Exploring the Evolution of Geo Intelligence - Esri User Conference 2013

Content is king! That was the main message from the Esri UK annual conference in London – a buzzy event with four breakout streams and 17 partners exhibiting. Robin Waters reports. The Esri UK conference was held at the Novotel in Hammersmith on 21 May. Around a thousand Esri customers attended as well as nearly all of the 250 or so Esri UK staff. That is a big conference for GIS in the UK. And the customers came for free – perhaps that is the secret to a successful conference in austere times? It is the first time I have... (read more)

2016-12-22 01:13:09

The Future of Location Intelligence – Interview with James Brayshaw

After more than ten years as a director of Ordnance Survey, James Brayshaw recently left to join Pitney Bowes Software based in Henley. Robin Waters caught up with James, who is now nearly two months into his new position as director and general manager for location intelligence, EMEA (MapInfo), to find out more about his reasons for moving and how he perceives the future of the location business and the MapInfo brand. GIS Professional: With your background and high profile role at Ordnance Survey, why have you moved? James Brayshaw: To be honest I was not looking to leave Ordnance... (read more)

2016-12-22 01:19:17

Maintaining, Developing and Testing GIS Software - Interview with Melvin Lindsay

Carl Hancock talks to Aligned Assets’ new testing and support manager, Melvin Lindsay, who explains what goes on behind the scenes in software maintenance, development, testing and debugging. Carl Hancock: Firstly, congratulations on your new role. How are you finding it so far? Melvin Lindsay: It’s been an “enjoyable challenge” I’d say. Just prior to me taking up the role, Aligned Assets had one of their support technicians move on to pastures new so, although I’d not expected to be hands-on straight away, my background as a first line support engineer proved very useful. What was great about doing this... (read more)

2017-01-25 01:25:21

Technology Taking Off - Survey Association UAV Conference 2013

Richard Groom reports back from the Survey Association’s recent UAV conference at the Newark showground in June. Sadly the weather limited the flying display but delegates still got a real understanding of the latest technology for mapping. The Civil Aviation Authority prefers the term “unmanned aircraft” (UA) to unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or system (UAS). This may sound pedantic but (thankfully) logic and order are fundamental to air traffic control. And the first speaker, Gerry Corbett, who is in Flight Operations Policy at the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), says that the same principles apply to piloting an aircraft, whether they are... (read more)

2017-01-25 02:52:34

Reducing Barriers to Geospatial Information - Interview with Charles Kennelly

Charles has been Esri UK’s chief technology officer since 2008. He is committed to ‘reducing barriers’ to the use of geospatial information. Robin Waters met Charles at the bar after Esri UK’s annual conference in London in May where he contributed to opening and closing plenaries as well as to the opening of the track on ArcGIS as a platform. GIS Professional: This is the first Esri UK conference that I have attended and you seem to be able to attract many users despite the age of austerity? Charles Kennelly: We are delighted that there have been nearly 50% more... (read more)

2017-02-27 05:43:35

Open for Business - AGI GeoCom 2013

Increasing public awareness, opportunities for industry change and predictions for the future! Hayley Tear, Robin Waters and Stephen Booth report on the highlights of another successful AGI GeoCommunity conference. Last year’s AGI GeoCommunity conference focussed on “sharing the power of place” with the wider world and how building our industry’s reputation was up to us – the GI professionals. In our report, we reflected that it had become an unofficial tradition to hear Chris Holcroft, who was then about to begin his new role at the Royal Meteorological Society, speak of the AGI’s mission; always passionate about the opportunities open... (read more)

2017-04-27 04:13:59

Land Registry and INSPIRE Index Polygons - Interview Andrew Trigg

Robin Waters talks across the waves to Andrew Trigg to discover more about latest developments with Land Registry, particularly its download service for INSPIRE Index Polygons. For over 20 years, the Land Register for England and Wales has been available for anyone to view but before 1990 it was “closed” to the public – you needed the permission of the owner of registered land in order to look at the register entries for that land and find out who owned it! And it was only in 1990 that compulsory registration, on transfer of title, reached every part of England and... (read more)

2017-02-27 05:33:05

MapAction in the Philippines

As super typhoon Haiyan smashed into the Philippine islands of Samar and Leyte last November, a MapAction emergency team had already landed in Manila, three hundred kilometres to the north. The vital role of mapping in disaster emergency response can be a race against time to save lives and bring relief as Nigel Woof OBE, MapAction’s operation director, vividly describes. The international relief community relied initially on government reports about the areas and numbers of people being affected, together with disjointed glimpses of its impact from news streams and social media. So, in the absence of real-time information, the MapAction... (read more)

2016-12-22 02:17:52

The Bravest People in GIS

Dealing with lengthy political processes; employees threatening to quit at the mere thought of working in a standards role; hearing jokes made about the result of your hard work. Adena Schutzberg takes a stand for all those who work in the sometimes maligned world of standards development. I know many brave people involved in GIS. Some start their own companies. Some work on wildfire GIS maps and applications and then go and fight actual wildfires. Some try to teach challenging software over the Internet to anyone who is interested. I want to celebrate another brave group of people in our... (read more)

2016-12-22 02:07:09

A SWIM Master Class Holds Lessons for GI

A belated Happy New Year to readers. We hope you had a relaxing break and that you were not affected by the midwinter floods. We congratulate Nigel Woof of MapAction and Keith Dugmore of the Demographic User Group on their New Year Honours – see page 8. 2014 should be interesting in many ways and our contributors should inspire you from the start. MapAction were called out to the Philippines in November and Nigel Woof gives us a graphic account of their mission and why he and the organisation he leads are deserving of an honour (page 24). Andy Coote... (read more)

2016-12-22 02:11:18