Emergency Management GIS Certificate and other Education GIS News

 What's wrong with the geospatial workforce? Victor Valley College (California) adjunct professor Fon Allan Duke  knows:

There’s not a good enough pool of trained individuals to step up and work in these catastrophic events. And the problem you have in industry is either you have people with master’s degrees that are overqualified doing work that they don’t really want to do and you’re overpaying for it, or you have people that have been trained on the job who don’t really understand all the specifics and so you get poor product.

He was quoted as the school launches a new certificate program, moving on from courses focused on geo use in agriculture:

VVC’s new GIS for Emergency Response and Management certificate aims to equip community college students with skills needed to develop GIS tools for governments or private companies. 

There are still openings for the new program which begins the week of Feb 13.

- Victorville Daily Press

The Univeristy of Minnesota has some great, inexpensive courses in LiDAR coming up. Some are full already.

- Montevideo American News

Huntington High (WV) teachers and students attended the White House Science Fair to show off their geospatailly themed project.

Their project involved gathering data about how cloud cover affected the temperature of different surfaces such as pavement and grass, and it captured the attention of NASA. The students were asked last week if they wanted to attend the science fair, hosted by President Barack Obama. They jumped at the chance, and the school system worked hard to make it happen, Sharpe said.

The school is part of the GLOBE program.

- Herald Dispatch

Hawaii Broadband Speed Test and other Government GIS News

A new website will allow internet users to determine their computer or electronic device’s internet speed and help the state map its broadband coverage as the Abercrombie Administration moves forward with its Hawai’i Broadband Initiative. Participants can take the test at hawaiispeedtest.net. The data collected will assist the state in identifying and closing gaps in service throughout Hawai’i.

I'm not sure why they are behind other states who started such efforts months/years ago.

- press release

The [NY] State Liquor Authority is getting ready to launch a new interactive map, plotting each and every bar licensed in the city as well as all pending applications and violations bars have logged.

The map — which cost $75,000 to create — aims to help residents and community boards keep track of local bars, clubs and lounges in their neighborhoods. The design comes amid growing complaints from residents who believe rowdy bars and noisy drinkers are taking over their block.

The maps will hopefully make the lives of the overworked SLA easier and give residents the information once only available with a formal request.

- DNA Info

Hennepin County, MN offers  the first update to its interactive property map in six years. It's based on new Esri software (old version was six years old) and has new data including links to surveyors’ maps, plat maps and survey certificates. Another big change - maps now fill more of the computer screen. The link takes you to the "old version" which has a link to the "new version." 

- Finance and Commerce

Pictometry: One Third of U.S. Counties Use Us

I found the reference to one third of US counites using oblique imagery in a local news story on a new user in Minnesota:

The aerial oblique imagery services were purchased at a cost of $127,719 from Rochester, New York headquartered, Pictometry, using non-tax levy recorder fee and 911-funds budgeted prior to the new year. According to information from the company, one-third of U.S. counties now utilize the oblique imagery.

The company website puts it this way:

As a result, nearly one third of counties in the United States now rely on Pictometry solutions to ensure fair and equitable assessments and improve their internal work processes for claims communications with residents and more.

- Granite Falls Advocate Tribune (MN)

Colorado Springs Looks at Economic Gardening and other Government GIS News

State Rep. Pete Lee would like to lend a hand to promising local, small-but-growing businesses. One bill that the Colorado Springs Democrat plans to push in the 2012 legislative session would promote statewide establishment of "economic gardening."

Economic gardening is a concept first explored in Littleton. The idea is to offer businesses technical assistance, such as data from geographic information systems, or GIS, that will give them a clearer and fuller understanding of their community and customers.

- Colorado Springs Independent

The city of L.A.'s transportation department released an interactive online map of bike lanes and routes this week, the first of its kind from the agency.

The map shows existing and planned bikeways from the city’s bicycle master plan, a measure passed by the Los Angeles City Council in March 2011 that calls for an eventual network of 1,680 miles of linked bikeways.

- LA Times Blog

St. Paul's Frogtown neighborhood now its own GIS, thanks to a member of the Frogtown Neighborhood Association, Tait Danielson Castillo. He's using it to map crimes, trees and other data avilable from the city. And, he's using the GIS in unique ways, per one local GIS user.

"The way he's using it, I don't think it's common at all," said Jeff Matson, coordinator of the Community GIS Program at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs at the University of Minnesota. "I've been waiting forever for someone to run with it like he has."

- Star Tribune

TxDOT’s Permitting Website and other State and Local GIS News

The Texas Permitting and Routing Optimization System (TRPOS) provides real-time, GIS-based mapping for routes and road restrictions. TRPOS, which took four years to build, allows Texas motor carriers to apply for routine permits online anytime, speeding things up for those needing and those creating the permits. So far more than half the users have needed no help in getting their permits. Texas issues 500,000 permits a year, more than any other state.

- Austin Biz Journal

Government Technology announced its top state, county and city websites on Sept 1. They are Arkansas, Stearns County, Minn., and Seattle and each one shows significant use of geospatial/mapping/filter of content by geography. Worth reading as guide to what your jurisdiction might do next!

- GovTech

Among those interviewed on Irene and its impact on Vermont is UVM's Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, geospatial analyst, Spacial Analysis Laboratory.

- UVM News