Category Archives: Spatial IT/GIS
Why Your Maps Should Get in Touch with Their Feminine Side
Google does it, Apple does it, but do your maps use landmarks to improve users’ familiarity? More to the point, why aren’t popular landmarks a standard GIS dataset? For more than 10 years now we’ve known that the majority of the population use spatial recognition to navigate. When I say “majority.” I mean women and...
GIS without GIS (Using Spreadsheets)
No, I haven’t gone mad, though some might disagree. I was inspired to write this after talking to a colleague who previously worked for a bank they were tasked with getting proximities to properties using Excel alone. This got me thinking over how much we crank up the GIS, when sometimes it is so much...
Top 5 Things to Do When You Install a New GIS Software
So, you’ve just downloaded the new QGIS release, latest ArcGIS, or maybe you are completely new to GIS and wondering how to even get started with this behemoth eating up your (or your employer’s) disk space. Having done this MANY times over the last 15 years of working with geospatial software, I’ve noticed that there...
Mapping the Appalachian Trail, Part 2
How the AT was brought into GIS via a collaboration among ATC staff, NSP professionals, and dedicated volunteers. Part 1 of this article (May 2015) reveals the history of the trail, particularly how the land that comprises it was surveyed. Read here about how the trail was brought into GIS. In 1998, the Appalachian Trail...
First Ever Maptime Summit
By Katie Kowalsky @katiekowalsky www.katiekowalsky.me It’s been over two years since the State of the Map US 2013, where Maptime was born. As of the first official Maptime in San Francisco at the time of the Maptime Summit (Monday June 8th), we now have 60 chapters spread over five continents. That growth, all from volunteers...
Dynamic Text with QGIS Layouts
It’s not until you need it that you realize how much you miss it: such is the case with the Esri ArcGIS dynamic text functionality. On the surface it seemed easy to put a little reference into a text box, and then every time I opened a template or new map it would automatically show...