Category Archives: Spatial IT/GIS

MOOC ado about Reskilling

Our new geospatial graduates have every reason to be happy. The good news that came out in April is that there are more vacant jobs in the U.S. than unemployed people, the highest amount in 50 years. And this jobs boom is a global pattern that extends to almost all industries, including the professional services...

The Latest in GIS Research

Newcastle University was host to the 2019 conference. Trends with UAVs, spatial data, and data use from GISRUK 2019. GISRUK is the annual GIS research conference in the UK that showcases the latest in GIS (geographical information science) and geomatics research from the UK and across Europe. I attended the four-day conference at Newcastle University,...

Esri UK Conference 2019 Recap

Every year towards the end of May, Esri UK, the UK distributer for Esri software, holds a user conference across the road from Westminster, the home of the UK parliament (when I was there I even got to see Jacob Reese Mogg). It’s held at the QE2 centre, and there are amazing views from the fifth floor which allow...

African Ethnic Map

“Welcome to Africa” via GIS

While in the middle of teaching GIS to my masters students, the squeaky ceiling fan above us suddenly went off. It was another power cut, the third in two hours. “Bienvenue en Afrique, Monsieur,” quipped one of my best students, making everyone laugh. I wiped the sweat off my forehead. Welcome to Africa, or precisely,...

Excalibur

ArcGIS Excalibur

A new “un-GIS” GIS tool enables access, measurement, analysis, and markup capabilities for images – for everyone. Many years ago, during the era of cinematography and good old-fashioned film, they used to edit movies by cutting the film with a pair of 9-inch scissors; these were called “excalibur.” This sets the scene for the new...

ArcGIS Indoors

What is it, and how will it work? Mapping has traditionally been the task of visually charting big outdoor spaces with pretty hills that look great with a few contours around them. Throw in a bit of hillshade, and you have a cartophile’s dream. The location intelligence company Esri, that has driven the market to...