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Blog: Chris Harlow on ITSearch The Harlow Report Archives
The 2019 Esri Federal GIS Conference focused on the evolution of geospatial technology and its role in inspiring what’s next in government. Over two days at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C., more than 5,000 attendees came together to explore how continuing advances in GIS make it easier than ever to collaborate, understand, and communicate information in creative new ways.
Recently passed legislation such as the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act and the OPEN Government Data Act highlight the importance of sharing authoritative information and using it to make better decisions. Esri’s Pat Cummens shared how ArcGIS Hub makes it easy for organizations to comply with these new laws while engaging the public and sharing information with stakeholders. More than 4,000 organizations (including 84 US federal agencies) have already enabled open data through ArcGIS Hub, allowing them to share data in opern formats with only a few clicks and feed data catalogs directly to data.gov.
Read full story at Esri.com…
first published week of: 02/04/2019
Well here I am in Michigan slowly but surely refilling my depleted energy reserves. What a UC that was! Getting to present with my wonderful colleagues and interact with our tremendous customers is a real blessing. I look forward to it every year, even though by Friday my life force has been drained to near-reboot-tripping levels. But in a broader sense it feels almost exactly not unlike when WALL·E turns his solar panels to the naked sun in the void of space. My batteries are charged for the full year to come. Thank you everyone for that!
I ran through a lot of demos at the conference, quickly and earnestly. I did this because it’s an opportunity to cover lots of ground and offer attendees a chance to catch ideas or muses, all with the promise that details a-plenty are available to them if they dig around. So to make good on that promise, or at least make the digging less effortful, here are some unearthed resources…
Read full story at ArcGIS Blog…
first published week of: 07/22/2019
Do you think you know everything about the good ol’ U.S. of A.? These fascinating U.S. geography facts are guaranteed to blow your mind.
This article gives you some great conversation starters for your next GIOS conference.
As an example did you know?:
"Get this: If all of us lived at the same density level as New York City, the world’s population would cover about 250,404 square miles. That means there would technically be enough space for all 7.5 billion people to live in Texas, which is 268,597 square miles in total. Granted, things might get a little crowded."
Read full story at Reader's Digest…
first published week of: 03/04/2019
You may know about our trig pillars, but did you know that there are more nostalgic reminders of how we used to map Great Britain? Have you ever seen one of these while you’ve been out and about? If so, it is highly likely you have spotted one of our renowned benchmarks. 2018 marks 25 years since the last traditionally-cut arrow style benchmark was carved on a milestone located outside The Fountain pub in Loughton.
While trig pillars were used as accurate fixed points for mapping coordinates in the National Grid, benchmarks were fixed points which were used to calculate a height above the mean sea level. Benchmarks have been around for a long time, much longer than our trig pillars. While the first systematic network of levelling lines and associated benchmarks was initiated in 1840, some benchmarks in our archive date back to 1831.
Read full story at Ordnance Survey…
first published week of: 12/16/2019
This map system involves the use of GeoSpatial technology for collecting and utilising geographic information.
The Singapore Land Authority’s (SLA) authoritative map system, OneMap, will be upgrading to that of a 3D model. This new model will see the inclusion of building models to display an image of how they will look and of the appearance of the landscape. This model will display existing structures, as well as those which are to be built in the future. These 3D models and landscapes will allow home buyers to get a clearer perspective of the view they will receive from a particular floor of a building. They can also use the feature and carry out a shadow analysis to identify where shadows will fall on a specific building. The launch of this new model was announced by Ms Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office and Second Minister for Finance and Education, at the inaugural Singapore Geospatial Week, a five-day event which focuses on advocating the significance and rise of geospatial technology in Singapore. She said that the model will most likely be ready for use by the end of next year.
Read full story at OpenGov…
first published week of: 09/09/2019
When Muskogee Public Schools was faced with the need to completely redraw the school boundaries in our district, investing in geographic information system (GIS) software was an easy decision. Once the dust settled from that ambitious project, we realized our new GIS tool made available mountains of data that could inform a range of decisions. Here are four that we’re most excited about.
1) Add Transparency to Bond Measures In a few months, Muskogee schools will put a bond issue before the voters in our community. We’re working with the county assessor to get home values and addresses in a GIS format to input to our GIS school locator, a public-facing portal. This will allow parents to tell not only where their child will attend school, but also to get a close estimate of what their property taxes would be upon successful passage of the bond.
Of course, any time you’re asking people for money, the more transparent you can be, the better off you are. The kinds of data we’re able to put out for public consumption will help voters make an informed decision.
2) Improving Equity by Placing Student Data on the Map Since each student has a unique student ID, we’re able to tie their performance data with geography-based data from our GIS software, ONPASS® Pro. We have our district and school boundaries and geocoded student data all in one place on a map. If a school is underperforming, we can go back and look at student factors we may not have considered before, such as whether the struggling students are transfers (and if so, where they’re coming from) or if they live in a part of the district where they’re spending an inordinate amount of time on the bus each day. …
Read full story at MarketScale…
first published week of: 10/28/2019