Mono County recently upgraded the face of its GIS with a new public facing web portal and series of web applications. The web portal (http://gis.mono.ca.gov) features a re-themed version of the old GIS portal, and includes better access to web applications, digital maps, GIS data, and more information about our GIS program. The site was built using Drupal, which is an open source CMS that allows for easy update and maintenance, and great look and feel for the user.

Of particular interest within the site are the host of applications that Mono County offers to the general public, namely the Parcel Information System, Polling Place Locator, and Property Rental Inquiry tools.

The 3.0 version of Mono County’s Parcel Information System reflects a complete redesign, with the intention of making the application easier to use and improve its performance. The search functionality has been streamlined allowing users to search for any type of Tax Parcel or its owner through focused searches that target individual fields, or across all information in the database. The map has also been optimized and converted into a ‘cache’ which allows for it to render much more quickly and show appropriate information depending on the scale it is being viewed at. The application can be seen at http://gis.mono.ca.gov/ParcelViewer.

Following the 2010 County Redistricting effort, a number of our constituents moved from one Supervisor District or Voting Precinct to another. Since these changes have caused a lot of confusion, Mono County built the Polling Place Locator to help our constituents determine what District & Precinct they belong to, and determine where their polling place is. Users can enter an address, parcel number, or complex name  (or pick their location from a map) and be presented with a set of result candidates and ultimately information about their District and Precinct. The application can be seen at http://gis.mono.ca.gov/Elections

Transient Occupancy Tax is a significant source of revenue for the Town of Mammoth Lakes, and is tied to the nightly rental of hotel rooms, condo units, and certain single family homes.  Though the tax must be paid to the Town for every night that the unit/room/home is rented, not every property in town is eligible for such type of rental (some zones & districts only allow rentals of 30+ days due to zoning codes).

As the Town has ramped up their enforcement and tracking of TOT, they were interested in providing their constituents with some tools to determine whether they could legally rent their space or not. Similar to the Polling Place Locator, this application allows a user to enter an address, parcel number or complex name and determine whether or not their particular property is able to be rented. The application can be seen at http://gis.mono.ca.gov/TOT.

I decided to pursue a mostly for current and long-term professional development, with the hope that I could rapidly use my education within my current profession.  My experience working with GIS is about 9 years working with ArcView and ArcMap on a daily basis.  Working for a local government has given me the opportunity to work with GIS every day, but only gives me limited opportunities to use GIS as a research and analysis tool.

Turning to online education was necessary due to balancing education with my full-time job, and the lack of nearby educational opportunities.  I did look into available programs at Fresno and Bakersfield college campuses but did not have any success in finding on-line programs there.  Further searching resulted in a few online universities, including Penn State and USC.  I ultimately chose Penn State based on a friend’s referral of the program, school name recognition, and relative affordability of the program. (approx. $8,000 total tuition).  Also, for those interested in someday pursuing a Masters in GIS, the post baccalaureate certificate classes can be counted towards the degree.

Students who have no or little prior experience with GIS will begin to learn the basics, but the content gets challenging quickly.  Fortunately, there are several resources available for getting more help.  The course instructor and teaching assistants are very approachable by email (Penn State has email, forums, and chat rooms as part of its course management system. )  Students can post and respond to posts if they have any questions.  The students come from a broad range of backgrounds – many work for federal and state agencies, in environmental or biological fields.

The three required courses provide you a solid foundation in GIS fundamentals and data analysis.  The first course focus more on understanding GIS, map projections, and available data – very little hand-on GIS work is entailed.  The balance of the courses entails GIS problem solving, database building, and more.  Most projects can be completed individually, though some projects and finals require teamwork.  GEOG 484, the third class in the series, included an engaging final project where teams created data layers from a scanned copy of a 19^th century Sanborn Map.

The best thing I can say about the program is that there is an abundance of further reading, websites to explore, and additional exercises to further your education as you go through the courses, if you are able to invest the time.  You can learn the content by investing the minimum 8 to 10 hours a week, but can also go much further if you have the time to invest.

Accessing the online course management system and online text is easy for anyone who is computer literate.  At the beginning of the course, you are sent a one-year trial version of ArcView 10 to install on your computer.  I was able to run GIS on my Mac computer by installing Parallels Desktop and Windows 7, and only experienced a few glitches.  Fortunately, all of the online texts were recently updated to be compatible with ArcGIS 10 and Windows 7.  Students also have access to the school’s online library, though I never utilized this service while enrolled.

For more information here is the program’s website:

Penn State Certificate Information

Brandon Smith, AICP

Senior Planner, City of Visalia

From: CalGIS Conference Committee

Hello fellow geospatial professionals!

We are about two months away from our 2012 conference here in Sacramento and we have compiled a quality program with great topics, compelling speakers, and opportunities to share knowledge with each other in a professionally stimulating environment. I am looking forward to catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while, making new connections, and building the strength of our community. We, as the California  geospatial community, have collaborated over the past 18 years to build a strong cadre of professionals and programs across the state that rivals any in the country. That being said, we still have a long way to go to enable better access to data, free flow of information between agencies, and a leverage stronger connections to the private/consulting sector.

I encourage everyone to be in attendance April 11-13^th at the Sheraton Grand Hotel. Check out the program online along with the pre-conference training opportunities from our Gold Sponsor esri. I want to thank ALL of our sponsors, many for continued support and welcome to the new sponsors, without which we would not be able to put on this event. I encourage any firms or agencies that haven’t sponsored yet to do so. You will have direct access to the best in the business!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to read this. Please contact me with any questions or comments and I will see all of you soon!

http://www.urisa.org/calgis/info/

Dan Henderson, PMP, CFM, GISP

2012 CalGIS Conference Chair

Back in 2009, Google released this new style imagery for San Jose and San Diego, California. Google continued to slowly rollout additional cities.

As for the updated Bakersfield imagery, Google publishes a KML file with imagery updates. It appears the Kern County imagery was updated on August 15, 2011.

While the new imagery may have been a result of private industry paying for it, I think it’s exciting to have this updated imagery in Central California.

To find out when imagery has been updated, open the KML file in Google Earth, then either zoom to the area of interest, or turn on the dates in the layer list on the left-hand side.

And while the previous 2010, one-foot imagery was also great quality, it’s hard not to look at the two side-by-side and not like the oblique option.

Below is the Bakersfield Downtown Bank of America building. The Google oblique image on the right shows the additional feature of panning in all four directions to view the building.

In fact, at the recent Bakersfield GIS User’s Group Meeting, Dave Peck from Pictometry mentioned that while GIS users may traditionally be used to orthographic imagery, end users will more than likely prefer the oblique imagery style.

It’s also easy to see the advantages of additional spatial informational available from oblique vs. orthographic imagery.

With 45-degree angles, measurement tools can be used to find height and other spatial attributes.

What I think could really be exciting is using this imagery to create 3D Google SketchUp models of the City of Bakersfield, especially with the ability to pan views.

And for those that have access to the 2010 imagery via a GIS, it offers a great way to compare timeframes; the 2010 imagery was flown in May and June 2010.

Overall I think it’s pretty cool how powerful Google Maps has become with its ability to combine local knowledge with some of the best aerial imagery and make it available to everyone.

Speakers:

David Peck from Pictometry discussed oblique imagery and uses for many different business functions.  Contact Dave at david dot peck @ pictometry dot com.

Jeff Orton spoke about the mobile GIS efforts at Paramount Citrus.  This link is to a guide to connect your Arcgis server services to the iPad of Android app from ESRI  Document

We also discussed Chapter meetings and the CalGIS Conference in April.

Next BUG meeting May 24, 2012

The Greatest Paper Map of the United States You’ll Ever See

Cartography and Geographic Information Society

With the New Year right around the corner I would challenge all of you to get involved in all of the great opportunities that are available in our field.  A few of the great things to keep in mind:

1. GIS user groups.  Our URISA chapter helps support GIS User Groups in Bakersfield, Mammoth, Merced, and San Luis Obispo.  These groups are great ways to get to know your fellow GIS practitioners, to build friendships, and to increase collaboration.  Frequently, one of the people you meet at the user group meeting will have a solution you are looking for.
2. Cal GIS 2012.  The conference is fast approaching.  This last year we hosted the conference in Fresno.  I hope that you had the occasion to join us.  This year the conference is in Sacramento and promises to be another great time to meet, learn, and network.
3. Community outreach.  Recently several groups in our chapter are had the chance to go to schools and support the development of geographic knowledge and GIS training.  There will be other occasions this year where as a chapter or as individuals we will be able to reach out and make a difference.  Keep your eyes and hearts open.
4. Workshops.  After the Cal GIS Conference, we plan on gearing up for more workshops.  These are a great opportunity to get low cost education.  Watch for these on the website.
5. With the new website, we are always looking for your contributions.  Feel free to write up a post about what you are doing and share.

I hope that all of you have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year.

Thank You

Jeff Orton

President Central California URISA

Take a moment to express thanks to someone.

- Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. -
-Cicero

My Situation

After working 13 years in the GIS profession both in the public and private sector, I recently decided to establish an independent GIS Consulting business. My most recent employment as the Geographic Information Officer for the County of Santa Barbara, came to an end this past year as part of the current economic challenges.  The County of Santa Barbara in an effort to close a multi-million dollar budget gap for the fiscal year 2011-2012, chose to eliminate the County Enterprise GIS program. This included the elimination of the County’s Geographic Information Officer, the Enterprise GIS Analyst, the County GIS Internship program (with joint partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara), and the funding for ongoing Enterprise hardware and software maintenance costs.  While this was an unfortunate circumstance, I choose to turn this into an opportunity for challenging myself further in this profession. Since having established a good amount of relationships and contacts in the area, I choose to create a GIS consulting business that specializes in low-cost solutions for agencies and districts who need GIS services for their operations.

The Current State

The current poor economic climate means many agencies have been faced with cutting costs which includes valuable staff and resources.  With this in mind, it actually is a very good time for people choosing to go into their own GIS consulting business.  The public sectors with Cities, Counties, and Special Districts have reduced staff but still have core operational responsibility and mandated functions to provide. The private sector with Engineering/Survey/Environmental/GIS companies are struggling for work and many new projects that require additional staff, may be reluctant to hire on full-time employees for that work which may dry up in a few months. These agencies are tasked to maintain or do more with fewer resources.  So it has become desirable to contract out work and services to paid contractors and consultants.  These agencies benefit from getting there core services stabilized, while avoiding the high costs associated with funding a permanent full-time employee.

Tips on Getting Started

Once you have made the decision to pursue your own GIS Consultanting business, there are some essential items to get started with.  First you will want to create a business plan.  This can be difficult to complete, but will be very rewarding as it becomes a roadmap for how your business unfolds successfully. This will entail developing what type of work or services you are going to specialize in.  I would recommend incorporating a good amount of diversity, as it is difficult to find dedicated work for just an isolated product or service.  Second you will want to file the appropriate legal paperwork to establish your business.  There are different parameters for different types of business but your local jurisdiction should help you with what is required for your business.  Thirdly you will need to acquire the appropriate level of resources for you to be able to conduct your work.  From the technical side, that means having the appropriate equipment such as computers, GIS software, and printing capability. Lastly it helps to maintain a positive and optimistic outlook, as it can be very challenging to build success, often taking many months for your business to get “off the ground”.

For more information:  Visit http://www.zworldgis.com

ZWORLD GIS
27 West Anapamu Street Suite #191
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805.448.1726

Ten Quick References for Map Makers

Best of 2011

Sonja Theide

Three presentations were made over the event:

Doug Rion and Bobby Jo Close (San Luis Obispo County) presented the County’s use of Linear Referencing and Dynamic Segmentation to manage their County Maintained Road System.

Russ White (Cal Poly) presented Image Classification Tools in ArcGIS 10.

Ryan Foster (City of Arroyo Grande) presented Open Source GIS Tools.

A GIS Day proclamation was made by the vice-mayor of the City of San Luis Obispo, John Ashbaugh, and small prizes were given away by way of a number of geography trivia questions.  The grand prize was an Esri virtual campus subscription, given away to the person who was able to correctly identify eight locations in the county shown in before (2003) and after (2011) aerial photos.  The event was covered by KSBY, the local television station, which ran the piece on the 11:00 news that evening.

Thanks to all the participants.

Andy Richardson