URISA: Tidbits

Here are a bunch little notes from URISA:

- I sat at the “ethics” table for the round table discussions. There were four of us, all women. And, to a one they’d withheld from doing certain things based on the ethics requirements of their positions in government or as AICPs (certified planners). One didn’t attend a fancy event at a conference, a second did not enter the “treasure hunt” in the URISA exhibit hall, the third turned down a dinner certificate. I for one am jazzed to see folks who clearly don’t make tons of money taking these “limitations” seriously.

- The URISA Leadership Academy will launch in December; it’s aimed at providing leadership training specifically geared to GIS people. It’s a five part program and they are looking for instructors. The discussion of it during the Tuesday plenary made me smile since many of the topics are ones we included in the Penn State Masters in GIS.

- Some numbers: there were some 560 people registered before the conference and about 20 more who registered on site. I was disappointed the plenaries had nowhere near that number of attendees. I learned that nominations for the National Geospatial Advisory Committee totalled more than 100.

- An open source workshop was “well attended,” per the instructor, Sara Yurman. When I mentioned to her my concern at the lack of open source buzz at URISA she noted that there’s more buzz now than in the past. I understand one commercial vendor sat in the workshop.

[Disclosure: URISA covered my lodging for this event.]