Category Archives: Spatial IT/GIS
The Enablers of GIS
The late Roger Tomlinson is credited with being the father of GIS, but, without the commercial success of Jack and Laura Dangermond’s company, Esri, GIS would never have touched our lives the way it has. This year Esri celebrates its 50th year, though you won’t find any huge announcements from them about it as Jack...
MOOC ado about Reskilling
Our new geospatial graduates have every reason to be happy. The good news that came out in April is that there are more vacant jobs in the U.S. than unemployed people, the highest amount in 50 years. And this jobs boom is a global pattern that extends to almost all industries, including the professional services...
The Latest in GIS Research
Newcastle University was host to the 2019 conference. Trends with UAVs, spatial data, and data use from GISRUK 2019. GISRUK is the annual GIS research conference in the UK that showcases the latest in GIS (geographical information science) and geomatics research from the UK and across Europe. I attended the four-day conference at Newcastle University,...
Esri UK Conference 2019 Recap
Every year towards the end of May, Esri UK, the UK distributer for Esri software, holds a user conference across the road from Westminster, the home of the UK parliament (when I was there I even got to see Jacob Reese Mogg). It’s held at the QE2 centre, and there are amazing views from the fifth floor which allow...
“Welcome to Africa” via GIS
While in the middle of teaching GIS to my masters students, the squeaky ceiling fan above us suddenly went off. It was another power cut, the third in two hours. “Bienvenue en Afrique, Monsieur,” quipped one of my best students, making everyone laugh. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Welcome to Africa, or precisely,...
ArcGIS Excalibur
A new “un-GIS” GIS tool enables access, measurement, analysis, and markup capabilities for images – for everyone. Many years ago, during the era of cinematography and good old-fashioned film, they used to edit movies by cutting the film with a pair of 9-inch scissors; these were called “excalibur.” This sets the scene for the new...