new jersey geographer » GIS

Some thoughts on the ESRI DevSummit

John Reiser — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:29:16 +0000

I’m back from the sixth ESRI DevSummit. It was a great event full of informative sessions, socializing and networking. This was one of the first conferences in a while where I did not participate more than simply attending. The DevSummit is truly for devoted developers and while I do some development, it’s nowhere near what I could call full time. Many of the user presentations were incredible displays of GIS geekery and I’m still in awe with what some people are doing with the software.(...)
Read the rest of Some thoughts on the ESRI DevSummit on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ArcGIS, Development, DevSummit, ESRI, GIS, mobile, Software

Changing Landscapes: A Million Little Tiles

John Reiser — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:00:03 +0000

The New Jersey Land Change Viewer, the online component of the Changing Landscapes research project required the generation of approximately one million map tiles. These tiles needed to be served quickly – the online viewer is meant to make the findings of the project and the ramifications of New Jersey’s urbanization patterns readily apparent to the general public. Long wait times do not help get your point across, so we used Amazon Web Services to store and distribute the map tiles.

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Read the rest of Changing Landscapes: A Million Little Tiles on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Amazon, Apache Tomcat, Arc2Earth, Changing Landscapes, CRSSA, geolab, Geoserver, GIS, Google Maps, TileCache

Changing Landscapes: Brainstorming

John Reiser — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 10:00:40 +0000

This gets the GIS geeks excited.

Back in June, the New Jersey DEP Bureau of GIS released the 2007 Land Use/Land Cover data. The data was released in record time, just slightly over 3 years from the aerial photography date. We felt that we needed to release our findings as soon as possible after the release of the data. Before the data was released, John and I began discussing ways that we could make the data presentable to the public in a much more engaging manner than static maps in a PDF report.
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Read the rest of Changing Landscapes: Brainstorming on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Changing Landscapes, CRSSA, DEP, geolab, GIS, Google Earth, Google Maps, KML, LULC

Please Rob Me: What’s the big deal?

John Reiser — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:36:51 +0000

There’s been a flurry of posts across the web about Please Rob Me, a site that aggregates check-ins on sites like FourSquare, illustrating the fact that we’ve known all along: people are willing to release more information than they realize. Outrage follows once the fact that technology allows information to be easily aggregated and distributed is demonstrated like this. (...)
Read the rest of Please Rob Me: What’s the big deal? on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: foursquare, GIS, Privacy, social networking

Student Experiences with OpenStreetMap

John Reiser — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:08:03 +0000

This semester, I integrated OpenStreetMap into my GIS II class by requiring students to research an area on OSM that lacked detail and update the map. OSM is a great real-world demonstration of some of the GIS principles we’re discussing in the class, such as topology and how different models represent features in the real world.

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Read the rest of Student Experiences with OpenStreetMap on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: geography, GIS, OpenStreetMap, Teaching

God help us.

John Reiser — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:29:22 +0000

GIS for Dummies has been released. Aren’t there already too many people abusing GIS?

Doesn’t the advanced nature of GIS preclude a “Dummies” book? I can understand Google Earth for Dummies, as that software is geared more towards general use, but this just baffles me.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Books, dummies, GIS

Wired on Open-Source Planning

John Reiser — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 23:20:23 +0000

Atanas sent me a link to this article on Wired about the Open Planning Project. I think the Open Planning Project is a great group and GeoServer is a cool application, however I think Wired missed the point. They quote Thomas Wright, the head of RPA: “99 percent of planning in the United States is volunteer citizens on Tuesday nights in a high school gym.” This simply is not the case, and it is unfortunate.

Planning should be a stakeholder-driven process. Charrettes and workshops should be conducted for every local “big issue” and Vision Statements and Plans should be formulated for every town. Be it an incorporated municipality or a locality within a township – every “place” should have a vision. In New Jersey, we’re not at that point yet and we need to make a considerable, coordinated effort to see visioning performed in towns with some regularity.

I think the need for “Open-Source Planning” is real. It is attainable with the technology we now have. The Internet helps democratize the planning process by allowing for greater access to information. The Internet is another avenue for gathering public opinion and performing outreach. Unprecedented public involvement is now possible through the Internet. Despite the gains we’ve made through technology, we cannot rely on software alone to make the planning process more open. We need people (and governing bodies and bureacracies) to embrace openness. Only then will we have “open-source planning.”

I realize Wired is going to focus primarily on the technology, however there are considerable efforts being made now in the planning & GIS circles to make these planning efforts more open. These efforts are people-driven, not software-driven. You can put up as many interactive maps as you like, if there aren’t concerned citizens in a town, no one’s going to see them.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Community Visioning, Geoserver, GIS, open source, Planning