As our Director of Product Development, Jeremy is responsible for ensuring that the solutions we develop as a company are aligned with industry trends allowing our clients to fully benefit from the power of GIS technology.  Jeremy’s background in computer science gives him a thorough understanding of the vast capabilities of GIS technology.  This technical knowledge on the different ways to deliver GIS solutions, coupled with his business knowledge of state and local government, puts Jeremy in a perfect position to (1) identify opportunities where public sector agencies can benefit from the technology and (2) deliver solutions that capitalize on these opportunities.

Jeremy worked in the public sector for seven years with the State of Tennessee where he was thoroughly involved in the Tennessee Base Mapping Program.  One of the first mapping programs in the state, it initiated a multi-million dollar statewide GIS data foundation.  Once created, the focus shifted to maximizing the return on the investment by ensuring that the data was maintained moving forward and effectively distributed to stakeholders in both the public and private sectors.  Jeremy played an important role in developing maintenance tools and establishing state/local government partnerships that now make up a very impressive parcel data maintenance program. Jeremy played a lead role in being on the cutting edge of implementing Esri geodatabase replication technology to facilitate parcel data sharing between government stakeholders at the state and local level.  These efforts have resulted in a statewide parcel geodatabase that is updated on a nightly basis from 50+ distributed geodatabases across the state.  This ultimately ensured that stakeholders at the state and federal level are able to, with confidence; leverage the parcel data for decision making purposes.  In addition to parcel data activities, Jeremy was involved in developing GIS solutions for local election administration and redistricting.

Jeremy finished his career with the State of Tennessee as the Assistant Director of the Office of Local Government.  In this position, Jeremy was responsible for overseeing a variety of GIS services provided to local government agencies across the state.  In his final two years, Jeremy played an important role in the establishment of the Geospatial Learning initiative.  This initiative focuses on the use of GIS technology in classrooms to help students learn.  This initiative has tremendous potential with both short and long term benefits for tomorrow’s workforce

So... Do you climb it?

Jeremy is a graduate of Western Kentucky University (WKU) in Bowling Green,KY.  As a Hilltopper (whatever that’s supposed to be), Jeremy received a BS in Computer Science with a minor in Geography/GIS.  He also played soccer for the division one men’s soccer program at WKU and still enjoys playing from time to time.

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Recent infrared aerial photographs of the Nashville area flooding were taken by TN Department of Transportation.  Generally TDOT charges for their imagery, however, according to folks at TDOT, these photos may soon become available to state and local governments for free.

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TDOT flew Monday, May 3rd – Saturday, May 7th over major flood areas.  As you can imagine, some of the later photos taken Friday and Saturday did not capture the full flood epidemic.   The good news is that we have the flight patterns.  Hopefully some of you will be able to incorporate these photos into your GIS soon.

No wonder it took all week, they flew all over the place!  Oh, and thanks for the screenshots Google Earth.  -We obtained all data through a standard query using appropriate communication channels.

After attending this meeting, I felt compelled to go out and create maps to share with the world!  The FREE ESRI Seminar was held in Phoenix, AZ about three weeks ago, give or take two weeks…  The Seminar showed how ESRI can help create easier and faster maps using their tools and sharing information (“But it’s mine!”-my son’s and wife’s favorite line).  If you missed the seminar, go to another one. They have a free series that travels around United States to bring you information for the price of you not being so dang lazy…even though that is the ultimate goal, to have your information resources make the “best” decision for you while you spend the least amount of effort making the decision, win-win, right?.. Okay back to the Seminar. 

The seminar was broken down into sections.  Here is a resource list that might be helpful to those who both did and did not attend based off of the seminars agenda. 

Session 1 Building Basemap

• Map Template Gallery (Download professionally designed templates to make better, faster maps).  http://resources.esri.com/maptemplates
• Best Practices for Working with Map Templates (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn tips on creating professionally designed maps using cartographically rich map templates and your data).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ESRI Mapping Center (ArcGIS cartographic tips).  http://mappingcenter.esri.com
• Cartographic Representations (Learn to symbolize your data).  http://www.esri.com/representations
• Labeling with Maplex for ArcGIS (Documentation for Maplex for ArcGIS includes a 60 day trial).  http://www.esri.com/maplexdocumentation
• Creating and Publishing Maps with ArcGIS (Instructor-led training course.  Learn techniques for creating professional quality maps using a standard cartographic workflow).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ArcGIS Community Basemap Program (Contribute or obtain authoritative geographic data from this ESRI-hosted, GIS community map).  http://www.esri.com/communitymaps

Session 1-A Deploying the Map

• Using Data from Different Coordinate Systems http://www.esri.com/article34129
• Managing and Configuring ArcGIS Server (ESRI White Papers).   http://www.esri.com/serverwhitepapers
• Geodatabase Replication  http://www.esri.com/article34131
• Authoring and Deploying Fast Web Maps (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn best practices for designing and publishing map services).  http://www.esri.com/training
• How to Plan a Map Cache  http://www.esri.com/mapcache

Session 2 Sharing Content

• ArcGIS Online (Sign up for free) (You will receive 1 GB of free storage, making it easier to share content with others through groups you either participate in or create).  http://www.arcgisonline.com
• How to Get Started Using ArcGIS Online (Online video).  http://www.arcgisonline.com/help/help.htm
• Layer Packages  http://www.esri.com/layerpackages
• Sharing Layer Packages with ArcGIS Explorer (This blog post explains how to create good layer packages for sharing maps and content).  http://www.esri.com/agxlayerpackages
• Creating Models (Online Video).  http://www.esri.com/creatingmodels
• Introduction to ArcGIS Server (Instructor-led training course.  Develop skills in authoring and sharing GIS content on the Web or across your organization).  http://www.esri.com/training
• ArcGIS Explorer (download for free) (Start visualizing, analyzing, and presenting your content now.  http://www.esri.com/arcgisexplorer
• ArcGIS Explorer Quick-Start Tutorial (Free one-hour online training seminar.  Learn the basics of working with ArcGIS Explorer and how to create dynamic geopresentations in ArcGIS Explorer)  http://www.esri.com/training
• Enhance ArcGIS Explorer with Add-on Tools (Click/Search: TOOLS)  http://www.arcgisonline.com

I’m not going to tell you what’s coming in ArcGIS 10. 

Look How EASY I Made It For You.  Let me know if you want me to also read them off and click the links…

We received this message from ga parks and would like to share it with you!

I thought you’d like to know that Georgia State Parks is launching a statewide geocaching program called the Geo-Challenge and you and your readers are welcome to join in!

Starting May 8th, you’ll find an official cache page for each Georgia State Park (all 42) on http://www.geocaching.com. Many thanks to all the volunteer members of the Georgia Geocachers Association for placing and maintaining the caches! A complete list of participating parks and links to each cache page will live at http://www.gaparksgeocaching.com after the 8th.

You and your friends are invited to the kickoff event, May 8th, at Fort Yargo State Park. It’ll be a day of food, fun and of course, geocaching. This will coincide with the monthly meeting of the Georgia Geocachers Association. More details about the event and the program are available at http://www.gaparksgeocaching.com or you can call 404-657-9858.
Hope to see you there!

Just when you thought “emo” couldn’t get any more, well, “emo”…

Since 2004, over 2000 people from 25 different cities around the world have participated in Christian Nold’s Bio Mapping experiment.  Using a GPS and GRS (Galvanic Skin Response) device (invented by Nold), Nold maps variant emotional responses of people as they travel through a city.  The bio-sensor (GRS device), which is based on a lie-dectector, measures changes in the sweat level of the wearers’ fingers and the GPS captures response geographically.  The assumption is that these changes are an indication of emotional intensity that is tracked by the GPS device and later mapped in Google Earth.  I wonder what the map would look like at a Dashboard Confessional concert…

The London based artist, describes the unique mapping experience as a “total inversion of the lie-detector, which supposes that the body tells the truth, while we lie with our spoken words.”  He further explains, “With Bio Mapping, people’s interpretation and public discussion of their own data becomes the true and meaningful record of their experience. Talking about their body data in this way, they are generating a new type of knowledge combining ‘objective’ biometric data and geographical position, with the ‘subjective story’ as a new kind of psychogeography.” 

Although I joke about connecting emotions with geography,  Nold’s device opens up a world of new marketing and psycho/social research capabilities.   It also presses on the ever increasing questions of emergence of technology and the human emotion.  Read also has an online book containing a collection of essays called Emotional Cartography.

Google added the Google Earth plugin to their Google Maps site.  If you haven’t already downloaded the plugin, you can now do so through Google Maps.  

Our Crew Chief, Mark Young II, collects manhole data with the Town of Smyrna, TN.  He is usually paired with one of three (water and sewer) department staff and averages about 50 manholes a day.  While collecting manhole data with Freddy Hedgepath, they hit a wave of momentum and collected data for 96 manholes before having to retire early for office work that afternoon.  “If we can get 96 (manholes) in less than a full day, we can get to 100!”  Mark explained that the competition started when he boasted Freddy’s numbers to the other two department staff he shares data collection hours with.  

The high collection number not only fired up competition among the three Smyrna staff members, but also increased their productivity, satisfaction, and responsibility in the data collection process.  ”They (Smyrna Staff) were focused on getting the numbers and doing it right.  It was no longer just another day collecting manholes.”  The beauty behind the competition was that it was fertilizing business growth in an exciting and fun way.  What ensued was a three week sprout of heavy data collection, with each day getting closer to that 100 mark.  The competition ended when Mark and Smyrna staff member, Jason Schuler, collected 101 manholes before finally pooping out (those things are heavy!).  The competition pushed out short term data collection efficiency up to 200% and has since influenced their overall data collection productivity 115%.

How could such a small goal make such a big splash?  A lot of things came into play that you might not think about…  Smyrna hired three competitive employees to work with Mark on the project.  All three guys respect their co-workers to the point where “a little competition” won’t affect their personal relationships with one another.  There was no bonus or extra vacation day given to the winner.  The competition offered a mere ego boast to the winner.  The weather did not stop (because of rain/storms) their data collection efforts for longer than two days in a row, enabling a continuous catalyst for competition.  The goal was attainable and simple, making it more desirable to reach.  Mark although a major part of the project was seen as a buffer, coach, and referee enabling the workers to feel like the competition was fair to all.  The goal was set by a fellow employee, not the boss, so it was perceived as a choice rather than a “do it or get fired” necessity.

So if your other data collectors are getting a little pooped out from the “same ole, same ole,” don’t be a meadow muffin, try adding a little fun competition to their day!

So I get to write a blog entry about the 2010 ESRI Development Summit in Palm Springs California!  Do I tell you about the 86 degree sunshine, the college kids on spring break, the street party, the beautiful women by the pool (gotcha!), the breath taking mountains or the serene desert? Okay!  Well, no, I did not get to see any of that.  But, I did learn a lot of cool stuff about the ArcGIS 10 pre-release which is planning to ship out April 1st, 2010.   Of course, it is April Fool’s Day, so I am not holding my breath.

I started Monday at 8:30 a.m. with the “Getting Started with the ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs Session” by Presenters Jeremy Bartley, Kelly Hutchins, and Sterling Quinn.  I’m telling you…lot’s of cool stuff in the new APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight. The Version 2.0 Beta was released Sunday, so I am pretty excited about that and the new editing widgets that are avaialable in all three api’s.

Over the past few days I attended sessions back to back, including: “Using and Extending the ArcGIS WebMap for Flex”, “Working with the ArcGIS API for Flex”, “Distributed Geodatabase Development”, “Working with the ArcGIS API for JavaScript” and several user presentations on Javascript and Flex work.  All that flexing can wear you out!  But it is Palm Springs!

Of course, the most exciting news to some of you will be the new Iphone Application Development API.  There is also a rumor of an Android Development API, which was the subject of many questions during the mobile technology question sessions. Everybody seems to be hot to jump on the Android bandwagon.

I also spent a lot of time with several of the ESRI development team leads whom helped me with answering several questions and providing
issue solutions.

Well that was a brief flash of the summit.  I am incredibly pumped about getting the pre release and implementing all the new stuff as soon as I get back to work!

Blog at you all again soon!
Rodney

Oh to leave with a list of a few of the new things for ArcGIS Desktop here is a list straight from Jack Dangermon’s slide!

• An ArcCatalog window built into ArcMap for quick data access
• Easier and faster ways to find and use symbols and tools
• Auto hide and dockable windows (e.g., table of contents) so your focus remains on the map
• Ability to execute geoprocessing in the background, allowing you to continue to interact with your map
• Integration of a new window in ArcMap to simplify project management and collaboration
• New Query layers that allow you to access all data (including spatial data) stored in relational databases via standard SQL
• Creation and management of time-based data
• Can display and animate temporal datasets
• Python window console within ArcMap
• Being able to automate everything with Python
• Desktop add-ins template

The City of Jackson, TN is the latest GEO-Jobe GIS Geopowered site to go live.  This new site is part of a bigger project GEO-Jobe is involved in with Jackson to develop an Enterprise GIS.  Utilizing ESRI ArcGIS server technology, several city agencies, including planning and police, will begin sharing data between eachother and with Madison County agencies, like the Assessor’s office.  One of the big goals of this project is to reduce costs by eliminating data duplication. Many times cities and counties have data that could be shared, but are limited by connectivity or technology.  GEO-Jobe is helping Jackson and Madison County remain current while making the best use of tax-payer dollars.  With budgets being reduced in nearly every community in the US, using tax dollars wisely is at the forefront many city leaders minds.

Please visit the City of Jackson Geopowered site and take it for a spin.