GIS Day 2008

GIS Day is one week from tomorrow. Below you can get PDF's of all the activities. Remember, it is a drop-in event so come for as much or as little of it as you can.

Get the flyer here ...

Get the full schedule of events here ...

Get the list of presenters here ...

Get the GIS Day Cake Decorating Contest Information here ...

WNC GIS Gathering back on this month ...

After a few months off ... come on out!

WNCGIS GATHERING
WHEN: Oct. 29th Wednesday (this week)
TIME: 5:15pm until about 6:30pm
WHERE: Asheville Brewing Co.,77 Cox Avenue
MUNCHIES: by Resource Data (buy your own drinks)

Same casual atmosphere.
Always best to walk or ride your bike. Drink responsibly.
The bus station is very close.

#1. GIS DAY at AB TECH is coming up soon! Last year was incredible. Presenters are lining up for this year. This could be one of the largest GIS events we have ever seen in WNC.

Friday, November 14th, 2008
9:00am – 2:00pm
Contact Pete Kennedy or Greg Dobson for more info.

#2. RENCI engagement centers at UNC and UNCA are organizing a statewide GIS Volunteer program. I want to hear more about this from Greg Dobson. There are a lot of GIS folks in western NC trying to find opportunities to use their talents in new and creative ways with meaningful results outside of their daily jobs. And there is a substantial public interest need in western NC for GIS support.

#3. John Wood at UNCA is looking for your hand drawn maps to study and discuss. Bring paper and pencil. Penciled maps are so much more interesting than these computer based GIS maps we have to deal with every day.

#4. Bring your own special projects to talk about. We want to hear what everyone is doing.

GIS for Real-Estate Class

Calling all students

Creative Juice is holding a competition for teams of college students who can come up with another use for an otherwise throw-away object. Get some students together and get on it! The Grand Prize is a trip to Google's Googleplex in Mountain View, California. In addition to the grand prize, there are $1000's of dollars of worth of other prizes.

Turn around time is short ... September 10th and the prize will be unveiled September 11th so there' little time to waste.

Learn more at http://www.creativejuicecompetition.com .

North Carolina Maps

Really great side from the North Carolina State Archives, North Carolina Collection, Outer Banks History Center , and Rare Book Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill. Many maps already digitized and available with hundreds more to come.

http://www.lib.unc.edu/dc/ncmaps/about.html

LizardTech and NC One Map

An integration has been done with North Carolina One Map for creating an Ortho Server for the state. I am trying to spread the word to end user groups and thought you might be interested in the data available.

Attached is the PR for their Ortho Server for the entire State http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/dailynews/2008/jul/17/news1.html

Catalogs of imagery available for viewing http://204.211.239.206/lizardtech/iserv/browse

These aerials can be brought into any open standards system via WMS and by other means, we also have an arcgis plugin for linking up to the ortho server, this can be brought into Arcmap, ArcGIS, Autocad, google, ArcIMS etc… via this link http://204.211.239.206/lizardtech/iserv/ows


Thanks to John for sharing. What a great resource.

John Ruffing
S.E. Regional ManagerLizardTech, Inc.
Phone: 206-902-2857
Cell Ph: 602-312-4259
Fax: 206-652-0880
Email: jruffing@lizardtech.comhttp://www.lizardtech.com/

gathering tonight ...

Where: Asheville Pizza Company -
When: 5:00pm until

Best pizza in town and it's 50 cents off beer and 50% off appetizers.



View Larger Map

Marshall Arts District Map

This map was made by a former student of mine and I thought I'd share it with everyone as well as plug the French Broad Fridays put on in Marshall by the Marshall Arts District.


More information can be found here: http://marshallnc.blogspot.com/

Meeting Wednesday of this month!

Greetings to all the good GIS people...

Summer is coming up fast, but before you head for the beach, be sure to join us for the next WNCGIS Gathering. We've been having a really good turnout with lots of great conversation lately, so let's have that tradition continue.

We will be meeting this Wednesday, May 28th, at the Asheville Brewing on Coxe Avenue downtown. On Wednesdays they have been doing a special where you get 50 cents off the brews and their (delicious!) appetizers are half-off, so don't fret if you're hungry after work.

Enjoy the sunshine and see you in a few days....

--->Leo Klausmann
Neil Thomas

Climate Change Lectures at AB Tech

Asheville - Buncombe Technical Community College is hosting a climate change lecture this Thursday, May 1st in Sycamore 201.

Speakers:

Jay Lawrimore
National Climatic Data Center

Jennifer Rennicks
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

All are welcome.

WNC GIS meeting - Wednesday April 30th

Greetings to all the Good GIS People out there.....

We hope that y'all are enjoying this phenomenal Spring weather, and that you find the time to stop lounging around in the sun to join us for the upcoming WNCGIS Gathering! As posted in the previous email, it is coming up on April 30th, Wednesday, at Asheville Brewing on Coxe Ave.

Feel free to come around 5PM if you can, or drop by later on. We've had an especially sizable and entertaining crowd of folks the last few times, so let's keep up that tradition! Snacks will be provided as usual by the ever-generous Resource Data Inc., and Asheville Brewing serves more fine brews, pizza, and sides then you'll have time to try.

Wishing you the best and hoping you can join the fun,

--Leo Klausmann
WNCGIS Group List Admin

---- thanks for sending out the email to everyone Leo - I copied it verbatim to this post for anyone that stumbles onto the blog that is not on the email list.

KML officially adopted by the OGC

While it's been in the works for a couple of years, it looks like yesterday the official announcement was made. The Open Geospatial Consoritum works to set open standards for all types of geographic information because KML is a mark up language much like HTML and allows the sharing of geographic information in a standard way. Not only on the web but by any software that can now easily include this open standard.

This quote was taken directly from the OGC press release about this and I think it sums it up well.

"Geographic data adds tremendous value to the online experience. More and more people are looking for ways to incorporate location information into their online content," said Michael Weiss-Malik, KML product manager for Google. "The standardization of KML makes it possible for both novice and expert users alike to publish and share geographical information in an open format. It's not unlike web browsers' standardized support for HTML, which allows any web browser to read any web page."

Scientist release high-resolution map of carbon footprint

I stumbled across this while 'working' this morning. It is part of the Vulcan Project funded by NASA and the DOE. This project is attempting to quantify the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions. If you look at the link you'll see it is hosted at Purdue.

The resolution of the map seems to be 100 square kilometers. The link is from wired.com and has a good article on the project. Possible the most interesting part is the Shell Energy add at the bottom of the page.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/scientists-unve.html

National Geographic Map of the day

I came across this today and thought I'd share it...

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/map/map-day/index

ESRI 2 Day Introduction to ArcGIS

Come to Asheville and learn GIS! 2 chances this March.