new jersey geographer » Rowan University

Back to the New Normal

John Reiser — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 19:24:03 +0000

It’s been a while since I last posted to the ol’ Blog. After I returned from the DevSummit in March, my free time dwindled down to nothing. The end of the spring semester has been a whirlwind of activity; developing an online course, tackling several research projects, presenting at the National Guard’s CFMO University, and the usual end of the semester tasks like grading, projects, etc. Now that the semester is over and I’m a little more free to tackle projects, I hope that I’ll be able to blog some more about GIS in New Jersey. I’m still going to be busy; we have two faculty members to replace and even more students in our GIS courses, but I think summer will be a good time for me to refocus on programming and developing our GeoLab into a more robust research lab.

One interesting project that has popped up recently is NJ’s Broadband Map. You can dig through the data to find which areas of the State are served with broadband Internet. I think the color scheme needs to be rethought, as dark green to light purple is better suited to divergent or bimodal data, not to a linear progression of 1 to 8 broadband providers.

I’ll be at the ESRI DevMeetup tonight in Philadelphia, giving a lightning talk on the Land Change Viewer app I developed. Next week at the NJGF, I’ll give a 5 minute talk on the ArcGIS license monitor application I’m writing. I’ve got a couple other tidbits in the pipeline and hopefully I’ll be able to share them here in the next few weeks.

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Post tags: Broadband, DevMeetup, New Jersey Geospatial Forum, Rowan University

High Expectations for Barnes & Nobles in Glassboro

John Reiser — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:56:50 +0000

It’s only the third day and Barnes and Nobles is starting to disappoint me. I understand that they just opened, but I feel that the disappointments are only going to continue. The selection of books is minimal; on par with or less than the regular selection at the Deptford store. Being “faculty,” I will be able to request that they stock a few extra copies of books I “recommend” (not require) but these books will not be in the general circulation; they will be upstairs with the rest of the textbooks. The Art (and thus Architecture) section is undersized, as well as the Social Sciences/Cultural Studies. This means that Geography and Planning books have a very small, blink-and-miss-it section of shelf in the general circulation.

Currently, the wifi in the Cafe section does not work, so when this is posted, it will be later, from on campus. This should, I hope, only be a temporary inconvenience. Last night, on their second day open, I stopped by at 9:30 after grocery shopping. They were closed. The Cafe, while able to be open for a longer period than the main store, is not. Both the bookstore and the cafe are going to close at the same time, 9pm. This is an incredible disappointment. I also found from the Cafe staff this morning that there are no currently no plans to change the arrangement, even though I heard B&N staff inform the police (during a walkthrough on opening day) that the cafe can be open later. I know “can” and “will” are two very different words, but my hopes are diminishing.

Maybe I have to wait for more of the Rowan Boulevard project to be completed. After all, this B&N is the only commercial building on the street. From where I sit, I can see work proceed on the mixed use “A-1″ building, which will hopefully generate more of a street life on Rowan Boulevard. I still have high hopes for the project overall, but even after it is complete, if Glassboro’s going to roll up the streets at 9pm, the only incentive I have to live in the ‘Boro is that I’m within biking distance of Rowan.

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Post tags: Barnes & Noble, Glassboro, Rowan Boulevard, Rowan University

Projects featured on Rowan’s home page

John Reiser — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 00:59:37 +0000

I’m proud to say that I now have two articles written about my work that have been featured on the Rowan University home page.

Most recently, Mapping the Guard (still on the home page) was posted, detailing the great work performed by students for the New Jersey National Guard. I’m very pleased to be heading up this internship program, because I feel that the students leaving the program will be excellent candidates for GIS positions. The students are learning about SDSFIE and other data schema, how to edit data in a multi-user environment, and working with web-based GIS services.

Way back when I was still an adjunct, Mapping the Campus in Layers was written. It’s a good read, because now that I’m at the University full time, I’ve worked to put the pieces together so that we can do much more.

Check back within two weeks about one of the projects we’re working on now. It might not be front-page material, but I’m sure you’ll find it interesting.

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Post tags: ArcGIS, Internship, Mapping, Rowan University, SDSFIE, Web Mapping

blog update

John Reiser — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:58:22 +0000

After far, far too long, I’m updating this blog. I originally intended to use this blog to highlight interesting geography and GIS articles with a short commentary. I’ve decided to change direction – the updates you find here will be (hopefully) substantial updates and original content. I hope to return to somewhat frequent posting, at least once a week.

So what about those links I should’ve been postin’? Well, geography and GIS links are now “microblogged” using Twitter and Facebook. My new employer, Rowan University, is working to develop a Geographic Research Lab. I’ve created a page for the Lab on Rowan’s web site, Facebook, and Twitter. If you’re interested in GIS/Geography news, check us out.

In the near future, I hope to have an update here about my experience uploading a very large GIS data set to OpenStreetMap. We’ll see how that goes, considering my wife’s due date is next week.

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Post tags: geolab, Rowan University, Updates

Getting hooked on OpenStreetMap

John Reiser — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 01:42:19 +0000

I recently became involved in OpenStreetMap. After watching it from the sidelines for the past year, I recently started contributing to the map. I wrote a python script to export lines and polygons from ArcGIS to OSM. You can see the results of the script by zooming into Rowan University, where I’ve exported the campus buildings and uploaded them. I’ve also been working to get the various cycle routes throughout the State into OSM. Cycle routes are managed by a myriad of local and state entities, and considering DOT informed me that they do not keep any GIS records of the bike routes or facilities, OSM seems like a natural repository for volunteers to collect and share cycle route data.

I’m also planning a course exercise using OSM. I’m going to encourage students to print out their neighborhood using Walking Papers, recording any updates or fixes, then modifying the OSM data via Potlatch or JOSM. Though it will likely be offered as an extra credit assignment initially, I’m hoping I’ll be able to integrate it and other elements of OSM into my courses in the future.

If you have an interest in mapping or GIS, you should check out OpenStreetMap. Sign up for an account, and start updating in your neighborhood. If you’re in New Jersey, I’ve updated OSM’s wiki with links to the cycle maps to be added, as well as instructions on how to add features to OSM using the State’s 2007 aerial photography. If you’d like to collaborate with me on sharing information via OpenStreetMap, let me know. You can follow me on OpenStreetMap here.

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Post tags: assignments, collaboration, courses, cycle maps, cycling, new jersey, OpenStreetMap, Rowan University

Web Mapping featured on Rowan’s homepage

John Reiser — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 23:27:00 +0000

Currently on Rowan’s homepage is an article on the Geography Department‘s work on bring GIS to the greater university community. The article focuses on our recent web mapping work; specifically the Land Use Change viewer and NJ State Atlas. I’m quoted several times in the article, so I’m excited about that.

Direct link to the full article: http://www.rowan.edu/today/news/index/FS/118

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Post tags: New Jersey State Atlas, Rowan University, Web Mapping