Spatial Plexus

Two weeks ago I attended a somewhat different GIS conference at Georgia Tech called Spatial Plexus touted to be a new conference devoted to solving “Wicked Problems.” This was not to be confused with “Wicked,” the only musical I ever attended where the audience went home humming the scenery. As stated in the program brochure, “Wicked problems are those difficult to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements. By inspecting wicked problems with “geospatial goggles,” complexities and interdependencies can be exposed, better defined, dissected, better managed through the geospatial approach and reassembled for overall improvements.”

One of the reasons that I attended this conference is that most of the attendee names were not familiar to me so I had a chance to meet some new people in the GIS community. The conference was all plenary sessions, so we didn’t have to play the game of running from one break-out session to another and missing some because of conflicts. It was held at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference center in Atlanta, a new, nicely designed conference center.

Danielle Ayan, GISP of GTRI (Georgia Tech Research Institute), organized the conference and it was perfectly planned, executed, and well-documented. The dominant themes of this new conference included higher education sustaining academic programs in ever-shrinking budget times and getting spatial thinking accepted in more disciplines across the campus disciplines. Geospatial technology in infrastructure and economic development were also major topics.

Key speakers included: David DiBiase of Esri, GTCM, and Penn State fame; Dr. Peter Lea of the NSF ATE program serving geospatial technologies; Peter Folger, specialist in energy and natural resources, Policy Resources Science and Industry Division, Library of Congress; and Dr. Helen N. Parker, regional administrator for the Atlanta Region of the Employment and Training Administration at the Department of Labor. You can view some of the key presentations online by clicking here.

A major portion of the conference was devoted to GeoTECH, a collaborative organization of colleges, universities, and industry working to enhance GIS education. The organization is funded by the National Science Foundation supporting the efforts of the Department of Labor to build a Geospatial Technology Competency Model (GTCM). Simply put, the GeoTech Center goals are to provide resources and guidance that will expand the geospatial workforce with qualified technicians that meet the GTCM guidelines. Most of the GeoTECH programs are aimed at two-year college programs but there was also discussion about K-12 programs.

Attendees were asked to review sample curricula developed by GeoTECH participants to make sure that they reflected current technology and thinking. Without going into the details, I can tell you that the sample curricula were very thorough and well thought out. Only minor tweaking was recommended by the reviewers.

If any of you are doing volunteer work at your local K-12 schools, you may want to investigate two resources that came up in several discussions: “ESRI Press” and an organization called “GIS etc.”

GIS etc was created by Roger and Anita Palmer to provide GIS professional development, curriculum, and software to support K-12 and post-secondary educators and students. Roger and Anita started out as high school teachers so they had hands-on experience teaching science and technology. Along with Lyn Malone, they co-authored “Mapping Our World” and “Analyzing Our World” as well as the first GPS activity book “Going Places with GPS” that many conference attendees cited as superb entry-level GIS resources. They also authored a beginner’s GIS program called “20 Minute GIS for Young Explorers” for teachers who want to add geospatial elements to their classroom but have only one computer in the classroom, have minimal GIS skills, and are not permitted to use Google Earth, but want a virtual globe experience for students.

The new version of “Mapping Our World” contains a GIS media kit including a CD and DVD that contain files with student worksheets, GIS data for completing the lessons, and additional files and resources for teachers. The DVD contains a one-year trial version of ArcView 9.3 software for computers using Microsoft Windows operating systems. This is proving to be ideal for entry-level GIS programs.

There were also several “ignite” sessions, at which presenters were limited to 7 minutes each. These were the equivalent of Pecha Kucha sessions or elevator pitches that quickly get to the point and focus the mind sharply. One of those sessions that I wish was longer was from Max Baber, director of Academic Programs for USGIF. For those of you not familiar with USGIF, it is a non-profit geospatial organization comprising geospatial industry partners that puts on GEOINT and other geospatial activities that NGA can’t do itself.

Max provided advanced word of a pending USGIF credentialing process that was officially announced at USGIF Tech Days last week. The credentialing is in response to NGA desires to have minimally qualified personnel working on NGA contracts similar to URISA’s GISP qualifications. The credentialing process will eventually be required for all geospatial analysts working for NGA and should be in place within three years. I saw some angst in the audience from potential contractors, but hopefully this will minimize past problems resulting from delays and communication errors caused by contractors using personnel with little or no prior geospatial experience.

As with most conferences, there were new sidebar lessons to be learned. One example was an Apple Bluetooth keyboard. How many times have you been at a conference or on a plane where you wish you could do a little unobtrusive typing without breaking out a laptop and power cord or struggling with the tiny on-screen iPhone keyboard? One of the attendees was typing his notes using a nicely designed solid keyboard with his iPhone. I’ve seen several cheesy foldable plastic keyboards, but this Apple keyboard was small, high quality, and had a nice tactile feel. I had to get one and wrote most of this article while flying to D.C. using it and my iPhone. Minimalists would approve.

I learned another item of interest from one of the presenters, Randy Hale, GISP of North River Geographic Information Systems, Inc. Imagine being able to view a video of the best teachers in the country covering concepts and topics that many of us struggled with in school. The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization with the goal of changing education for the better by providing free world-class online lessons to anyone anywhere. With more than 3,000 separate video lessons in science, math, economics, and others, this is a free resource you should share with anyone in school or needing a refresher.