Strengthening the GIS Profession

“Strengthening the GIS Profession”—that was the title of a 2012 ArcNews article authored by my friend David DiBiase. David asked: ‘Is GIS a profession?’ As he pointed out, this is an important question. He defined a GIS Professional as ‘…someone who makes a living through learned professional work…that requires advanced knowledge of geographic information systems and related geospatial technologies, data, and methods.’

The GIS profession, or any profession, rightly requires a definition that defines it across multiple dimensions. This article will assess from a personal perspective where the GIS profession stands today, based on the dimensions of the GIS profession that DiBiase outlined in 2012.

GIS architecture and GIS management

I often get asked for advice by my GIS colleagues about GIS program management, GIS strategic planning, organizational structure, and how to communicate GIS development concepts to upper management and IT staff. Questions come to me from agencies large and small.

Upcoming Seattle Training: ArcGIS Fundamentals (9/17-18) & Intermediate GIS Concepts (10/3-5)

Its time to register for training in Seattle to build your GIS skills. Face to face, instructor-led training builds a solid foundation in GIS to advance your career. The King County GIS Center is offering two-day ArcGIS Fundamentals in September and three-day Intermediate GIS Concepts in October. ArcGIS Fundamentals Overview ArcGIS is a powerful and…

LUCA program will pay 10 years of benefits for King County

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And everyone went to their own town to register.” (Luke 2) Fast forward 18 centuries and the US Constitution states: “The actual Enumeration [of every free person] shall be made…every subsequent Term of ten Years, in…

Map literacy and the 2016 presidential election

Among the fundamental skills required to be map literate, that is, to be able to read and comprehend maps, are an understanding of scale, the recognition of spatial orientation, and an appreciation of map projections. A higher-level, overarching principle of map literacy is that a single map can seldom tell a whole story, which is a point well made by Dr. Kenneth Field, Esri senior cartographic product engineer, in a recent article in Wired.

August 1 King County GIS User Group meeting topic: Vector tiles and other GIS news

You’ve heard about vector tiles. You’ve used vector tiles in a variety of online maps, perhaps without even realizing it. But have you created your own vector tile maps?

Microsoft generates 125 million building footprints using AI and deep learning

King County GIS Training Program partner Eric Pimpler of Geospatial Training Services has authored a fascinating blog post about a building footprint dataset which Microsoft has generated from Bing aerial imagery using artificial intelligence, deep learning, and computer vision.

Picture of the view from within the Sound Guardian

GIS on the SoundGuardian

King County’s marine research vessel, the SoundGuardian, spends much of its time on Puget Sound monitoring water quality, collecting samples to check on marine health, and maintaining marine buoys. Recently though, it went on its latest mission as part of a multi-year project to survey the King County saltwater shorelines and I was aboard.

2017 aerial imagery is now available in King County iMap

Frequent users of King County iMap, the online app that provides scores of the most popular King County GIS data layers in a flexible, multi-feature, interactive map viewer, now have access to 2017 aerial orthophoto imagery as a basemap.

GIS & You

News from the King County GIS Center

Tag Archives: GIS