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Workshops

Carolina URISA will offer four workshops on Wednesday, February 16, 2011. The workshops will be held in the Marriott Raleigh City Center Hotel. Workshop sessions are scheduled from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm, and include refreshments and lunch. Workshop co-chairs are James Armstrong and Tim Muhs.

The "Using a Free and Open Source Geospatial Stack" workshop will be at the Institute for Training Research and Education (ITRE) facility, room 3425, on the NCSU campus.  For directions, see HERE.

Fees

Workshop fees are $150 for Carolina URISA members; $160 for non Carolina URISA members.  A late registration fee of $185 will be in effect on January 26, 2011. To Register - Check HERE for a link to the Online registration tool.

GISP CREDIT

The GIS Certification Institute offers both education and contribution points toward a GISP for attendance and other involvement in the NC GIS Conference.
  • For initial GISP Certification, attending an 8-hour CURISA workshop is worth .2 education (EDU) points.  For renewal of your GISP, attending an 8-hour CURISA workshop is worth 2.66 EDU points.
For more information on GISP credit, see the application at the GISCI website, see www.gisci.org.

Workshop Offerings

Building Quality Spatial Data
Edward Kura – URS Corp.

Spatial data plays a big part in the Information Age, from on-line mapping services to downloadable data from thousands of government agencies.

  • Do you always trust spatial data?
  • Do your users trust your GIS data?
Creating and maintaining accurate spatial data is one of the keys to a successful GIS implementation. Without quality data, the most user-friendly GIS will not be accepted and used by its intended audience. This course will present best practices, processes, quality control and quality assurance techniques for developing and maintaining high quality spatial data that users will trust and utilize.

Specific topics include:

  • Guidelines for selecting the appropriate levels of quality and accuracy
  • Establishing an effective data quality control program
  • Data conversion quality control / quality assurance
  • How to attack and defeat quality problems
  • High quality processes lead to high quality data
  • Principles and processes for statistics-based quality assurance testing
Intended Audience: Project managers and technical staff creating or maintaining spatial data; GIS users in government and the private sector who need to acquire or develop spatial data; spatial data users who need a better understanding of how quality data is developed.



GIS Strategic Planning
Rebecca Somers – Somers St Claire GIS Management Consultants

Strategic planning is a vital tool for all geospatial programs, at any stage of development. An effective strategic plan is crucial to ensuring that a GIS program gets started right. As a GIS program matures, strategic planning methods are important tools for program management, program review, responding to change, and solving problems. An effective strategic plan will help you win program approval and funding, ensure that program goals and return on investment are achieved, and keep a program on track in a changing environment. This course teaches strategic planning methods and tools in the context of developing and managing a GIS program. Participants will learn how to successfully select and apply appropriate methods for a variety of situations.

Specific topics include:
  • Strategic planning models, methods, and tools
  • Selecting and applying the best approach for any GIS situation
  • Developing an initial GIS strategic plan
  • Integrating GIS, IT, and organizational strategic plans
  • Developing an effective action plan and ensuring follow-through
  • Updating a GIS strategic plan
  • Conducting a GIS program review and effecting improvement
Intended Audience: GIS managers and staff; GIS users and program participants; managers, executives, and other professionals who are involved with GIS programs.



GIS Enterprise Architecture & System Integration
David Peters – ESRI Redlands

The objective of this workshop is to examine both GIS enterprise architecture and the integration between various systems (GIS included) in an organization. Instructors will examine the past, current, and future of GIS within an enterprise context, and apply the experience, discipline, and future direction of the Information Systems (IS) profession to Geographic Information Systems (GIS).

This course will provide GIS professionals with an understanding of some of the complex technical and specific technical management issues that must be addressed.

Specific topics include:
  • Definitions of Enterprise GIS
  • Definitions of System Integration
  • Architecture design and development
  • Management and phasing of enterprise environments
  • Staffing and maintenance of enterprise environments
  • Network, data and web architectures and roles in the enterprise
  • Open systems and standards
  • Future issues and trends
Intended Audience: Public and private sector managers; elected officials and policy professionals; database developers and administrators; GIS professionals.


Using A Free and Open Source Geospatial Stack
Alyssa Wright - OpenGeo

Learn how to use a geospatial stack featuring free, open source, and standards-compliant software. Starting with shapefiles, a spatial database will be created using PostGIS, a robust object-relational database system. The data will then be served with GeoServer using OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) protocols. Mention will be given to basic styling, as well as map composition. Map serving will be optimized via GeoWebCache, a tile-caching server, and finally displayed using OpenLayers, a popular JavaScript library for web mapping.

 

Prior GIS experience is helpful but not required. Enthusiasm for GIS and web mapping is a must (but will be provided regardless)!

Intended Audience: Anyone with an interest in mapping and geography.