But the Chrome OS or the iPad, for that matter, do not yet replace the tried and true Apple or Windows high-end desktop machines. Those are the computers where our students learn how to edit video, or make it look as thought O.J. was wearing Bruno Maglis shoes, or create architectural drawings, or, yes, geo-process digital orthophotos and analyze for percent tree coverage.

The Chromebook will be great for those on the go who want to write and check email and use a simple spreadsheet. It starts up in eight seconds, for crying out loud! I have an old clunker laptop that takes eight minutes to start up? But it has all my "apps," so I can't part with it! 

Scientific Visualization, GIS, and Mobile Computing in Higher Ed: Learning Outside

Colleagues of mine and I recently published a paper on using tablet PCs, "The Educational Potential of Mobile Computing in the Field," for teaching science courses outside, in the field. I think readers of this blog might be interested in the paper because two of the three given examples utilize GIS software in mapping features in-situ. Three small liberal arts colleges provide examples of using tablet PCs in outdoor teaching and learning.

If mobile computing is of interest to you, check out the the first issue of EDUCAUSE Quarterly for 2011, the focus of which is entirely mobile.

Thanks, Nancy Hays, attentive editor of EDUCAUSE Quarterly, and Jeremy, Jeff and Keri!

GIS at a Small Liberal Arts College - DePauw

This is a great essay in the Academic Commons on DePauw University's GIS work - "From Project to Program: The DePauw University GIS Center Engaging the Campus With GIS."

Taken together, this modest list outlines the initial components that ultimately led to the creation of a thriving and sustainable Geographic Information Systems (GIS) program at DePauw University.

GIS software and other geospatial technologies are such useful and discipline-spanning utilities yet challenging to use. This article goes into nice depth on how DePauw's GIS program works to bridge the campus community with mapping. As Diana Stuart Sinton puts it "the investment that DePauw has made in its curriculum, personnel, and other resources is clearly paying off!" 

The President's Speech and Thoughts on Paying for Innovation #SOTU

President Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday night had several aspects that should be of interest to educators, scientists and technologists. Readers of this blog, most typically GIS and geospatial specialists, should take heart in some of the ideas brought forward by the President.  Though Obama stressed innovation in fuel and medical technologies, and I will not hypothesize on what Winning the Future might mean, I argue that strength in all areas of technology and innovation will be critical for the nation's future on the global front. 

Some highlights from Obama's speech:

We'll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology - an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

and

That's what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we've begun to reinvent our energy policy. We're not just handing out money. We're issuing a challenge. We're telling America's scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we'll fund the Apollo projects of our time.

We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I'm asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don't know if you've noticed, but they're doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday's energy, let's invest in tomorrow's.

This sounds good and it appears to be a plea for an increase in innovative ideas. But when the President says "we're not just handing out money," I fear that that may be exactly what is done. How will the President go about encouraging America's "scientists and engineers" to "innovate"? 

We have to out-innovate, out-educate and out-build the rest of the world.

How? My thought is we need to work on the pipeline of young minds who will be doing the innovating. 

As Obama said, we are a nation of Google and Facebook, homegrown technologies that didn't sprout in a medical lab or an engineering school.  How do we cultivate in grades K to 12 and in colleges and universities more Sergey Brins, Mark Zuckerbergs, and Bill Gates when we do not place importance on teaching with, about and how to use technology? Though I usually feel government spending on education is sacrosanct, I think we need to tap the business sector more and seek more "innovative" technological funding ideas from all of the corporations that benefit from smart, technological young minds. I wrote my thoughts on this idea for an opinion piece in Educause Quarterly. Rather than rely on Uncle Sam to fix it and rather than expect Microsoft or Google to fix it, all areas of the private sector benefit from a technologically ready and capable workforce.

And one more thing, it must involve more than the scientists and engineers to work out the real problems we are facing right now, so let's spread around the responsibility.

I co-opted the above image from the White House's Flickr site.

Can You (Really) Map on an iPad?

I wanted to find out whether anyone has figured out how to use an iPad to map with. I tried out an iPad (with 3G) a couple of months ago and used the Google Earth app, Google Maps app and ESRI's GIS app. With plenty of nearby cell service, I could find myself pretty accurately. Great! But I could not for the life of me figure out how to save a location and, thus, create a KML.

I put the question to a list that I'm on plus I sent out a call on Twitter.  Because I think information like this should be freed from the lock-box of email threads and Twitter streams, I am compiling my findings here. I should also say that I am a known skeptic when it comes to the iPad. My research was out of self-interest as I am writing a paper on using tablet PCs in field-based classes and I wanted to talk about alternative mapping technologies. (The geologist in the photo is using a Toughbook, just to confuse you/get your attention.) The reviewers of our paper did not believe me and my collaborators when we said that iPads were not a viable mapping option.

What do you think?

My question:
Dear NY GIS-users list:

I am collecting information on whether anyone has tried to use an iPad for data collection. Whether you tried and failed or tried and found success, I am most interested in use of the iPad for mapping. Can it be used for collecting and saving points, lines and polygons? Or if you do Google: placemarks, paths, and polygons?  Using the iPad's 3G capability, one can get a fairly accurate location when using ESRI's mapping app or Google Maps or Earth, but can one actually map location and saving and share as a shapefile or KML?

Many thanks,
Meg Stewart

Geospatial Instructional Technologist

_______

Meg,

The android operating system has similar capabilities.
See also  http://www.seeclickfix.com/citizens

Brgds,
Susan
_______

Hi Meg,

I saw your question on the list serv and thought you might be interested in an app that we have developed, MobileRecon. Attached are two PDFs with additional info [Note: just look at the link]. There are actually new features in addition to what is in the brochures, so, if you're interested, let me know and I can detail those for you. While MobileRecon is built for iPhone, we have a version in the works for iPad that takes advantage of its larger surface area.

http://navagis.com/Mobile_Recon.php

Best, Jay
________

This summers On the Cutting Edge GIS and Remote Sensing workshop had a number of us exploring this. On one field day we had a mix of iPads, Toughbooks and Tablets running ArcPad, ArcMap and other software. Still working out best methods for mapping directly on the iPad, but a consensus was that this had real promise. I'll be exploring more this spring. We looked at using ESRI Arc on iPad, GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps and MotionX GPS HD.

Key points were,

-need cellular service to access imagery/servers in the field
-GPS was quite good in most cases (we were working in "good" environments)
-screen visibility was good, and in many cases much better than tablets
-iPad will not hold up like Toughbook, but does not cost $5000 either
-ziplock bag worked well to "weatherproof" iPad
-stylus needed to draw accurately

I'm currently testing BlueSLR app & hardware that links iPad and digital camera to encode GPS data in the EXIF data of digital photos.

Be really interested in hearing what others have to say on this.

Cheers,

Dave
_______

Via Twitter
@TheSteve0  @meg_stewart the browser would let you do it with something like openlayers - but not potlach2 since that is flash #GIS#ipad

Nottingham Caves Survey Using LiDAR

Check out the Nottingham Caves web site and video with its remarkable use of LiDAR imagery. This from the web site:

"The Nottingham Caves Survey is in the process of recording all of Nottingham’s 450+ sandstone caves. The project is now underway and we are surveying caves even as you read this. Keep checking the website for newly-surveyed caves! You can read more about the caves, see photographs, watch fly-through videos and take virtual tours by clicking the links on the Cave Map below...."

Check out all three videos here.

Caption for image: Laser scanned orthographic plan of the Goose Gate caves, Nottingham. These caves include a medieval malt kiln, 18th-century brewery cellars and a 19th-century butchery. Credit: Trent & Peak Archaeology / The University of Nottingham.

Thanks to a tweet from Geoparadigm. Wow's the word, AC!

Digital Humanities - Or How Geospatial Technologies Creep Into the Liberal Arts

The New York Times had an article on digital humanities yesterday. Though it may not be a thrilling time for humanities-focused disciplines, it seems a thriving time for digital humanities with grant money flowing in and places like the George Mason Univ's Center for History and New Media in the news on a regular basis.

From the Times article by Patricia Cohen:"The next big idea in language, history and the arts? Data."

And much of that digital humanistic data has space and time attached to it as many of the projects listed in Cohen's piece are geospatial in nature or scope. And that's why I'm thrilled with all the digital humanities interest. Check out the Thomas Jefferson project out of the Univ of Virginia. Of course, history, religion and language were affected by place, topography, landscape, weather. You know, mappeable variables. But (some) historians and the like are now mapping those variables to analyze for patterns.

"Some pioneering efforts began years ago, but most humanities professors remain unaware, uninterested or unconvinced that digital humanities has much to offer. Even historians, who have used databases before, have been slow to embrace the trend."

This I know all too well. I knew a professor interested in incorporating environmental and geospatial context in his Israel and Palestinian Authority course or one who wanted to map New York City neighborhoods from the 1920s to look at how demographics affected one writer's novels. The stumbling block for these and the many other professors - inside and outside the humanities - who wanted to investigate geospatial relationships but did not learn GIS while getting the PhD was taking the time to do/learn/keep up with/incorporate GIS into teaching and research which would only hurt those assistant professors when it came time for review for tenure. I lost them all that way. These digital humanities projects take a person devoted to the task of finding the hard copy materials, digitizing the information, interpreting the data along with colleagues, making those data presentable to a potentially non-academic audience. Large groups of professionals, some teaching and some not, at places like the CHNM or at the Univ of Virginia's Scholar's Lab are where these projects can take shape and make digital data come alive. 

One other aspect of this Times article that pleases me is the full mention, praise even, for GIS. They even spelled it out. I've had issues in the past with the Times writing stories with a geospatial angle and never mentioning the mapping that made the magic happen.

I found some of the inevitable Twitter back-chatter that followed the posting of the Times piece quite interesting. Here are two from Dan Cohen:

A) "7 stages of reaction to digital humanities: 1. Ignorance 2. Belittling 3. Denial 4. "Well, digital archives are useful" ... (1/2)"

and

B) "... 5. "Wait, how did you do that?" 6. "You mean it can complement our other ways of knowing?" 7. Acceptance. (2/2)"

and a followed from Tom Scheinfeldt: "@dancohen But what I'd most like to see is #8: "hey, let's work together."

Yep, that sounds about right. I don't think things are quite there yet, I mean at numbers 7 or 8 (see quote above), at small liberal arts colleges but we must be moving in the right direction.

Map of Global Underwater Internet Cabling

Here's a nice web map - Greg's Cable Map - of internet cabling around the world. Zoom in and see the location where the cabling comes on land as well as the providers. It's interesting to see where you've been and where the internet access was sub-optimal (Belize, for instance) and see why.

This came to my attention via Bryan Alexander.

See the full gallery on Posterous

My Last Day of the My Fulbright

I had my last day of my Fulbright fellowship at CERMES and the University of the West Indies last Friday. I probably should have posted this earlier in the week but here it is. Short and sweet.

This year has been a gift to me. I have had a golden opportunity to spread my wings and take flight and I have had encouragement and a stable base to do so. Sure, I contributed some of my expertise to a few projects. But I gained so much more than I gave. Last Friday the department gave me a coffee, tea, and banana bread party send-off. It wasn't until a little later when I got in my car to drive home that I cried. I cried nearly the entire way home. What a joy to weep about missing a place that embraced me in such a short period of time.

The first project I worked on I did some final edits and additions. You may recall that work was a Google Earth project based on data from the Grenadines. Here is the MarSIS project site. Here is the project KML (will open in Google Earth). Take a look. It came out great, I think. But would love your feedback if the user experience is less than satisfying.

The second project was to organize the CERMES GIS data library. There were already some geodata up on the CERMES server but I just added some more data, organized by country and region, and set up a template for future data to be added. I hope this helps the students out. I'm not a librarian. I should try to go back and get an MLS degree if I really wanted to be an effective GIS consultant, but I don't think I have the time. I really do admire librarians, though.

This week has been spent packing and reflecting and filled with lasts...last full moon, last flying fish sandwich, last Magnum bar, last trip to Animal Flower Cave...our flight back home is Monday. Back to New York. Back to reality.

Mapping the #hackacad Contributors

I saw a tweet about a graph of Hacking the Academy contributors compiled by Adam Crymble. It was an interesting look at who submitted entries or papers or posts for the crowd-sourced book-in-a-week project. Hacking the Academy is a project out of the Center for History and New Media located at George Mason University. (tag: #hackacad) Tom Scheinfeld and Dan Cohen are heading it up. The graph that Adam assembled was heavily skewed towards GMU. I wanted to see if there was more geographic diversity amongst the contributors.

I asked Adam if he would share his data and, like any good open-source scholar, he did. I took his spreadsheet, added some more details to Adam's truly amazing detective work, found some addresses, added group blog entries and Profhacker posts by location of the writer. Then I used Batchgeocode to get latitude and longitude for each contributor which allowed me to create a map (in ArcGIS 9.2) showing where the contributions came from.

The map above shows small black dots for each essay or article. Most submissions are from North America and the northeast is heavily favored. With this approach you cannot tell that there are, for instance, 40 essays from GMU or that Canberra, Australia, has six entries since all of the points for one location align on top of each other. So I did a density map for the points.

Using a cluster analysis (shown above) on the points with density type: kernel; output cell size: 0.5; and search radius: 25 sq map units, I still get a similar view of the contributions, with some hint of action in the UK area.

I put together a Google Earth KMZ file for these data. Find it here (launches Google Earth).

What I want to do is make a map mashup so that all the points show up at once on a world map. I couldn't get it to work. If anyone knows how to add over 300 points (by latitude and longitude) to a web map, please help a mapper out!

I could make a mashup using BatchGeocode but 1) I couldn't get all the 314 points onto one single map, and 2) multiple entries for a single location show up as ONE entry. Here they are:

Link to larger map shown below (US Contributors)

Link to the larger map shown below (Non-US Contributors)

 

Thanks Adam! This was fun.