GIS Pathway Blog

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

It wasn’t too long a go that I was submitting my application for the GIS Professional certification.  Now, I on the eve of taking the Esri Technical Certification exam for Desktop Professional.  Although there are Esri Technical Certification Prep Courses, I was not able to take one.  I am reviewing a few resources and books.  I really don’t believe there are any better preparation methods other than pure experience with the software.  I am taking over 5 years of experience with me to complete the exam.  Four years comes from practical application a planner and a little over a year experience as a support analyst for the software.  We’ll see how it all goes.

It has been 5 years in the making.  I had never heard about GISP certification until I started working with GIS over 5 years ago.  My boss told me about it and from that day I set my sights on it.  A few years into the process I wrote GISP Certification – Start Now! to describe the process and the value of the certification.  Once I hit the 4 year mark for the minimum require experience I was just a few points short and also $250 short for the application fee.

Thankfully the GISCI started a map contest with a partial prize of having your fee waived.  So in March 2011 I put together my best map and entered the contest (GISCI Map Contest…..Go Vote!).  With a lot of support from some friends I was able to win the People’s Choice Award and also 3rd place overall.  With that win, I had my fee covered.

I now could finalize my application and send it in.  So, this week I squeezed it into an envelope and mailed it off.  By the way, it was a total of 110 pages.  Hopefully in a few weeks it will get approved and I will be able to officially say that I am a GISP!

The GIS Certification institute recently had a map contest. The top 12 maps were decided on by the map contest committee. The top 3 will be decided upon by guest judges. The remaining prize is the People’s Choice Award.

The People’s Choice award will be decided by the map with the most “LIKES” on The GISCI Facebook page.

I am honored to have my map in the top 12. You are welcome to vote for any map; however, I could really use your vote.

So what does the winner get? Try $500 cash and their GISP Certification fee waived.

Yes the cash would be helpful to me and my family, but the fee being waived is equally important. I started my journey almost 5 years ago and I am now eligible to apply for the certification. The only think I lack is the application fee.

Thank you for taking the time to check out the GISCI Map Contest!

I have heard the term Google Fusion a few times in the past, but I had not explored too deeply into it until this week.  I found that it is really easy to take a spreadsheet of data and create interactive web maps.

As you can see I have incorporated this functionality into my colleges map from the GIS Pathway main site. It is not close to being finished yet, but it is making progress. I would eventually like to have the list of colleges in a table on the same pages as the map. It would even be cool if they linked up with each other. We’ll, see what all Google Fusion can do.

I have a personal connection with SkillsUSA and the Geospatial Technology contest as I competed in 2009.  I believe that it is a great program with a lot of potential.  This year’s competition expanded to include a high school competition in addition to the college/post secondary competition.

Here are the winners for this year’s competition:

College/Post Secondary

Gold - Daniel R LeVrier (Central New Mexico Community College)
Silver - Kenneth Newman (Central New Mexico Community College)
Bronze - Charles Jetty (Central New Mexico Community College)

High School

Gold -  Emily Guzman (Jack E. Singley Academy, Irving, TX)
Silver - Alexandria Bell (Breithaupt Vo-Tech Center,  Detroit, MI)

Also a big thank you to this year’s sponsors:

Esri

Digital Quest, Inc

GeoTech Center

Check out these blogs from the 2010 Esri International User Conference.  This list will be updated frequently.  If I am missing a blog, let me know. (@GISpathway)

LIVE Blogs

VerySpatial - Frank (@Nojopar) will be updating the blog every 5-10 minute throughout the plenary.

James Fee - James Fee (@cageyjames) works for WeoGeo and will be keeping us updated live.

Recap Blogs

Dave Bouwman -  (@dbouwman)

Brian Noyle - (@bnoyle) “not updated yet”

Spatial Sustain - Matt Ball (@spatialsustain)

ArcGIS Online at the UC 2010 Plenary - Part I (via @bernszukalski)

ArcGIS 10 at the UC - via the Esri Developer Blog
More on ArcGIS 10 from the ESRI UC

Esri UC Insider

GeoChalkboard

Got Geoint?

#ESRIUC Plenary: ArcGIS A Complete System - All Points Blog

The “BackChannel” - http://uc.dtsgis.com/

Videos will be post on the Esri UC Page

(@gletham) - Broadcasting live at http://ustre.am/92cy

Twitter

(via @JimBerry) “Fyi…The #esriuc tweet stream is being recorded and archived at http://twapperkeeper.com/hashtag/ESRIUC”

I had the opportunity to attend the 2010 ESRI Southeast Regional User Group meeting last week in Charlotte.  Here are my tweets from the “What’s New in ArcGIS 10″ session.

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Arcgis.com has demos for those of you who feel left out. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Final relase June/July 2010. It will be digital for download. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Community is being expaned to support users. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Licenses can be borrowed for using on laptop, etc. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Install is 40% faster. Also can uninstall service packs #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Can save mdx for previous release #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Can’t run 9.3 and 10 on same machine. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Also need a seperate free license for VBA #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Last release for VBA. Seperate install. Reason for more python #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Can now package maps, globes, diagrams. Even tools, models, and customizations #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - New 3D visualization tools #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Ability for add-ins for greater functionality #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Mosaic Dataset new name for image server. need acreditor or higher #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - More image formats supported #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - New solver in Network Analyst #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - 130+ new geo processing tool bring total tools to 750+ #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - tags have been added into tools for easier search #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Python is the next area you should study #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - ArcPy can create summary of MDXs in folder #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - TOC tabs have been move to top of window #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - ArcPy sample script toolboxes included #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - lol that map book was ’slapped together by Kevin Armstrong’ (text in demo) #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Map Index tool can create index to boundary of area even if now uniform #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - More cartography tools added #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Map book - multipage pdf export #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - New built in Map Book feature #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Selecting features provides quick toolbar to verify selection so you don’t edit boundary when doing parcels #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - New vertex toolbar. No more right click to add vertices. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Required fields can be highlighted in attribute window #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Atribute entry is different. Calendar option for date field #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - when editing, there is global snapping with tips #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - 5000 new symbols #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway TinyTwitter froze up. Must be tweeting to fast. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 Background geoprocessing allows for map use during tool usage #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 New skyline geoprocessing tool #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - base maps draw faster for better panning and zooming #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Tool tabs on side allow easy access with auto hiding windows. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 Seach tool bult into ArcMap to find data or tools #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - ArcCatalog built into ArcMap. No long have to code it in youself. #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - map automation with python. al lot can be done within destop interface #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Time aware data can be easily viewed #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - Hiding windows the can be pinned open without map redraw #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 10 - most improvements are in desktop #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway Hitting up ArcGIS 10 Desktop this morning #esriserug 2 days ago from TinyTwitter

Here are some ArcGIS 9.3.1 Editing Tips from a technical session at the 2010 ESRI Southeast Regional User Group Conference.

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Edit Tips - Instead of fcalculator, select features and open attribute window. Select layer on left and edit field. #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Edit Tips - Use Edit Sketch Properties to edited verticies. (I use this 2 delete mutiple vertices & find multiparts) #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Edit Tips - Use spacebar to suspend snapping #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Edit Tips - Set Sticky Tolerance to keep from accidently moving the whole feature. (I use this all the time.) #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Tips - Use ‘N’ to move through selection area to get the feature you want. Keep from selecting the wrong layer. #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Tips - Use the Attribute Window to edit attributes of selected without going to attribue table #esriserug 1 day ago from TinyTwitter

gispathway ArcGIS 9.3.1 Tips - Take advatage of selection tab in TOC. Can set selctable layers and also see what layers have been selected. #esriserug

I had one of my readers send me a link to a blog post on Google Earth for Educators.  There is some great information here for those who may be seeking to use Google Earth in the classroom.  The blog post has compiled a variety of links on various ways to use Google Earth.  The links are split out into grade levels such as Elementary, Middle, and High School & Beyond.  There is also a list of Google Tours from the Google Gadgets directory.  In all there are 50 potential ideas that you can use for your classroom or any other learning environment for that matter.

Go check it out!

Google Earth for Educators: 50 Exciting Ideas for the Classroom

It is getting about that time to be thinking about the 2010 SkillsUSA Geospatial Technology Competition.  As I have not seen much about it for this year, I contacted Eddie Hanebuth (@GISguy).  Eddie is the president of Digital Quest, and is on the competition committee.   He was happy to fill me in about this year’s competition.  Here is what he had to say:

For this year’s contest, SkillsUSA decided that the states should handle the contest admin. For the reason that, they felt the contest would be more successful if the states were involved.

The contest will still have the same elements. SkillsUSA will notify Digital Quest of signups and we will send out the project. They also opened the contest up to secondary schools.

So, anyone can still participate, but they have to have a qualifying contest which will allow a state winner to participate nationally (maybe more but that has to be determined by the state director). SkillsUSA will handle all of these signups technically.

If you hear of any other post secondary/secondary schools wishing to compete, please contact me or Eddie Hanebuth.   Eddie will be able to get them linked up with whoever they need to talk to at the State and National Level.  It is also important to note that many of the state contests  are being held soon, so if you or someone you know is interested then you must act quickly.

If you are not familiar with the SkillsUSA Geospatial Technology Competition, you can learn about it through my journey as a contestant.