December 2012

2013-09-10

CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER

December 2012

HIGHLIGHTS

CGA supporting “Out of Eden: The Walk - One man, seven years, 22,000 miles”
Harvard Event: (Re)Mapping Health: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Innovative Methods for Representing Spatial Data
CGA Conference: Creating the Policy and Legal Framework for a Location–Enabled Society
CityEngine 2012 software is now available
BARI Urban Research Fellowship for Undergraduates @ Harvard – can’t find this item
Opportunity to Learn Remote Sensing and Acquire Software for Your Institution
The Harvard Humanitarian - December 2012 – can’t find this item
Recorded Webcast of Introduction to GISCorps Available
Videos of CGA’s training workshop are available online
CGA opportunities for learning next semester
ArcGIS Online Personal Accounts Changing
Conferences, jobs and GIS in the news

CGA NEWS

The CGA will provide mapping support to the Knight Foundation funded “Out of Eden” project

In January 2013, journalist Paul Salopek will start a journey: “Out of Eden: The Walk - One man, seven years, 22,000 miles”. The CGA will provide custom thematic maps for the walk, depicting natural and social conditions and activities, as well as social media emanating near Paul Salopek as he walks. He will be walking out of Africa, following the pathways of the first human migration about 60,000 years ago. Toting a small laptop and a satellite phone in his rucksack, Salopek will report on the major issues of our day — poverty, conflict, climate change, local innovations — from the ground level, living among the people he will cover from Ethiopia to Patagonia. http://www.outofedenwalk.com

(Re)Mapping Health: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Innovative Methods for Representing Spatial Data

This workshop, supported by the President’s January Innovation Fund, is designed to bring together students and faculty from across the University, including the Graduate School of Design, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and the Center for Geographic Analysis. Students will be asked to engage critically with the practice of mapping, interpreting, and visualizing spatial data to explore the potential of design in the social sciences and medical fields. The intention is to develop a methodology for using mapping, data visualization, and other methods of design representation as analytic and speculative tools to inform effective humanitarian responses in the future. Course Dates and Time: January 7-11 and 14-18, 9 AM - 5 PM daily. Read more and register online.

GIS for Humanists workshop

The CGA’s GIS for Humanists workshop was conducted on Thursday, 12/6, with 11 participants from the Harvard community. View the agenda, with links to presentations and material covered during the day .

CityEngine 2012 software is now available

Esri CityEngine is a stand-alone software product that provides professional users in architecture, urban planning, entertainment, GIS and general 3D content production with a unique conceptual design and modeling solution for the efficient creation of 3D cities and buildings. Login to download the new software.

CGA’s monthly GIS presentations – come join the discussion next semester (free lunch)

Geography Colloquium @ CGA
The CGA hosts the monthly “Harvard Geography Colloquium” in which we invite leading geospatial researchers to present cutting edge geographic research in a seminar format. Our goal is to provide the Harvard community with a forum to highlight the unique perspectives, findings, and directions of contemporary geography. The group typically meets on the first Wednesday of the month from 12 noon to 1:30 PM in room S050 of the CGIS South building.
GIS Presentation Series (ABCD-GIS)
Harvard’s ABCD GIS Presentation Series highlights innovative applications of GIS to solve real-world problems. The ABCD-GIS Working Group focuses on how Geographical Information Systems are used in the Harvard community and promotes the sharing of information and expertise to help solve mutual problems. The group typically meets on the third Wednesday of the month from 12 noon to 1:30 PM in room S050 of the CGIS South building.

Videos of CGA’s training workshop are available online

Each semester the CGA offers a series of instructor-led, non-credit, technical training workshops to introduce GIS concepts and teach the basics on how to use GIS software. GIS Basics with ArcGIS, Wrangling Data into Maps, Making Sense out of Spatial Data, GPS Training, Remote Sensing, Database Design for GPS/GIS Applications, Getting the Most out of Google Earth, Geoprocessing with ModelBuilder & Python, Quantum GIS, and ArcGIS Online and Esri Maps for MS Office. We may offer new workshops next semester so check back soon. Videos of most workshop are now online on our Non-Credit Training page.

Take a GIS course for credit next semester

GIS and spatial analysis is integral to many disciples. Learn how to apply it to your research:

Learn more on our Credit Courses @ Harvard page

Call for Visualizations: Fisher Prize in GIS

The CGA is inviting “geographic visualization” submissions for our annual spring conference. These submissions may be in poster, video, 3d model, interactive website, or another format that can be set up in exhibit space. Harvard students can participate in the Fisher Prize competition for excellence in GIS. The deadline is not until Friday, April 26 so this is a reminder to use this semester’s coursework for your submission. Learn more on our Fisher Prize pages.

ArcGIS Online Personal Accounts Changing (Harvard_CGA account will remain the same)

Esri is changing the name from ArcGIS Online Personal Account to ArcGIS Online Public Account. The ArcGIS Online Public Account will continue to be available at no cost and, as such, is licensed for personal, noncommercial use only. Under the updated Terms of Use, ArcGIS Online Public Account holders can:

no longer share items privately or create private groups
continue creating public groups and sharing items publicly, or keep all items private for their own viewing
keep private groups and private items if a personal account was created before November 30

(Note: they will not make any existing private groups and associated items public.)

CGA Spring Conference:

“Creating the Policy and Legal Framework for a Location–Enabled Society”

Thursday and Friday, May 2-3, 2013

CGIS Tsai Auditorium, 1730 Cambridge St. Cambridge MA

Location matters. Energy, sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, natural hazards, traffic and transportation, crime and political instability, water quality and availability, climate change, migration and urbanization – all key issues of the 21st century – have a location component. Critical geographic thinking, understanding and reasoning are essential skills for modern societies, and geospatial technologies for location based data collection, management, analysis and visualization have developed rapidly in recent decades. Today, these technologies are widely applied in routine operations in large corporations, entrepreneurial businesses, government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the social media of our daily lives. They save cost, improve efficiency, increase transparency, enhance communication, and help solve problems. Location-enabled devices are weaving “smart grids” and building “smart cities;” they allow people to discover a friend in a shopping mall, catch a bus at its next stop, check surrounding air quality while walking down a street, or avoid a rain storm on a tourist route – now or in the near future. And increasingly they allow those who provide services to track, whether we are walking past stores on the street or seeking help in a natural disaster.

Read more and register on our conference page. http://gis.harvard.edu/conference

Our conference is co-hosted by:

Berkman Center for Internet and Society

The Berkman Center’s mission is to explore and understand cyberspace; to study its development, dynamics, norms, and standards; and to assess the need or lack thereof for laws and sanctions. We are a research center, premised on the observation that what we seek to learn is not already recorded. Our method is to build out into cyberspace, record data as we go, self-study, and share. Our mode is entrepreneurial nonprofit. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/

The Centre for Spatial Law and Policy

The Centre for Spatial Law and Policy helps educate the technology community on how spatial technology fits into the current legal and policy framework.. http://www.spatiallaw.com/

CONFERENCES, CALLS, EVENTS & EMPLOYMENT

CFP: A special issue on geospatial analysis of volunteered geographic information with Computers, Environment and Urban Systems - deadline 12/30
CFP: International Association for China Planning (IACP) Conference - deadline 01/05
CFP: Geographic Human-Computer Interaction - deadline 01/11
CFP: “Revealing intricacies in spatial and spatio-temporal data with statistics” - multiple deadlines
CFP: EOGC’2013 and CIG Annual Conference - deadline 01/15
CFP: IGU 2013 Kyoto Regional Conference - deadline 01/15
CFP: IJGIS special issue on Space-time Research in GIScience - deadline 01/15
Event: New York City ArcUser Meeting - 01/18
CFP: 2013 Vespucci Institute - deadline 01/31
Call for Nominations: UCGIS Research Award - deadline 02/01
Call for Nominations: UCGIS Education Award - deadline 02/01

Browse many new job and student funding opportunities on our Employment page.

NEWS ON GIS RESEARCH AND SERVICES

Google Santa Tracker

NORAD Tracks Santa

The Top Ten GIS Stories of 2012

Recorded Webcast of Introduction to GISCorps Available

Maps and Mapmaking

Geography plus public health equals discovery

Mapping Tool for Sandy Relief Efforts Created Using Amazon Web Services

Outlook for European cities: higher temperatures and longer heat waves

Road Kill Data Tracks Animal Migration Patterns via Open Source App

Mobile App Finds Available Parking