We’ve got a bunch of rural customers.  Folks that don’t have a lot of scratch that have come to rely on the USDA NAIP flights (for better or for worse).  I inquired today with the APFO as to the current state of completion for Kansas.  If you can read a FIPS code (had enough acronyms yet?) then you’ll be happy to know the following are 2008 1m flights have been processed as compressed color mosaics (CCM) for Kansas (State code is 20, btw) -

001, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 15, 19, 21, 25, 31, 33, 35, 37, 43, 45, 47, 57, 59, 73, 77, 79, 83, 87, 91, 95, 97, 99, 103, 107, 111, 121, 125, 131, 133, 139, 151, 155, 173, 177, 185, 191, 205, 207 and 209.

At present, it looks like you have to order direct from APFO if you really really want it.  I did dump this into a spreadsheet for my own use.  If you ask real nice, I might send you a copy.

In related news, I was at the NRCS geospatial data gateway and noticed that NAIP was NOT available for download.  APFO didn’t have a reason when I asked.   I’m hoping this is temporary,  otherwise I’ll just chew on someone else’s bandwidth.

The Kansas Geological Survey has announced 2 temporary position vacancies for Geology Assistants.

I’m not so much into the -ology as I am the -graphy; but I happen to know that the Manager at the Wichita KGS office is an alright dude.  Sounds like a good job for aspiring rock hounds.

The title pretty much says it all. At present time,  Manatron’s site is still lean on details, so for the company line, you can head to InfiniTec’s site.  InfiniTec is a primary contractee of Dealy Geomatics.  The good news is (if you couldn’t tell by the lack of blog posts), is that business with InfiniTec has been crazy busy lately.  So, I’m fairly confident that the excellent working relationship we’ve got with InfiniTec/Manatron should persist for the forseeable future.  We’ll keep ya posted.

I’ve been too busy to blog lately, which isn’t a bad thing. I still need someone to buy my old house (takers?); but here we are, Hays America. Coming back to the town of my alma mater feels like college again except two toddlers are my roomies now (insert joke here). After an evening of getting ‘acclimated’ to local customs (went to a KofC stag) the old gears weren’t spinning this morning as fast as the room was last night. So in lieu of any sort of real productivity today, we blog…

We’ll be in CA for the ESRI dev summit this year. As a follower of the cult of ESRI, I’m pretty stoked about going. There’s been a lot of chatter as of late in the blogosphere with regard to how ESRI’s dropped the ball w/ the web adf, so if you’re attending & feel like proselytizing, by all means, you’ve got an ear to bend. I’d have to agree that for someone who’s used to scripting (not programming), the documentation sucks. Since the 9.2 release, it’s like snipe hunt on EDN every time you want to find a reference to something. What ever happened to straightforward documentation followed by a usable code snippet? The way they changed the site post 9.1 is just frustrating.  That said, it’s still not too bad as long as you don’t stray far from the canned stuff. I just hate to be in a position of “just gimme the code”, and that’s what it feels like every time you wanna add something new to an app.

I’m a big fan of FOSS; I miss my KDE when working (vista = meh). I’d like to be able to seriously consider some ArcGIS Server/SDE alternatives, but with a clientèle that all pretty much drinks from the ESRI font, I think it’s a matter of finding the right application that can seamlessly integrate. Oh and a paint-by numbers installation would help too. And while I’m at it, why is it that everyone talks about alternatives & when you go to the websites to look, there are never any links to real-world examples (demo sites w/ blue marble et. al. do not count)?

The work keeps rolling in with respect to the business agreement we’ve got with InfiniTec. GIS Customer Counties presently include: Jefferson, Osage, Lane, Pawnee, Russell, Saline, Sumner, Riley, & Scott.

Scott and Lane are total package deals; that is to say we are their GIS department. Suffice to say, there is grunt work to be done. So if you’re a student in the Hays area and are interested an internship, drop me a line, otherwise, I’ll be doing some headhunting soon.

<soapbox> I know some people get bent out of shape with the idea of interns doing data development. Well, too bad. It’s the way I came up and anyone who puts a negative spin on it is wasting your money. You don’t pay the architect to hammer and saw. This is no different. As long as the oversight is there, data development is an intern’s highest & best use. Or perhaps you’d rather have your data development off-shored? That’s what I thought. </soapbox>.

• The fall has been busier than I expected, which is seldom a bad thing. Working with InfiniTec, we’ve rolled out new LGIS websites for Russell and Saline Counties. A few more are just about ready to go live. I’ll keep ya posted.

• Effective after Christmas, the world headquarters for Dealy Geomatics will be relocating (anyone want to buy a house in Wichita?). Not only does this put me closer to the majority of my business, but it keeps my boss happy too.

• Update your bookmarks, the Kansas Association of mappers has a new address – www.kansasmappers.org. The old address still works but will most likely be retired by next year sometime.

Season’s Greetings!

-bd

Has it really been three months since I posted anything? Sheesh.

To be honest, I put the blog on the back burner when I saw how my late summer/early fall was shaping up. I’ve been waist-deep in ArcGIS Server and SDE implementation (here’s the first release), plus KAM held its annual conference in Manhattan (oops; shoulda blogged that). At any rate, here’s a quarterly redux of the current state of Dealy Geomatics (hopefully with more frequent updates to follow):

I’ve been working twice the hours I normally do to implement the 3rd version of InfiniTec’s Local Government Information System (LGIS). Their site is still pretty sparse on details, but hopefully, that’ll change soon as we roll out more customers. Currently, LGIS ties parcel & tax servers to a map view and also provides a platform for an organization to present their published maps. The ArcGIS Server component uses ArcSDE to supply the data; and because we import a copy of the organization’s data to make it all work, this allows for a “natural” off-site backup of their geodata. In other words, this is our first real stab at a complete “geohosting” solution. The first lucky recipient of the upgrade is Sumner County, KS. I’ll try to be diligent with the posting as each existing customer is updated and as we add new customer sites.

A major stumbling block in my getting things done occurred late this summer – my trusty ol’ Compaq v2000z went belly-up after a botched repair job. Long story short – American Express stood by their buyer’s assurance program & hooked me up w/ a new Pavillion dv2500t after the company AMEX used for my initial repairs rendered my laptop useless for more than 15 minutes at a go. It was only a touchpad replacement, so how they screwed it up is beyond me. Anyway, new laptop; new OS. Vista is ok. Lotta eye candy coupled with security/stability features I’ve come to expect since switching to Linux on the home front. I’m still on ArcGIS sp2 for development reasons, and it’s a small pain with the license dongle (btw, why can’t they do this w/ the dongles?), starting the services up manually; but it works nonetheless (how about better *nix desktop software ESRI? I’ve grown quite accustomed to Kubuntu & Fedora).

Finally, where KAM is concerned, I was pegged by Ed Crane to give an introductory talk on geodatabase less than 2 weeks before the annual conference (here’s the presentation if you’re interested). Kansas is still predominantly in the realm of shape & coverage, and so I was hoping to give that user base a primer on geodatabase. Despite the short notice, I’d like to think it was well-received & I even had a few questions. I’m also transitioning out of my duties as Treasurer for KAM. It was an interesting an educational experience for a guy who has a hard enough time balancing his personal checkbook, and I would have liked to continue doing it, but priorities say I should be doing what gets me paid. I’ll still be working on the quarterly KAM newsletter, so if y’all have anything interesting to contribute, let me know.

That’s should just about bring y’all up to speed. More updates to come <fingers crossed>.

The State of Kansas via the Kansas Collaborative has released a guidebook on how to get GIS rolling at the local government level (a link to all the Collaborative’s resource center can be had here). It’s a good read if GIS has been dumped in your lap, or if you’re trying to bring those who hold the purse strings up to speed on not only the benefits of GIS (with a few real-world examples), but what exactly it’s gonna take to implement a working system.

Albeit, it’s written for folks in Kansas, the guidebook is chock-full of contacts, so you’re bound to find someone who can point you in the right direction. I had a chance to read a draft back in May & threw in my $0.02, though they still didn’t see it fit to add me to the list of vendors :-p.

Regarding a few more substantial quips, in the “Understanding the Value of GIS” section, some of the examples given seem a bit anecdotal & could use some references and a few more numbers. Regarding one of my favorite dead horses to beat, they estimate personnel budget at $35,000 plus benefits for a one-man shop. Realistically, a functioning department’s gonna need 2 folks or 1+ vendor to work more efficiently. Regardless, this is a great resource, & I hope the Collaborative works to maintain & keep it current.

Fellow KAM member Dan Rose (City of Topeka GIS) Has put together an in-depth article about salvaging Greensburg & Kiowa County’s GIS, and the role of GIS in their disaster recovery.  There’s also some great info @ the end of the article about the current status of the town.  The KAM main page also has a link to more photos as well.
Not to be ambulance-chasing here, but it is a very telling story for governments who think they’re too small for ‘real’ GIS (or off-site backups for that matter).

Kudos to Dan, btw for his great work on the article.

Browsing HREpartners via the KAM front page, I noticed today that Butler County, KS is looking to hire a couple of greenhorn GIS techs that will be “…expected to have acquired the necessary information and skills to perform the job reasonably well within one year of employment.”  Of course, they say they want 3-5 years of experience, which is a bit contradictory, but the pay scale offered resolves said schizm.

Sounds like a great opportunity for folks with entry-level GIS skills.

The City of Hays in conjunction with Ellis County, KS looks to be hiring for a GIS specialist.  Albeit a wide range, the pay is competitive (maybe folks are listening after all).  The years of experience asked for don’t quite jibe with the pay scale either, though that may be a function of hiring for a position new to an organization.  It also appears to be a one-man operation with quite a laundry list of job functions.

Hey, If someone lands that job via this post, just keep me in mind for assistance when the work piles up