September 2012

2013-09-10

CENTER FOR GEOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS NEWSLETTER

September 2012

HIGHLIGHTS

CGA’s Ben Lewis received the NEURISA Special Achievement Award
ArcGIS Software Licenses Now Available Online
CGA Learning Opportunities: GIS Institute, full-day and two-hour Workshops,
CGA Events: Geography Colloquium, ABCD-GIS Presentation & WorldMap Collaborative
New Esri Software including ArcGIS Online, Esri Maps for Office, Business Analyst Online & more
WorldMap: Recent developments, publications, statistics, surveys and more
Harvard GIS Community News: Software @ HMC & Workshops @ GSD
Conferences, Calls, Events & Employment: AAG, Esri Sabbatical opportunities & more
News on GIS Research and Services

CGA NEWS

CGA’s Ben Lewis received the NEURISA Special Achievement Award

The New England Chapter of the Urban & Regional Information Systems Association (NEURISA) has selected the CGA’s Ben Lewis to receive their 2012 Special Achievement Award. NEURISA is a professional organization that provides a forum for: promoting and facilitating the use and integration of spatial information technology, fostering relationships, professional development, and representing the interests of Geographic Information System (GIS) practitioners and Information Technology professionals across the New England region.

ArcGIS Software Licenses Now Available Online

No need to use the PDF or paper form to activate your version 10 and 10.1 ArcGIS Desktop software download. The new online license request form is available on the ArcGIS Software Download page. Harvard login is required.

CGA Learning Opportunities:

GIS Institute Call for Applications

Twice per year, the CGA offers a two-week program of intensive training in geographic information systems (GIS). It is offered in January and June, and meets daily for two weeks, 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. The program is designed for Harvard graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty who want to learn spatial analysis and apply GIS methods in their research. No previous GIS training required, but you must have familiarity with MS Office and Internet usage. Read more and register online.

GIS for Humanists Workshop Call for Applications

This full-day workshop will be held on Thursday, 12/06/12. It offers hands on instruction in basic GIS tools and techniques for Humanists addressing an array of questions for both their own research interests and class pedagogy. Learning will be framed around specific tasks and results as well as the technologies to achieve, document, and analyze those findings. Instruction will include basic tools and software, GPS devices, Google Earth marking and measurements, WorldMap, and Introductory ArcGIS. Read more and register online.

Free Two-Hour GIS Workshops: October Sessions

Making Sense out of Spatial Data: 10/05 at Longwood campus
ModelBuilder & Python Scripting for ArcGIS: 10/05 in Cambridge
GPS Workshop: 10/12 in Cambridge
Database Design for GPS/GIS Applications: 10/19 in Cambridge
Intro to Remote Sensing: 10/26 in Cambridge

Learn more about these and other workshop topics, and register online.

Esri Learning Resources Available for Free via the CGA

Virtual Campus Web Courses
Esri Education Calendar
Esri Training Seminars
Instructional Series Podcast

Access them via our Esri Self Learning page.

CGA Events:

Harvard Geography Colloquium

October’s Geography Colloquium will be held on Wednesday, October 3^rd in the CGIS South building, room S050 from 12 noon to 1:30 PM. Carl Steinitz will present “A Framework for Geodesign.” Learn about our Geography Colloquium series.

ABCD-GIS Presentation

October’s ABCD-GIS talk will be held on Wednesday, October 17th @ noon in Room S050 of the CGIS South building at 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA. Presenters Niels Lacour and Alexander Stepanov will present “Supporting a culture of planning with web GIS technology. A case study for “Master Plan Explorer” web app” View information about our ABCD-GIS presentation series

WorldMap Collaborative

This is a weekly workspace for faculty, students and staff at Harvard who would like to address their individual research projects that involve GIS and WorldMap more generally. Attendees can work on their individual projects in a collaborative setting with others addressing various aspects of WorldMap and GIS technology. It meets on Mondays at 5:15 PM (during the Fall Term until 12/10/12) in room K031 (Concourse Level of the Knafel Building - enter the HMDC lab, the room is on the right. Learn more about the WorldMap Collaborative and special topics.

New Esri Software Available:

ArcGIS Online

Harvard CGA now has an ArcGIS Online account you can use to create interactive maps and apps and share them easily with the public or a private group. Share your live maps and data on blogs, social media posts, or via custom apps. Do this quickly and easily with nothing to install or setup. Access a rich collection of basemaps, demographic maps, image services, and data. Request access to ArcGIS Online.

Esri Maps for Office

Download the Esri Maps for Office add-in to be able to create interactive maps of your data directly inside Excel. Export a map slide for PowerPoint and access your live webmaps during your presentation. Request access to Esri Maps for Office.

Business Analyst Online & Community Analyst Online

These packages are now available online through interactive map applications, providing user friendly access to data on demographics and businesses in the USA. Business Analyst Online is a lighter package than Business Analyst ArcGIS Extension for desktop use. Request access to Business Analyst Online.

Esri CityEngine Software: This 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. Request access to CityEngine Software.

WORLDMAP NEWS

The WorldMap platform (http://worldmap.harvard.edu) is being developed by the CGA to lower barriers for scholars who wish to explore, visualize, edit, collaborate with, and publish geospatial information.

Recent WorldMap developments:

1) A gazetteer with a search interface that provides access to multiple gazetteers including the WorldMap gazetteer which supports temporal queries. WorldMap layers can be added to the WorldMap gazetteer; if you have a layer you would like to add, let us know.

2) The ability to load remote feeds as map layers. Now HGL, Picasa, YouTube, and any remote GeoRSS can be added to a WorldMap map and saved.

3) We are working on a big data platform for spatio-temporal data capable of quickly rendering maps against billions of features using commodity hardware. If this type of platform is of interest please let us know.

4) Coming soon are social features such as ratings, comments, and tagging.

Publication by CGA in Annals of GIS:

WorldMap – a geospatial framework for collaborative research

Authors: Weihe Wendy Guan, Peter K. Bol, Benjamin G. Lewis, Matthew Bertrand, Merrick Lex Berman & Jeffrey C. Blossom (Apr 2012)

Usability Survey of WorldMap and HaitiData Mapping Applications

To solicit feedback on usability, OpenGeo developed a survey. Participate in the survey and view the results.

WorldMap Statistics:

As of September 15th, 2012:

5555 registered users
17,574 data layers added by users, containing 98,278 data fields
1363 map collections created
225,048 unique visitors coming from every country in the world
About 800 unique visitors per day

WorldMap Visits by Country & City:

http://bit.ly/VJoM4c

HARVARD GIS COMMUNITY NEWS

Harvard Map Collection

The Map Collection has purchased the latest ORNL Landscan Global Population dataset (Landscan 2011) from the exclusive vendor, East View Cartographic. It is available on disc in the Map Collection now, and you can come by and extract what you need from the data file. In the next few weeks, it will be available in a few other ways: via download from HGL, in a web browser (view only) via a link from the HOLLIS record, and as a WMS for use in GIS software.

Harvard Map Collection Learning Materials: “Getting Started with GIS and Computer Mapping”

Data Modeling and Management Workshop Series @ GSD

This series of workshops sets out a strategy for developing re-usable information about places and design proposals. The workshops introduce a framework for digital asset management that develops a catalog of project resources and an integrated four-dimensional model of site and context. The model view of the data collection may be used to explore and explain existing conditions and alternative futures. The catalog view facilitates the aggregation of individual compilations into a framework for collaborative research and institutional memory. Workshops will be held once per week beginning the week of September 10, 2012. Read more and register.

CONFERENCES, CALLS, EVENTS & EMPLOYMENT

Sabbatical Opportunities @ Esri

Dr. Dawn Wright, Chief Scientist at Esri, announced an opportunity for academic scholars to spend time at Esri ranging anywhere from 2 weeks to several months, collaborating with Esri scientists and researchers. If you are interested, please review the guidelines and then contact Dr. Dawn Wright at dwright@esri.com directly: Dawn Wright, Ph.D., GISP, Esri Chief Scientist, Esri, 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373. T 909-793-2853, ext. 2182 .

AAG 2013 Health Symposium

This special Symposium “Geography, GIScience, and Health: Spatial Frontiers of Health Research and Practice” will explore new research frontiers in health and social environments, and also address progress generated by the AAG Initiative for an NIH-wide Geospatial Infrastructure for Health Research. View flyer. Abstract deadline is October 24. Submit your abstract.

CFP: Esri UC 2013 - deadline 10/26

Are you an industry expert? Are you building new innovative solutions with ArcGIS 10.1, ArcGIS Online, or the latest in mobile technology? Do you have a GIS story to change the world? Can your insights inspire your colleagues within 30 minutes? Deadline is October 26. Bring your story to life and share your work experiences and expertise with more than 15,000 of your GIS colleagues at the Esri International User Conference (Esri UC) in San Diego on July 8 - 12, 2013. Storytellers Wanted.

12th International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems

The 12th International Symposium on Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems will be held on 4-5 April 2013 in Banff, Alberta, Canada. This Symposium is intended to provide an up-to-date review of advances in recent development of Web and Wireless Geographical Information Systems. We invite submissions that address both theoretical and technical issues of W2GIS. Deadline for full paper submission is October 30, 2012. W2GIS 2013

Esri Seminar about ArcGIS 10.1 - October 9

This free ArcGIS 10.1 seminar by Esri, themed “Transform Your Organization”, will be held on Tuesday, October 9, 2012 from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm at the Omni Parker House, 60 School Street, Boston, MA 02108. Register online.

NEURISA Day - 10/15

Join colleagues on October 15th at the Oliver Wright Tavern at Old Sturbridge Village in centrally located Sturbridge, Massachusetts. Topics include LiDAR, mobile technology, open source GIS, unmanned aircraft systems and more. See the CGA’s Ben Lewis accept the NEURISA 2012 Special Achievement Award. NEURISA Day 2012

Workshop: “Making Geodatabases Work for You” - 10/18

The UNH Cooperative Extension Geospatial Technologies Training Center will teach this workshop on Geodatabases. Improve your GIS data storage by incorporating GDB files into your workflow. The workshop will be held on October 18th from 9am to 4pm at the NH Fish & Game Department in Concord, NH. Register online.

October Conferences in GIS (a sampling):