GeoGraphic

As 2010 draws to a close, some imporant changes are happening around here. Firstly I have joined Gamma as their Senior GIS Consultant, so GeoGraphic as a trading entity is being shut down.

It was a very interesting couple of years. I worked with some great clients and on some very interesting projects, but I have a roof to keep over my family’s head and it just wasn’t paying the bills.

I fully intend to keep up with the blogging on here, with less focus on professional promotion and more on my thoughts of what’s going on in the wider geo-sphere. Of course these views will be my own and shouldn’t be interpreted as being those of my employer.

The first of the changes to this blog might be apparent to frequent readers – I’ve imported some posts from my (slightly less professionally focussed) Posterous site to here, you can see them in the From Posterous category tab.

I’m facing a steep but enjoyable learning curve over the next few weeks as I get to grips with new software platforms, databases, client requirements and workflows. But I hope to be back with an end-of-year round-up before the month is out.

Today I’m at the Compass 10 event in The Alexander Hotel. Lots of interesting talks so far, ranging from The Biodiversity Data Centre to Ordnance Survey Ireland talking about future developments, including Prime 2 on which there is some background information here

I’m live tweeting from the event, you can follow my tweets here: http://twitter.com/GeoGraphicIE or search for the #compass10 hashtag (here for example: http://hashtags.org/compass10)

In addition to this blog I also post information which I think useful to the web in a number of other places.  You can see some of these in the siderbar to the right, under the ‘GeoGraphic on Social Networks’ heading.

I occasionally post maps which I have created to my Flickr account, of course much of my work is covered by client confidentiality, so doesn’t end up posted on the web at all. I have recently set up a Facebook page for GeoGraphic (please feel free to ‘like’ it by clicking here.)

I have also established an account on Posterous, which seems like a useful service for short blogposts and sharing on information.  My most recent post on there is a collection of links which Geo people might find interesting. I’ll see how that site goes, and may yet repost things from there onto here.

I am also active on Twitter. My ‘professional’ account is @GeoGraphicIE where I tweet about Geo, Maps, Data and other items that are of interest to me professionally. I also have a personal twitter account (@ManAboutCouch) where I tweet about everything else, including the occasional Geo item which I think will be of interest to the wider public.

The upshot of all of this activity? I am engaged in some personal brand building. My LinkedIn profile page has proven useful in that regard already. I want to get the word out there that if you need a map, or want to conduct some analysis of data then I am a person you should consider talking to. I would love to talk to you about how to put your data to effective use. At least my contact details should now be fairly easy to find!

There are a number of events taking place in the next couple of months that should be of interest to people involved in the GeoData and Environmental fields here in Ireland.

First up, I will be attending the “Communicating environmental issues through the web” conference organised by the EU Representation in Ireland and the Celsius Research Group at DCU, which takes place at European Union House on Dawson St. in Dublin on Saturday 4th September. I’m hoping that the use of mapping and GeoData will be featured as an effective tools for highlighting many of the issues that will be discussed.

On the 13th September Castlebridge Associates are running a ‘Masterclass on Taming the Data Asset’ with the renowned Dr Tom Redman at the ICS on Mount St in Dublin. I will be giving a brief talk at this event on the value of GeoData and accuracy issues.

Two days later Compass Informatics will be running their ‘Compass 10′ event in The Alexander Hotel. This looks like an extremely useful event for GIS and Environmental practitioners, and I expect it will be one of the primary networking events of the year. You can download a PDF of the agenda here.

And finally on the 14th of October is the annual GIS Ireland conference organised by IRLOGI. This is usually the highlight of the year for Irish based GIS professionals, although it risks being overshadowed by the Compass event this year. I have submitted a proposal to speak about OpenStreetMap and open GeoData in general which I hope will be accepted.

If you are aware of any other upcoming events that you think may be of interest please let me know in the comments. If you are attending any of the above events please do come up to me and say ‘Hello’. I am always interested in meeting people who work with or have an interest in maps and mapping.

Time to move from a static placeholder website to something a bit more 2.0…  More content coming soon.