GIS Education News: A Geospatial Intelligence Reading List

On and Off Campus

A small section of
Boulder's Child-Friendly City Map

Boulder Patch: Boulder Releases Kid-Friendly Map of the City - I noted this project a few weeks ago: "Two undergrads from the University of Colorado Boulder's Environmental Design Program designed the map using the input provided to them by organizations including Boulder Valley School District, the City of Boulder and other community organizations..." Now the map is online.

University of Kentucky: UK Geography 'Maps' its Way to a Better Lexington - Mapshop grew out of the New Mappings Collaboratory in the Department of Geography. It's an initiative that uses  "expertise in geospatial software and technical resources to assist the City of Lexington in raising critical mapping capacities."

People

Ottawa Business Journal: Alex Trebek in Ottawa for official opening of Royal Canadian Geographical Society's new HQ  - "Even as he battles pancreatic cancer, television legend Alex Trebek was in great spirits during his visit to the nation’s capital Monday for the official opening of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s gorgeous new headquarters along the Ottawa River....The long-time host of Jeopardy! and proud Canadian is honorary president of The Royal Canadian Geographical Society (RCGS), a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting and enhancing public awareness for Canada's geography."

The Roanoke Times: A quest to be useful drives Ferrum College graduate's interest in drives Ferrum College graduate's interest in recovery mission trips - Graduate Mark Kellam helped update one of the school's GIS courses and hopes to work in GIS.

Siskiyou Daily News: Former FireWhat CEO Charged with FEMA Fraud - Back in 2015 I wrote about FireWhat's efforts to introduce GIS to local schools students. I vaguely recall an effort to buy the local kids sweatshirts, since many didn't have warm clothes. The company shut its doors in 2017 and now there's more bad news: "The CEO of the now-closed Dunsmuir company FireWhat has agreed to plead guilty to seven counts of major fraud relating to FEMA grant funds he administered for the Siskiyou and Shasta county fire chiefs associations."

On Jobs

Directions Magazine: GIS Jobs: Current Industry Expectations - A student, a faculty member and a GIS analyst from the Forest Service offer an update to a survey of GIS jobs put together in 2011. "In conclusion, if you’re looking to begin an exciting career in GIS as a technician, analyst, or an eventual manager, focus your time and effort into becoming proficient with Esri ESRI [sic] software (if you’re not already), learn programming skills (even if it’s just basic functionality), and work with database management to become more competitive for the jobs you want. If your goal is more programming and development-oriented, start learning to code in Python and/or Java/JavaScript. Establishing a foundation in all of these fields will help interested individuals discover their passion and a successful career trajectory." 

Spatial Source: Campaign puts geospatial science on the map - A Destination Spatial Queensland (DSQ) initiative featured a career education marketing campaign encompassing an extensive website, social media presence and a roll-out of informative geospatial science career resources. The goal is to grow the geospatial workforce; DSQ is looking for more partner companies. 

Resources

A Geospatial Intelligence Reading List: Jack O'Connor from Hopkins shared the list. I can't say I've heard of any of these titles, but GEOINT is not my area of expertise.

Reader's Digest: Every Winning Question from the National Geographic GeoBee - The questions are from 1989 to 2018.

Question of the Week

I read a blog post inviting potential students to a "free class" about learning Python. Among the topics to be covered was "why most GIS Professionals fail to learn Python." What do readers think the reasons might be? Are they different from why GIS Professionals fail to learn other languages?