Google Australia and DMSBT, a Google Business Partner, will run a live YouTube event next week, focussed on Google Maps for Business.

Telecommunications companies have used Google’s Maps & Earth products to improve business areas including network coverage, customer insights/retention, network performance, planning, design & construction, customer service and more.

Companies like Globe Telecom, NBN Co, AT&T, Verizon, and many more have used the Google Maps platform to grow their business and stay innovative.

The live YouTube event will run for one hour on Tuesday 14th May at 11am (Sydney time).

A link to the event will be provided after registration at http://goo.gl/78IAm.

Registration closes COB on Monday, May 13.

The New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) recently released its report on the background work that went into bike-share station siting decisions.  The first Citi Bike stations were installed earlier this month in New York City and eventually hundreds of stations will be built around the city.  The first phase of the fee-based bike sharing calls for 293 bike stations.  Ultimately, the bike sharing system will have 600 stations and 10,000 bikes, making it the largest in North America.

Under the bike sharing program, users can sign up for annual, weekly, or daily rates that allow them to borrow a bike from one location and return it at the bike station closest to their destination.  Users can rent bikes for an unlimited amount of time but can only check out a single bike for a maximum of 30 minutes (for the annual and weekly passes) and 45 minutes for the annual pass before overtime charges are incurred.

To study the best citing of those bike stations, NYC DOT used maps and geospatial analysis on a variety of levels.  DOT held 159 public bike share meetings where planning maps were discussed and also collected over 10,000 station location suggestions via its interactive bike station planning map which has been archived here.  Individual maps were provided to stakeholders to review and help narrow down from 2,881 options to the final 600 locations where bike share stations would be placed.  Maps formed a integral part of the public participation process with workshop participants marking on planning maps both positive and negative input about potential bike station locations.

Those interested can access an online map of the bike station locations or access PDFs showing detail at the neighborhood scale.

Planning map with marked comments from one of the many public outreach meetings for New York City’s bike share program.

GIS was also used not only to synthesize the massive amount of public and organizational input on bike station locations but to also create a predictive model for sizing each bike share station.  In order to undersize the number of bike racks needed for each location, a number of factors were used to create a model of bike trips across the city.  The model for generating number of bike strips along each street looked at the neighborhood land use (residential, commercial, parkland, schools, etc.), population, transit use (based on board and alighting for buses and subway turnstile counts).  NYC DOT also used data from the  Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) which provided GPS data from taxi cabs showing origins and destinations of trips.  The model generated estimates on the number of bike trips in a 24 period for each street segment.

Predictive GIS model for the number of bike trips within a 24-hour period for New York City.

In 2012, Alexander Rixey with Fehr & Pehrs published a report entitled, “Station-Level Forecasting of Bike Sharing Ridership: Station Network Effects in Three U.S. Systems” which utilized modeling using QGIS and ArcGIS toolsets to look at “effects of demographic and built environment characteristics near bike sharing stations on bike sharing ridership level.”

My recent post on GIS standards dilemma generated quite an interest so, as a follow up, I am publishing today a post explaining my position in more detail and illustrate deficiencies of one of the standards with concrete examples. 

The conception of GIS metadata standard was a long awaited breakthrough and raised hopes of the entire spatial community that finally it will be possible to have a consistent way of describing vast amount of geographic information created over the years but also new data generated on a daily basis. The expected benefits of the standard were far reaching because it would allow consistent cataloguing, discovery and sharing of all the information. In other words, if successfully implemented, it would deliver a great economic benefit for all. The concept of Spatial Data infrastructure (SDI) was borne… That was more than a decade ago. 

Fast forward to 2013. Creation of SDI has been a holy grail of GIS community for quite a long time so why, despite all the good intentions and millions of dollars poured into various initiatives, we still don’t have one in Australia? Why we don’t even have in place the first element of that infrastructure – a single catalogue of spatial data? In my opinion the answer is simple – because we are trying to act on a flowed concept. 

At the core of the problem is a conceptual flaw in the underlying metadata standard that makes it impossible to implement successfully any nation wide or international SDI. In other words, SDI concept will never work beyond a closely controlled community of interest, with a “dictatorship like” implementation of the rules that go far beyond the loosely defined standards. Until that flaw is widely acknowledged we cannot move forward. Any attempt to build a national SDI, or even a simple catalogue based on flawed ISO 19115 standard is bound to fail and is a total waste of money. The reason why follows...

For years many were led to believe “follow the standard and everything will take care of itself”. But the reality check provides a totally different picture. For a start, it took years to formalise Australian profile of ISO 19115 standard. Then everybody started working on their own extensions because it turned out it is quite hard to implement the standard in a meaningful way for all the data types as well as historical data which lack many details about it. But the true nature of the problem lays somewhere else...  

You see, the standard prescribes the structure of the metadata record, that is, what information should be included, but to a large degree, it does not mandate the content. The result is a “free text” like entry for almost everything that is included in a metadata record. Just to illustrate, access constraint is specified as “legal” and “use” related, and both are limited to the following categories: “copyright, patent, patentPending, trademark, license, intellectualPropertyRights, restricted, otherConstraints”. But the information is optional so that metadata element may also be empty. Now, consider a case of a user who tries to find free data… impossible.

Inclusion of so much free text in metadata information means the key benefit of creating a structured metadata record in the first place is almost entirely lost. Yes, it describes the dataset it refers to but in a totally unique way, which means searching a collection of records can only be limited to very generic criteria – in practice, with any certainty to only time and location (ie. a bounding box for the dataset). The problem is compounded if you start looking across different collections of metadata records, created and maintained by different individuals, with a different logic of what is important and what is not… But don’t blame the creators of metadata records for this – the standard does not prescribe the content in the first place!

The second problem is that the current metadata standard is applied primarily to collections (like, for example, TOPO-250K Series 3 topographic vector data for Australia or its raster representation) but it is generally not applied to individual data layers within a collection (which, in case of TOPO-250K Series 3 data would be any of 92 layers that comprise the collection). Therefore, a simple search for say, “road vector data in Australia” will not yield any results unless you revert to free text search option and “roads” happen to be specifically mentioned somewhere within metadata record (more on this below). 

Not to mention that it would be almost impossible, from a practical point of view, to apply the metadata in the existing format to individual features or points making up that feature. This aspect of information about spatial data, especially important for the data originators and maintainers, has been totally overlooked by the creators of the metadata standard.  

Then there is a data user perspective. The key benefit of a comprehensive metadata record is that it provides all the relevant information enabling user to firstly, find the data and secondly, decide whether it is fit for intended purpose. In the most general terms, the users apply “when, where and what” criteria to find the data (not necessary in that specific order). In particular, they specify the reference date (relatively well defined in metadata records so, the least of the problems), location (which is limited only to a bounding box but data footprint concept is also addressed within existing metadata standard) and some characteristics of the dataset … and this is where things are not so great because each data type will have its own set of characteristics and these are mostly optional in an ISO 19115 compliant metadata record (so may not be implemented at all by data providers). 

Take for example cases where users are interested in “2m accuracy roads dataset for Bendigo, Vic”… or “imagery over Campbelltown, NSW acquired no later than 3 months ago and with under 1m resolution”. It is virtually impossible to specify search criteria in this way so the users have to fit their criteria to information that is captured in metadata. That is, location becomes the bounding box constraint, time criterion becomes date constraint (either specific or as a range from – to) and the characteristics of datasets can only be specified as keywords… 

And this leads me to the final point - the need for ISO 19115 compliant metadata in the first place. Since the only truly comprehensive way to find what you are looking for is to conduct free text search, the structured content of the metadata record is obsolete. The result would be exactly the same if the information is compiled into “a few paragraphs of text”. That is the essence of the argument Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist of Google presented to the Australian spatial community as far back as 2009 but which remains mostly ignored to this day…

There is only one practical use for all the metadata records already created. You can dump the entire content of the catalogues, the ones that contain the information about the data you care, into your own server and reprocess it to your liking into something more meaningful, or just expose it to Google robots so that content can be indexed and becomes discoverable via standard Google search. Unfortunately, this totally defeats another implied benefit of SDI - that metadata records will be maintained and updated at the source and that there will be no need for duplication of information… 

I believe it is time to close the chapter on a national SDI and move on. Another failed attempt to create “an infrastructure that will serve all users in Australia” cannot be reasonably justified. The bar has to be lowered to cater only for the needs of your own community of practice. Which also means, you have to do it all by yourself and according to your own rules (ie. most likely creating your own metadata standard). That’s the only way to move forward. 

Interviewing for a position in the GIS field is not that much different from interviewing in other fields )see the article How to Survive the Interview Process for landing the interview). Kristina Jacob presents 10 tips to get you thinking about how you will prepare yourself for that interview.

1. Volunteer

If you are hoping to interview for a paid internship or entry level position, try doing some volunteer work. While some companies and/or organizations might not have the budget for a paid internship, they might have the space for a volunteer position. A volunteer internship will give you real world experience that you will not get in an academic setting, and you can work as little or as much as your time allows. By doing this, you will gain experience, the ability to network within the GIS field, and the ability to sharpen your GIS technical skills. The combination of higher education as well as some work experience will be desirable to interviewers.

2. Create a Portfolio

To show that you have cartographic skills as well as GIS skills, bring a portfolio of your GIS/cartographic work. Make sure to have 3-5 good examples of a variety of projects. You will want to use maps that show that you have good analytical skills, good cartographic sense, and an understanding of basic GIS concepts. Having this portfolio of work will allow you to show off your skills in person and is a great way to add something at the end of the interview when the inevitable question, “Do you have anything else that you want to add?” comes up.

3. Research the GIS Job You Are Interviewing For

Doing your homework for the interview is just as important your GIS technical skills. Learn as much as you can about the company or organization and about how they use GIS. Think about what you have to offer the organization through your GIS technical skill as well as your soft skills.Here are some questions to think about while doing your research:

• Is the organization in the public or private sector?
• Do they have an enterprise GIS group, or are GIS positions in different departments?
• How many people are employed at the company?
• Is GIS used for internal staff or do certain projects have a public component? What versions of software are they using?
• Do they have a public interactive mapping application? If they do, take note of the data they are using and the software

4. Don’t Rush to Answer

As with any job interview, be precise and succinct in your answers. It is okay to take a moment to think about the question that is being asked, it shows that you are giving thought to your answer.

5. Project the Right Body Language

Confident body language is as important as the words you say. Sit straight up, don’t fidget, you want to appear confident but not overconfident. If you have a habit of playing with jewelry (rings, watch, bracelet, etc.) don’t wear any during the interview. Maintain good eye contact. Some companies or organizations can have several people on a panel, while some may only have one person. If there are several people during an interview, make sure to address each of them and make good eye contact.

6. Make Sure to Highlight Your Experiences

Think about the specific projects that you have worked on, how they fit into the organization they were created for, and why they are important. Look for common themes and methodology from each project, and think about your strengths and weaknesses on these projects.

7. Demonstrate Your Ability to Work Collaboratively

Relate all of your answers to other groups that you have worked with to show that you are able to work with a variety of people. For example, if you had a complicated final project to complete during your coursework that required you to collect data from a variety of resources, think about those different resources and how you were able to get the information needed. Did you need to talk to a professor at another college? Did you need to get data from a different department at your school? Did you work with other students and/or take on a leadership role while collaborating on a group project?

8. Be Positive

If you are asked about an area that was met with challenge, tell how you overcame that challenge and/or what you learned from it. Leaving a positive impression is important.

9. Show an Interest in Your Prospective Place of Employment

Have good questions about how the organization uses GIS. You have done your homework and know a little bit about it- one of the questions inevitably will be something along the lines of “Do you have any questions for us?”. This is your opportunity to learn more about them, and asking good questions will give you more insight, as well as show them that you took the time to learn about them.

10.  Show Your Passion

If you have outside cartographic/GIS interests, bring them up. This will show that you are passionate about GIS and that you want to bring that passion to the organization you are interviewing for.

Remember, the people interviewing you have been in your position before and are understanding that this is a nerve-wracking process. Preparing yourself will help you get through the nerves and will be impressive to those interviewing you. Good luck!

Looking for global GIS data? Listed here are free sources for finding GIS data in both vector and raster formats including satellite imagery.

Natural Earth World GIS Data

This is probably one of the best sources for free global GIS data.  The site was initiated in 2008 by Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Tom Patterson and data from the site is coordinated by a group of volunteers.

Users looking for a global collection of free GIS data should exploreNatural Earth's GIS data selection. For a starter sample of world GIS data, Natural Earth offers a Natural Earth quick start kit download with a sample set of world GIS layers.   The zip file includes administrative layers such as populated places, hydrology layers including coastlines and rivers and lakes, and a hill shade layer for the world.  The vector layers in the quick start kit are at a scale of 1:10m and the raster layer is at a scale of 1:50m.  Included in the quick start kit to get you a jump start are an ArcMap file (.mxd) and QGIS file (.qgis) that loads the sample data into the respective map files already stylized.

Individual layers can be downloaded from Natural Earth for cultural, physical, and raster data at three scales of resolution: 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m.  All of the GIS data offered at Natural Earth is public domain and free to use.

Free world GIS data from Natural Earth

Global Elevation Map

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have an aggregated world digital elevation model that was released in November of 2011 called the Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010 (GMTED2010).  The world DEM aggregates the highest resolution data from a variety of sources.  More information: GMTED2010.

GMTED2010 - Global elevation data.

World Database of Large Urban Areas

Norpil has made available their layer of Large Urban Areas for downloading.  Tabular data from the United Nation's World Urbanization Prospects: The 2007 Revision Population Database was joined to the 2008 cities dataset that comes with ESRI's Data & Maps sample data and other sources of data.

The database is available for unrestricted download, under the Creative Commons 2.5 attribution license. This gives you the right to reuse and modify the data, as long as Nordpil and the UN Population Division are properly credited.

The data is available in Shapefile and KMZ formats as well as in tabular format.  Presentations of the data are also available including an animation of maps spanning the years 1950 to 2050 and a map of large urban areas in 2005.

Large cities in 2005 by Norpil

Digital Chart of the World Server
This web site will allow you to download the boundaries and layers of different countries, in Arc/INFO export format.

USGS EarthExplorer
Find digital datasets of both imagery and GIS databases from this site. Select data by coordinates, place name or interactively through the map.

Mapping the World at Night
A look at nighttime global mapping.

Further Reading

1. GIS Data
2. Data Appeal: 3D Visualization of GIS Data
3. New Global Elevation Data Available to Download: Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010
4. Updated 3D Global Topo Data from NASA
5. Overview of Elevation Data