Geography is a Nerd's Paradise

The last few days I have spent working on an older model Dell PowerEdge 2950 rack-mounted server. Last week, I got the wild hair I wanted to upgrade my level of support for GIS on campus. To improve my support and promote GIS on campus, I decided implementing an intranet web site would satisfy both me and my end-users.

I remember setting up and running Apache back in the mid-90s. In order to provide some rudimentary map services, Tomcat was added to the Apache server to handle map requests. Looking back on those days I feel some kinship to the early days of surgery when the patient was given shots of whiskey and something to bite on in order to set a broken bone. Neither Windows nor Unix were completely happy running web sites, though Unix-hosted web servers seemed more amenable to the task.

My friends and I found early versions of Linux easier to deal with than Windows equivalent. But, my statement also comes from a member of a small group who found installing multiple simultaneous operating systems on a single computer a fun way to spend a Friday night. Using utilities such as "Boot Commander" we could run Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris all from a single computer. My memory also seems to recall my friend, Roger, managed to build a computer that booted no fewer than 4 operating systems.

Yes, those were the days :)

I set about figuring out how I wanted to serve my clientele. Not that any of them would care about my web server, my back-end database (MySql), or programming environment (PHP), or my choice of content management systems (CMS). As with any experience, I also wanted to learn something from putting these pieces together. Time is also an issue. Classes begin soon and our academic factory and machinery will soon begin injecting young impressionable minds with thoughts, ideas, facts, and knowledge.

Microsoft has an interesting utility, Web Platform Installer. "WPI" is a small utility which takes a snapshot of your server and responds with a smorgasbord of server tools, software platforms, databases recommendations, and content management software. Not only does WPI toss out recommendations but WPI will go ahead and install all prerequisite software needed to run any given software package or CMS.

For example, when I initially set out to setup my GIS Repository support site, I wanted to use WordPress. I selected WordPress from the choices presented and WPI began installing all necessary prerequisite software, MySQL, PHP, and IIS7. Very slick.

Very slick, except all did not go exactly as the directions promised. After examining logs of install details, re-reading directions, back to install logs, I finally had a working WordPress site.

[caption id="attachment_1226" align="alignleft" width="150"] Niklaus Wirth, father of Pascal[/caption]

And, like a lot of things I tend to invest time in, I decided "Why use a platform I'm already familiar with? If I'm going to learn something, I need to use a CMS which is popular and not WordPress." I also have a constant recurring thought I need to keep learning as I might need a new job one day and I want to be able to tell a potential employer I have nothing against being exposed to new and different technology. I just don't want to program. I realize programming comes with all of the above details I simply do not want to code and be hired to code. There are people who enjoy coding and are good at coding and I am neither. I would rather change a light bulb on a cell phone tower, actually. Or, clean an alligator's pen. I've done neither of those tasks but I've done enough programming, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, C/C++, and ASP to know I can't see myself programming.

I dumped my entire WordPress installation. Not only did I dump my entire WordPress site but in doing so I managed to uninstall some prerequisites out of order and I botched my server. No worries; I simply rebuilt the server from DVDs, service packed and patched, and BOOM, I've got a clean machine again.

What to choose? I googled about a bit, running across a ComputerWorld article describing a CMS shoot-out. The article describes one man's challenges with WordPress, Joomal!, and Drupal. Initially, I had thought I would use Joomla! for no particular reason other than the exclamation point demanding my attention. After reading the article, the author seemed somewhat miffed and stymied by Joomla!. His miffedness carried over to me (sorry Joomla! users) and I opted for Drupal.

[caption id="attachment_1227" align="alignleft" width="142"] Am I allowed to use a Drupal logo on WordPress?[/caption]

Again, I returned to Microsoft's WPI to help expedite my installs. Ok, so why did I not bother installing all of these disparate elements individually? Why did I cheat, in other words? I leaned on WPI to help speed my time-to-live so I could better leverage my time. I am a one-person GIS support shop and have little time to invest in the bothersome details and nuances of some of the more complicated issues of config file editing and customization. I have a site to configure, develop, and launch very soon.

With WPI, I merely selected Drupal from the very long list of content management system I could have installed, selected "Add," and then I pretty much went home. When I return to my office later, I had a pending server re-start, which I did.

OK - not quite. I had to create a some database items, account names and passwords, provide a web site name and install locations, and then I went home, to return later and restart my server. WPI handled the details of installing IIS7, installing MySQL, installing PHP, and installing Drupal.

Part of yesterday, I reviewed some free Drupal themes, and opted for one called "Professional Business." I downloaded and installed, and soon had a new, fresh, customizable Drupal-powered intranet web site ready for me to play with.

Which is exactly what I did for most of today. My, how times have changed, the days of building pages from scratch HTML code, while not really history, seem quaint. All of my initial web sites I built from scratch, using mostly HTML with some Javascript to handle mouse-overs and other behaviors. Today, CMSs provide users an interface which removes some of the coding burden. I can tell already I'm going to need to dig out some HTML to arrive at the look I want.

The Discipline of Geography, and geography is a discipline, make no mistake. I ran across a geography forum where a student had posed the question "is geography a discipline or a tool? My friends say geography is a tool." My reply, tell your friends they're tools.

I have a Bachelor's degree and a Master's degree in Geography. I'd have a Ph.D in Geography if only to have more opportunities open to me but I allowed myself to be distracted and I fell off-course. To be a Professional Geographer today, and moving forward into the future, knowledge of technology is paramount.

In the early 20th century, geography involved exploring, getting your hands dirty - literally, drawing and mapping, learning languages and cultures, and numbers and statistics. But, you didn't have to learn technology; there wasn't any. The most complicated technology a geographer might have to use was a level and transit and maybe a sextant. Generally, though, the pen and paper and slide rule matched the technological limits for a professional geographer.

In the 21st century, all of the above still hold true. All the above, even the part about the level and transit; maybe not the sextant, though.

But, in addition to all of those details, to be a professional geographer one must also be able to swim with the technology sharks and learn the language of technology. No, I do not simply mean "megabytes" or "gigabytes" or "bits per second" (these are part of a geographers lingo, though), a professional geographer needs to know terms associated with bandwidth, processor speeds, color depth, mobile technology, graphics, network infrastructure, databases ... all sorts of technology.

Not only can traveling abroad make life interesting and the addition of a foreign language to one's skill set prove valuable, but professional geographers also add programming languages, like Python, or some flavor of .NET.

Professional geographer also need to have some knowledge of mobile technology and mapping. Hand-in-hand goes knowledge of iOS, Android, Java and/or Objective-C, the programming language of iOS. There are also numerous software development kits (SDKs) which can help geographers design and develop apps.

One aspect I enjoy as a professional geographer is the graphics arts and design of cartography, web design and layout, and general use of images and imagery. Millions of people are now using Google Earth, Bing Maps, Google Maps, and even now Apple and Amazon are leveraging their individual purchases of small mapping companies to build geography content into upcoming tablet devices.

Geography has something for everyone, but not everyone will be able to earn a living from being a geographer without also having a plan in place. By plan, I mean having put thought into utilizing the knowledge of all of geography's tools, methods, and techniques for fun and profit. My comment is true for nearly every discipline, though.

So, yeah, Geography is a Nerd's Paradise.

Everything is Cloudy in San Diego

In 1997, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) moved its user conference from Palm Springs, CA to the San Diego Convention Center to accommodate a growing user base. From an initial 16-member user group meeting in 1981, the 2012 International User's Group Meeting was 1,000x larger, perhaps around 15,000 attendees. The SDCC becomes a small town occupied by predominantly GIS aficionados.

[caption id="attachment_1190" align="alignleft" width="240"] Stairway to GIS Heaven[/caption]

San Diego became "cloudy" for the week. The forecast calls for more clouds. I'm not talking about the large white puffy cumulo humilis clouds which foretell of nice day or the the cumulonimbus clouds which bring thunderstorms. No, ESRI has moved firmly and rapidly into the technology "cloud," the environment of hosted services and remote racks of cheap storage space and multi-user accessibility.

ESRI and its acolytes (hmm..what to call? "esrians" (es-ree-ans) or "Dangermondites?" ...I don't know. I might want to be one some day so I want a term I'm comfortable with) are now BIG-TIME advocates of the Cloud and have partnered themselves with a BIG-TIME provider of cloud services - Amazon.

Yes, Amazon, via Amazon Web Services (AWS) is providing the back-end to ESRI's cloud. Many people seemed to think ESRI was developing an in-house server farm to support cloud services. Nope. ESRI has contracted with Amazon and to some extent Microsoft Azure to provide back-end server and storage support of ArcGIS Online. No way ESRI could invest enough in building up-and-out a GIS specific server farm and not break the bank. Working with Amazon and Microsoft makes much more sense.

Amazon already provides ArcGIS support via AWS (link). In fact, AWS offers a complete cloud-based GIS solution for hosting both spatial data, performing GIS analysis, rendering maps, and then again pushing results to the ArcGIS Online cloud or to any user defined web site. Fantastically powerful and flexible.

Moving into the literal clouds are new consumer-grade unmanned airborne vehicles (UAV). Three such vehicles were on display. The opening plenary session demonstrated using the GPS-augmented video stream from a UAV to head's-up digitize building and tanker truck footprints. At a distance of over a mile the video stream provided a means to capture data into a geodatabase in near real-time. The UAV sensor could be switched to thermal, as well, providing the ability to watch a man smoke a cigarette at 6,000ft. Most of these have battery-powered engines which last less than 45 minutes. Some are gasoline-powered and can stay aloft for a couple of hours. And a few are large gliders, which can be launched by hand, guided by remote control. A few DIY people have taken to making their own drones, outfitting them with iPhones or digital cameras, going so far as to "repurpose" a digital camera into a multispectral airborne sensor. Lots of talented people doing cool things these days.

Google is a Mapping Company

Google is a mapping company. For years I've used Google Earth in lieu of a physical globe in my world geography courses. If you have not experienced Google Earth download and install Google Earth (GE) after reading my post. Don't download and install now because once you realize the shear genius of GE I will have lost your attention.

GE is a wonderful teaching tool for children 7 and older. GE is easy to use and is loaded with simple features, like a measuring tool and bookmarks, which can help parents teach basic geography to kids. GE is linked to Wikipedia; thousands of sites are referenced via Wikipedia. YouTube places are also linked indicating where people have posted videos of some event occuring at the location. Be advised: some videos are not educational and only informative in the sense of illustrating Darwinian processes at work among people. But, some videos are nice and informative. GE contains a wealth of links to outside sources such as the World Wildlife Foundation, National Geographic, and the United States Geological Survey.

Grabbing screenshots from Google Earth is a cinch and embedding JPEGS from Google Earth can improve posters and presentations. Using a keyboard or a mouse, 3D terrain can be simulated providing a sense of scale and landscape relief. I recommend visiting the Karakoram Mtns in northern Pakistan, my favorite mountain range. The world's highest highway is found here.

GE also has a flight simulator embedded within. Using simple controls and basic physics, a user can pilot around any place in the world.

Now, Google recently revealed plans to map in 3D a number of cities using aerial photography. Nothing especially new about such efforts. Most large cities engage in aerial mapping missions every few years. As cities grow aerial photography helps city planners identify buildings, land use, help them plan for utility growth, estimate population density, estimate potential stormwater drainage issues, and in public safety efforts - all sorts of pursuits. Most states will fly aerial photography mapping missions every 5 to 10 years to help monitor landscape change. The federal government acting through the Department of Agriculture collects aerial photography across states dominated by agriculture. The USDA uses aerial photography information to assess crop type, acreage, productivity, and keeping farmers honest with regards to subsidies and set aside programs.

Kentucky has plans for collecting not only aerial photography statewide but also LiDAR statewide. LiDAR is an acronym for "Light Detection and Ranging." Essentially, a plane equipped with a laser shoots the ground a million zillion times and the laser reflected back to the plane is sensed, allowing distance to be calculated. The result after post-processing are highly detailed terrain maps or maps of city structures, or landforms. The amount of data points is immense; LiDAR collected for a small watershed in Arkansas was in excess of 300GB.

Right now, Google Earth users can fly around the world with some interesting terrain but the cities are mostly flat unless someone has used SketchUp to add 3D buildings. Examine Washington, D.C. for a good example of 3D urban builds.

With Google's new efforts to collect aerial photography of major cities people from around the world will be able to go on virtual field trips, or plan real trips. I'm sure Google will expand their Google Earth API to include such data for wild and crazy new apps.

Check out earth.google.com

PAX

Accolades to my Map Use & Analysis Class

I'm sure I'm like many college faculty. We become so frustrated with our students. Frustration builds like a storm as we feel stymied class after class by the apparent lack of knowledge absorption by our supposedly eager students.

"What can I do different to encourage them to soak this stuff up?"

The reality is we have limited control. Student must provide their own energy to learn, even in the face of lackluster performances of faculty. What you get out of Higher Education is more often than not what are are willing to put into your education.

On the other hand, there are students and classes which are completely validating. One student in a course can make the course completely worthwhile, and at times, an entire class becomes infected with a desire to assemble knowledge gained in other classes, or extracurricular activities, and do something interesting.

My Spring 2012 Map Use and Analysis course did some nice work this semester I thought I would share (with their permission.)



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What makes these maps different, you ask. People can use many web apps these days for creating maps, so what makes these maps and these students different?

They are using the industry standard GIS software, ArcGIS, from ESRI. The software is notoriously challenging to use, regardless of the propaganda issues by the company. At one time, the number of programming objects available in the software was second only to Microsoft's .NET programming environment. The software is way-powerful, though, and if the functionality is not present, nearly every language is supported for coding the needed functionality. ESRI's software controls about 45%-50% of the global mapping market and people skilled in ArcGIS are typically in demand at local, state, national, and international levels, in both public and private sectors.

Students are learning about what I call the "backstage" of mapping activities. Its one thing to sit down to a web app running in a browser and pump out a map. There is still a need for a entire industry of people to know how to create, alter, edit, and manage all of the geographic data floating around the Internet. Those cool map apps do not magically appear; humans fluent in the use of spatial data are making those apps happen. Some of the backstage mapping activities are what my students are learning.

My students are developing an understanding of appropriate uses of data. The Internet represents an overwhelmingly vast repository of data. Literally anyone anywhere can grab an Excel XLS file, or Access MDB file, or a simple comma-separated value (CSV) text file, and push numbers around. That anyone can do this does not mean everyone knows what they are doing, though. Learning how to "lie with maps" is tantamount to learning how to "lie with statistics." Maps, in one sense, are the visual representation of numbers, and if you know how to manipulate numbers then one can also manipulate the message of a map. And, as we all know, a "picture is with a thousand words." People who control maps can steer public sentiment and public policy, and in some cases, foreign policy. Think of Colin Powell and his use of maps to incite the discourse in the run-up to deposing Saddam Hussein and the alleged Weapons of Mass Distraction...

Yes, I teach my students how to "lie with maps." I even bought them the book of the same title by Mark Monmonier, "How To Lie With Maps."

My students chose their own topics, collected their own tabular data and their own spatial data. While I had hoped someone might have selected topics outside the United States. Often, U.S. data is easier to access, and understanding data limitations can be challenging when a language barrier is involved. The only advice I gave them was to pick a topic meaningful to them.

Surprisingly, I was involved very little this semester, as most student sought out each other for help and advice. I took some pride in that; frustrating as it may have been to the students, the most valuable learning experiences arise from overcoming obstacles on one's own. In one case, I spent about 30 minutes with a student whose database file was uncooperative. We fixed the problem but I could only speculate as to the cause of the issue, as the problem was not self-evident.

Every student adopted a topic not only meaningful to them, but also has the potential of being a stepping stone for further research. Crime and Education, Education and Child Abuse, Prevalence of Community-Supported Farms, Retail Site Location, and Use and Type of Energy Products are all current U.S. domestic policy concerns. I was glad they avoided, "Prevalence of Bigfoot Sitings 1970-2011," genre of topics, though there is a place for those, too.

The technology behind many of today's iPhone, iPad, and Android apps arrives via people skilled in knowing how to weave computer technology, programming, and geospatial skills together. And, that is the knowledge my students are working diligently towards.

Create and Share Custom Maps with ArcGIS Explorer

Geography is so much a part of our everyday lives we take our experiences for granted. Being a geographer is not enough; we are still susceptible to bias and not immune to being oblivious. However, I would submit the holistic nature of Geography allows trained geographers to see, interpret, and question patterns many others would miss.

How can we develop better spatial skills ourselves? How can we help others develop better spatial skills? Everyone needs better spatial thinking skills as much as we all could use more critical thinking skills. In fact, I would argue each goes in hand with the other.

If you are in the position of helping others see patterns, analyze and interpret information, you might find ESRI's ArcGIS Explorer Online a nice tool for enhancing your web site or your presentations. Explorer Online is a wonderful app allowing anyone to create, develop, and share maps, using prepared data.

Initially, you will want to perform two tasks. First, install Silverlight for your web browser. Second, in order to share any map you create you will need to save the map. Saving a map requires an ESRI Global Account. Creating an account is free and allows you to save, store, and share your maps. On your first visit to ArcGIS Explorer Online [link] go ahead and setup an account.

The app is so easy to use a child could create a meaningful map in about 5 minutes and share her map with friends or classmates around the world. Wordpress.com blogs do not allow "iFrames" so I am providing a link to a public map [link] so you can see a working map which I created in less than 5 minutes. An argument to host my own web site I suppose :)

I'm not going to do anything about explaining data, as my intention here is merely to detail two cool functions of ArcGIS Explorer Online a person can use immediately, and we have to have a working map before those option are available to us.

Once you login, an interface will load showing three button at the upper-left, "Home," "Details," an "Share," plus four icons, Save, Print, Basemap, and Add Content. Mouse-over the buttons and a popup box will identify each button.

Click "Add Content" and a scrolling menu will appear. A good habit in working through any exercise, one I practice, is to examine any dialog box which should appear. Software changes so rapidly written directions are often out of date within weeks or months of apps being launched.

After you have examined the Add Content scrolling list, replace the "Search or URL" with 'median household income,' then search. You don't have to follow my example verbatim; I am going to "add" the first result in the list, "USA Median Household Income." Click outside the dialog box, the box will disappear, and click on the "Zoom To Rectangle" tool found under the "Presentation" tab. Draw a rectangle around the coterminous United States (the lower 48.) The view will zoom, capturing the area you defined with your box. Save your map; you'll have to name the map - I called mine, Mike's Map.

Awesome Map Option #1

At the top left, see the "Share" button? Click the button. Right there on the dialog box are a number of really great choices. You can share your map to Facebook, or Twitter immediately. If you have created an ESRI Group, you can share with group members, or you can simply allow everyone in the world to see your map. At the bottom, you can generate HTML code to embed you map in your own web site. How cool is that? Except, like I said earlier, the HTML uses iFrames which might be an issue for some web sites.

Awesome Map Option #2

At the top-center of our window are two tabs, one says Mapping, the other Presentation. Choose Presentation and watch how the app changes.

We are prompted to "Click to add first slide." I am not going to walk you through all of the finer details though by mouseover, you should be able to discern the functions of all buttons. However, anyone with elementary Powerpoint skills should be able to figure out how to add, delete, insert, and run a slide presentation.

An awesome trait of the Presentation mode is the maps upon which the slides are built is "living" data. In other words, you are not creating screenshots of your maps, your slides are your maps. You can update, alter, modify your maps as you develop your presentation. You can even introduce more data during your Presentation. Change them on-the-fly. And, as we saw on the Share button, you can share your Presentation with whoever you want, or embed within a web site.

Thanks to Joseph Kerski, ESRI's Education Manager for helping pass along the niceties of ArcGIS Explorer Online. Faculty and staff were very excited by the sharing and ease-of-use potential of Explorer.

I suggest getting your kids involved. A child 8+ might find making maps interesting. The exposure to the technology might inspire them in new and different ways to bring geography into their classroom. I can see Explorer being a great tool for homeschooling, as well. Free technology, using real data, and easy to use and share.

Brilliant!