GIS In The Rockies Keynote: How to Remain Relevant in the Age of Change

Technology moves fast and when you have your head down doing your job, it is easy to miss where the spatial industry is headed. But you don't have to stay focused on Twitter all day to know how to keep your skills relevant. There are a couple technologies that GIS and Mapping use that will keep you on top of today's technology trends and make sure you are completely relevant in today's workforce. James will go over some amazingly simple ways to make sure you don't get left behind and give you the tools to be successful in any GIS job.

Transcript

1. How  to  Remain  Relevant  in  the  Age  of  Change
   or  
   What  GIS  Pros  Can  Do  to  
   Keep  Their  Skills  in  Demand
   Stormtroopers  On  A  Wire  by  Pedro  Vezini  hEp://flic.kr/p/8RRLk5
   

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2. • 19  year  GIS  veteran
   • Started  own  consul5ng  
   company  in  2013
   • Blogs  at  spa5allyadjusted.com
   • Doesn’t  own  a  GPS
   • Has  a  working  
   SPARCsta5on  20
   A  LiEle  
   About  Me
   

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3. The  Future…
   isn’t  always
   what  you  expect
   

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4. Photo  by  drmacro  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/83i2aa
   I  loved  to  look  at  maps  at  a  young  age.    These  AAA  TripTik  maps  were  par5cularly  awesome  in  that  they  routed  you  to  your  des5na5on.
   

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5. Photo  by  sylvar  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/o8EML
   Efficiency  it  was  not,  these  things  were  put  together  by  hand  and  you’d  best  hope  they  didn’t  skip  a  page!
   

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6. Photo  by  Tambako  the  Jaguar  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/81nfaV
   Like  most  GIS  people  I  enjoyed  Risk,  nothing  like  using  a  map  as  a  board.    In  face  we  usually  dumped  the  default  Risk  board  and  used  an  atlas  
   for  real  world  domina5on.
   

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7. Photo  by  larskflem  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/7Kr4J
   My  favorite  pas5me?    Reading  an  atlas.    It  was  by  my  bed  and  I  leafed  through  it  every  night.    I  think  I  looked  at  every  label  on  every  map  over  
   and  over  again.    Honestly  these  books  are  a  lost  art.
   

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9. I  took  to  programming  at  an  early  age  too.    Logo  was  an  awesome  way  to  get  introduced  to  programming  a  computer.
   

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10. But  quickly  I  outgrew  Logo  and  even  BASIC  and  looked  to  Pascal.    Once  I  determined  you  didn’t  get  a  Porsche  for  using  it,  I  moved  on.
    

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11. I  think  the  thing  that  really  caught  me  was  HyperCard.    It  used  HyperTalk  to  control  user  ac5ons  and  was  similar  to  Pascal.    It  was  probably  the  
    most  popular  hypermedia  system  before  the  internet.
    

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12. I  created  applica5ons  that  created  a  front  end  to  a  database.    
    

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13. The  Modern
    Waldseemüller
    I  had  vision  of  being  a  modern  Waldseemuller….
    

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14. Photo  by  Manitoba  Historical  Maps  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/4jPTyW
    Oblique  view  of  Winnipeg,  awesome  stuff.
    

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15. Photo  by  noaha  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/CkruJ
    Alas,  I  could  only  draw  scribbbles.
    

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16. I  turned  to  computers  to  give  me  more  fine  grained  control  that  AutoCAD  couldn’t  at  the  5me.  
    

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17. I  started  to  do  amazing  computer  cartography  such  as  this.    Yea  it’s  blank,  my  work  is  stuck  on  this  old  SyQuest  Media…
    

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18. I  also  dabbled  in  the  web  back  when  you  could  almost  throw  anything  up  and  get  visits.
    

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19. I  can’t  find  a  copy  of  an  early  page  of  mine  but  I  like  to  think  it  included  an  awesome  background.
    

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20. Arc/INFO
    Then  I  discovered  arc  
    

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24. neon  takeaway  by  skipratmedia  hEp://flic.kr/p/uUuKX
    

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26. always
    be
    learning
    A
    B
    L
    

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28. Change  is  constant!
    But  one  thing  is  sure,  always  embrace  it…
    

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29. What  is  GIS?
    Who  Cares?
    GIS is hard to define - GISP Example
    Spend less time worrying about what GIS is and more doing GIS
    

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30. What  are  GIS  Professionals?
    Programmers!
    GIS professionals are programmers!
    

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31. Say
    Wut?
    

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32. Programmer  
    /=  
    Developer
    Photo  by  Joachim  S.  Müller  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/egrei2
    A programmer is not a developer
    Programmer writes code
    Developer builds software applications
    

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33. My mom was a programmer in the 60’s (that isn’t her).
    She told computers how to manipulate data from hospitals for
    insurance purposes.
    

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34. James’  Definibon  of  a  GIS  Professional
    Someone  digitally  creates  and  
    "manipulates"  spabal  areas  that  may  
    be  jurisdicbonal,  purpose,  or  
    applicabon-­‐oriented.
    Now why did I bold manipulate?
    

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35. Image  aEribubon:  ESRI  Internabonal  User  Conference  -­‐  2011  -­‐  San  Diego,  California  by  Kris  Krüg  hEp://flic.kr/p/a2rdhq  CC  BY-­‐NC-­‐SA  2.0
    When Jack is up on stage, he’s showcasing how GIS Pros are
    programming ArcGIS to manipulate spatial data
    

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36. History  of  GIS  Professionals
    Photo  by  Johnson  Cameraface  -­‐  hEp://flic.kr/p/dwQdSq
    

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37. Rise  of  the  Database
    

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38. Rise  of  the  Internet
    

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40. PR1ME  COMPUTER
    Prime  made  minicomputers  for  most  of  the  70s  and  80s.    The  original  ArcInfo  ran  on  it.
    

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41. Sun
    Microsystems  
    SPARCtower  6  by  storem  hEp://flic.kr/p/k79fJ
    Prime  made  minicomputers  for  most  of  the  70s  and  80s.    The  original  ArcInfo  ran  on  it.
    

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42. Mobile
    We’ve  embraced  mobile  devices  for  years
    

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43. Some  of  them  are  extremely  sexy
    

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44. These  mesa  devices  are  among  my  favorite
    

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46. Just  think  about  how  much  more  enjoyable  the  world  would  have  been  with  GIS  people  at  the  5p  of  the  spear.
    

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47. Big  Data
    Big  data  is  a  buzz  word…
    

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48. GIS  has  feasted  on  big  data  for  years.    I  mean  who  other  than  GIS  people  cares  that  there  is  a  4GB  limit  to  TIFF  or  that  a  JPG  can  only  be  30,000  
    pixels  wide?
    

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49. Why  Do  GIS  Professionals  Stay  
    

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50. GIS  Professionals  Assimilate  New  
    

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51. GIS  is  at  the  Forefront
    Python
    3D
    JavaScript
    Mobile
    XML
    .NET
    Scrip5ng
    GPS
    iOS
    RDBMS
    Database
    Big  Data
    Cloud
    Websites
    GRID
    Android
    Metadata
    Macintosh
    Windows
    Prin5ng
    JSON
    Vector
    UAV
    Sta5s5cs
    Data  Management
    UI
    Archiving
    KML
    Raster
    HTML5
    Prototyping
    Java
    All  these  great  technologies!
    

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52. We  Push  the  Envelope
    We  push  the  envelope
    

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53. hEp://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/2989238425/
    Python
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/wwarby/2989238425/
    

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54. If  you  like  GIS,  you  like  stabsbcs
    If  you  like  stabsbcs,  you  like  
    baseball
    If  you  like  baseball,  you  should  
    root  for  the  2012  World  Series  
    Champion  San  Francisco  Giants
    

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55. Baseball  as  an  Excuse  to  
    Program
    

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57. NYY 95 67 .586 +136
    BAL 93 69 .574 +7
    TAM 90 72 .556 +120
    TOR 73 89 .451 -68
    BOS 69 93 .426 -72
    DET 88 74 .543 +56
    CHS 85 77 .525 +72
    KAN 72 90 .444 -70
    CLE 68 94 .420 -178
    MIN 66 96 .407 -131
    OAK 94 68 .580 +99
    TEX 93 69 .574 +101
    LAA 89 73 .549 +68
    SEA 75 87 .463 -32
    WAS 98 64 .605 +137
    ATL 94 68 .580 +100
    PHI 81 81 .500 +4
    NYM 74 88 .457 -59
    MIA 69 93 .426 -115
    CIN 97 65 .599 +81
    STL 88 74 .543 +117
    MIL 83 79 .512 +43
    PIT 79 83 .488 -23
    CHC 61 101 .377 -146
    HOU 55 107 .340 -211
    SFG 94 68 .580 +69
    LAD 86 76 .531 +40
    ARI 81 81 .500 +46
    SDP 76 86 .469 -59
    COL 64 98 .395 -132
    

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58. #!/usr/bin/python
    from  scipy  import  stats
    from  pylab  import  *
    #  Read  in  the  data.
    mlb  =  loadtxt('mlb.txt',  dtype=[('team',  'S3'),  ('w',  'i'),  ('l',  'i'),  ('pct',  'f'),    
    ('rdiff',  'i')])
    #  Plot  the  data  with  invisible  points.
    scatter(mlb['rdiff'],  mlb['w'],  s=0)
    xlabel('Run  differential')
    ylabel('Wins')
    #  Put  team  names  at  the  data  points.
    for  (t,  w,  rd)  in  zip(mlb['team'],  mlb['w'],  mlb['rdiff']):
      text(rd,  w,  t,  size=9,
        horizontalalignment='center',  verticalalignment='center')
    #  Perform  the  linear  regression
    m,  b,  r,  p,  stderr  =  stats.linregress(mlb['rdiff'],  mlb['w'])
    #  Get  endpoints  of  regression  line  and  plot  it.
    rdMin  =  min(mlb['rdiff'])
    wMin  =  m*rdMin  +  b
    rdMax  =  max(mlb['rdiff'])
    wMax  =  m*rdMax  +  b
    plot([rdMin,  rdMax],  [wMin,  wMax])
    show()
    PyLab: NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib, and IPython (Replaces MATLAB)
    SciPy: linear regression
    matplotlib: plotting tools
    

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61. Rainbows  and  Unicorns
    

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62. The  Future  for  GIS  
    Professionals
    

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63. So  You  Want  to  be  a
    Word  Processor
    Dames & Moore
    4 people in an office of 100
    10 years ago you could make a career doing this.
    

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64. The  Future  for
    Word  Processors
    Dames & Moore
    4 people in an office of 100
    10 years ago you could make a career doing this.
    

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65. What’s the future for GIS?
    

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66. If  You...
    • Put  points  on  a  map  and  throw  up  a  
    scale  bar
    • Perform  geoprocessing  without  Python  
    or  Model  Builder
    • Have  a  job  descrip5on  of  “Ploier  
    Operator”
    • Have  no  idea  what  “fuzzy  tolerance”  is
    

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67. You’ll  be  out  of  a  job
    

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68. If  You...
    • Embrace  Python  as  your  GIS  tool  of  
    choice.
    • Use  Model  Builder  to  automate  your  
    work  flows.
    • Learn  new  tools  such  as  TileMill/
    Mapnik/PostGIS
    

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69. Bringing ArcView to the browser requires someone to create
    Geoprocessing scripts to enable that. You want to be that guy.
    

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70. So  go  out  and  hug  a  globe  today!
    

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71. Prinbng,  gunpowder  and  the  compass:
    These  three  have  changed  the  whole  face  
    and  state  of  things  throughout  the  world
    Francis  Bacon
    

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72. Francis  Bacon
    Andrew  Turner
    Prinbng,  gunpowder  and  the  compass:
    Internet,  mobile  phones  and  the  GPS:
    These  three  have  changed  the  whole  face
    and  state  of  things  throughout  the  world
    Andrew  Turner  puts  it  so  very  well!
    

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73. Contact
    James  Fee  –  Founder  Spa5ally  Adjusted
    email:  james@spa5allyadjusted.net
    voice:  480-­‐225-­‐2287
    web:  spa5allyadjusted.com
    twiier:  @cageyjames
    Slide  Deck:  hip://bit.ly/gitr13_key
    

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