Here at the ESRI Polytechnic Engineering School for the Blind, we have a weekly colloquium where we (the students) and the ESRI staff meet to hear interesting presentations every Wednesday. Today’s colloquium was a presentation from another resident of The Gulag, Dr. John Kimerling of Oregon State fame, presented Dotting the Dot Map. Beware: there’s a dose of math with funny symbols in this one.
From the abstract:
Dot maps show the geographic distribution of features in an area by placing dots representing a certain quantity of features where the features are most likely to occur. The fundamental steps in dot mapping are to select the dot size, determine the dot unit value, and place the correct number of dots in a random manner that correctly reflects the geographic distribution of features.
Selecting the dot size is a subjective decision, but the dot unit value has long been determined with the aid of the Mackay nomograph. Close examination of the nomograph finds it not appropriate for determining the dot unit value when dot placement is based on computer-generated random numbers that result in overlapping dots. A new graphical aid for dot unit value determination was created by modeling aggregate area of dots and amount of dot overlap using a truncated form of the unification equation from probability theory. Aggregate dot areas predicted by this equation were tested against actual random dots created for several common dot sizes, and high agreement was found between measured and predicted aggregate area. The new ESRI Dot Value Estimator was created by Aileen Buckley based on these results.
Pseudo-random dot placement with a maximum overlap constraint for dot pairs appears to better mimic how cartographers have traditionally placed dots. Pseudo-random dot placement can be thought of as similar to rigid random placement of circles in a square with maximum circle overlap limits from 0% (mutually exclusive dots) to 100% (totally random dots). Thinking of dot placement in this manner allowed a general equation for aggregate dot area to be devised as a linear combination of the mutually exclusive and totally random dot endpoint equations. Aggregate areas predicted by this general equation were found to closely match actual assemblages of pseudo-random dots with differing maximum dot pair overlaps.
The second part of this research focused on improving the guidance given for the placement of dots when mapping human population from U.S. Census data. MS GIS students [...] created a series of maps for San Bernardino county that illustrate the improvements in dot placement that result from using progressively smaller Census data collection units, and then using land use information to exclude areas unlikely to contain people. The final refinement was using road buffers as inclusion areas in rural areas.
I point this one out because it is rarely in the geoblogosphere we get techniques in cartography, especially with ESRI GIS technology. Fortunately, there’s the ESRI Mapping Center for those with the ESRI crutch. They even have a blog! I would reference the site quite often for the power GIS user who makes maps as it is chalk full of goodies (scripts) and tricks to get the most—cartographically—out of ArcGIS. As for the mega-cartographer, I would reference information aesthetics, John Krygier’s Making Maps: DIY Cartography, Tom Patterson’s Shaded Relief, and even Edward Tufte’s Ask E.T for more tips and techniques for cartographic and information visualization.
On the same note, and I don’t know if you feel the same way, but it seems as if there is little “art” in our science these days in the GIS and map services world. It could be just me? I’m writing more design and project documentation these days.
Those who know me, know that I don’t talk geography on this blog. I talk swag.
As in ESRI conference swag.
I must say, the haul from the DevSummit and Business Partner Conference was pretty good. Two man purses, a water bottle, some notebooks, some pens, and some pocket litter. Yet, what has caught my attention the most, and the something I can’t seem to put down, is the the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy.
Yeah… You know what I’m talking about…
It’s what ESRI tech support uses to answer questions over the phone:
Caller: “I can’t seem to export to PDF. Is there something wrong with my install?”
ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy: “Consult me later.”
By the way, I was using the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy’s REST API to call up all those replies as I was writing the above.
So, see. If ESRI can dish out swag like this, you better watch out FOSS4G and Where 2.0, because your swag is toast. ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy says, “Very likely.” If they give out 14,000 of these things at the UC AND release ArcGIS Everything 9.3 by the Users Conference, well then, kiss cancer and climate change goodbye! Because with the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy and ArcGIS 9.3 working together to form the ultimate Spatial Decision Support System, what everyone is doing or working on will be irrelevant—which the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy says “there’s no doubt about it.”
Now for the tough questions:
Will I graduate from the ESRI Institute of Technology? Indications say “yes.”
Without getting shot? Chances aren’t good.
Will James Fee ever go to any Where 2.0 conference? The stars say no.
Should Dave Bouwman have won the ESRI Code Challenge hands-down? Very likely.
Is Dave now drowning his sorrows in a few thousand dollars worth of Fat Tire? No doubt about it.
Is the estimated worth of ESRI about the same as the number of people in the world? Yes.
Will Jack ever sell? No.
Am I an ArcTard? No doubt about it.
Will there be an international version of the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy? ¡La verdad!
So, in conclusion, the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy is one of the better pieces of swag on the conference circuit this year—because it speaks the truth!
If you don’t already have one, then it sucks to be you—which the ESRI Magic Eight-ball Knock-off & Stress Squishy-thingy says there’s “no doubt about it.“
(Is this the dumbest blog posts ever? So it shall be.)
First there’s the DevSummit this week, then there’s this!
A University of Redlands graduate student could face felony charges after police said he fired gunshots from the steps outside an off-campus student apartment complex.
Police found more evidence inside [the student's] apartment, Sgt. Travis Martinez said.
Police responded to a call of shots being fired about 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 1100 block of Central Avenue.
Witnesses helped police find [the student's] residence near Central and Cook Street, part of a university-owned apartment complex for students, Martinez said.
[The student] was not home when police arrived, but police later found and arrested him, Martinez said.
It was unclear why [the student] fired the gun.
“We don’t believe he was firing at anybody or anything specific,” Martinez said.
[The student] faces either felony or misdemeanor charges, depending on which way county prosecutors lean.
It is a case known in legal terms as a “wobbler,” Martinez said.
[The student], who was working on his master’s degree in geographic information systems, withdrew Friday from the university, said Katie Ismael, university spokeswoman.
Who’d a thunk that I’d be living a life of danger?
For our program director’s sake, I’ll have to say this was an isolated incident and that we’re still a good program. This isn’t the ESRI Summer Camp and Women’s Prison.
So, what can I say about GIS and firearms? Well, let’s say, they don’t mix in most places. Although, we do have a student who works for the Redlands PD. Check out this cool video of him on a ride-along:
No, that’s not Chris Schmidt either.
(Thanks to to Dave Smith for pointing the article out… Who probably found it in his Google News search for “geographic information systems.”)
With all this talk about how schweet ArcGIS Server 9.3 is and how killer all of its APIs are, folks have forgotten the API that ESRI forgot to deliver: The FORTRAN API.
Way to go Team. Missed a big one.
Guess the shuttle to FANTOM PLANET is still going to run on AXL files too?
So, I went back. Back to the Kool-Aid stand that is the ESRI DevSummit. I got smarter, I got excited, I got even more hooked on the Kool-Aid.
First I’d like to note that I’m a geographer, not really a programmer, but… I learned a lot at the DevSummit and I got a lot of crazy ideas for my post-Redlands life. I did realize that to understand the mechanism that is ESRI GIS you can be a dope like me, but to develop the mechanism it’s hard work. I guess any development is really. Putting up with the client/user’s griping and complaining, their clueless ideas and so on. I commend a lot of developers for putting up with that crap, and most other geographers should too.
So, yes, my first DevSummit opened up a new world to me. One that f’in nuts! Still, I like building things, designing things, seeing the happy smiles of users. So, I think I’ll not only keep up with the tech and the processes that are new in buttonology, but also keep up with the tech that makes working with GIS “so fun.”
Bottom line: ArcGIS Server 9.3… F’in rocks. It’s off the hook, fool.
Side notes:
1) Jeremey B. said he should have made a “HTTP Goodness” t-shirt. I mentioned they would probably sell like hot cakes at the UC or next year’s DevSummit. I also recommended that he make “GET” and “POST” shirts too.
2) I spent the afternoon in the Microsoft Lounge charging my laptop, doing some homework, and found myself consulting with Ed Katibah and a Redlands alumn from back East. I tell you, that Ed sure is awesome. Always fun to chat with, always a ball of energy. Though I felt kind of bad about holding him up from his FAQ work that he did for the Microsoft SIG. I told him though that he’s lucky he hasn’t suffered from “Adult Onset Internet ADD” like I have. That’s what GIS and blogging will do to you.
3) The Flex API for AGS was “demonstrated today. Slick, slick, slick. In the three weeks that they’ve worked on it, it has some great visualization capabilities in the browser. The interesting thing is that you can not only build web RIAs but you can also export your work to Adobe Air for a light weight desktop app. Licensing? No clue. It’s built to mimic the AGS 9.3 JavaScript API, so any changes to either one, the other should be updated as well. So, a pretty nice presentation layer for the Flex/Flash folks. BTW: The Flex API isn’t in beta yet. Notice I said they worked on it for three weeks? So, Flex and AWX devs/designers will have to wait.
4) Congrats to Dave Bouwman. He won second place in the Code Challenge. Just think if he would have reminded us to vote for him?
I just got home from Palm Springs. No. I live in Redlands these days and I wasn’t kicked out. I was low on Kool-Aid.
I was at the ESRI DevSummit and Business Partners Conference, mostly hanging with Bill Dobbins and James Fee, and made it to the geoblogger meetup. It was a good time and there were some great people there—with James being the exception. Other than your typical blogger-types, Don Cooke from TeleAtlas made a visit, as did Scott Morehouse and a number of the ArcGIS Server Team members. As one could expect, we ended up talking mostly about the Server and the REST and JavaScript APIs.
James gave me crap for being remotely interested in the Flex API. He said something about ColdFusion being dead, VGI is a scam, and that Wikipedia is broken too. It was just James being, well, James.
What may have been the best story of the night though, is the story Don Cooke told James, Bill, Ed Katibah, and myself. I’m not sure if I should print it, but it has to do with the title of this blog post and an event at the first UC. James says he won’t look at the person who I’ve quoted in the same light again. Somehow, I think I could see that person being in that situation and having a little fun.
Still, the best part of the story was when the valet got the driver’s golf clubs out of the trunk.
Today the Summer Camp was blessed with a visit from Dr. Michael Goodchild from UC Santa Barbara. He was in town to speak at our colloquium w/ ESRI on VGI and what it means, but our class got to spend an hour with him discussing what else he’s been working on besides VGI. And no Andrew, I didn’t give away all your VGI secrets.
It sounds he’s interested in re-visiting how we do metadata. It depends upon VGI and the state of current technology from what he alluded to. He spoke of tags and ontologies and how the technology already describes what the data is for really well. What metadata today really doesn’t tell us—if we ever bother to look at it or write it—is how it has been used, what it’s good for, and how uncertain it is. And he went on to talk about how accuracy is out dated for today and how uncertainty is really what we’re wanting to know. So he sees the change in the world and wants to apply it so the rest of us really aren’t living in a world of paleo-metadata standards.
The other thing he spoke of was really about gazetteers, and he speaks of changing how we look at naming places. It takes a bit of VGI to do this. He and I went on about the First Law of Geography in terms of how persons volunteer the information around them. He speaks of involvement, ownership; I brought up the human need to justify our existence. What I should have recommended was the use of “Generation M: Me, MyMaps, MySpace” in his talks to describe this, but he’s the doctor… I’m not. BTW: I used that in a talk at the UC about two or three years ago.
We got on the topic of social networks and space and that was really interesting. Again, the First Law came up and I brought up the “compulsion of proximity” (pg. 257) about how people flock to like people. He also talked about how early mapping of social networks geographers would distort the physical space, but that really doesn’t represent the connections well and is kind of a poor—but fun—use of visualizing information via geography.
It was an hour well spent. Actually, he made me wonder why I was at Redlands getting a Master’s versus getting a PhD at Santa Barbara. He did praise Redlands as one of the best programs for what it is, with being a year long and having the resources that ESRI provides. Redlands might be the only year-long program? Also, he recommended talking to another one of his students who was working on something similar, so that is always helpful.
Then later this afternoon it was time for his presentation at our colloquium. It went really well. Jack was there for those of you who care. He went into a number of things that the whole social software world discusses, but with the focus on geographic information. He talked about the difference between authoritative versus assertive sources in mapping. Brought up how Don Cooke calls himself a “paleogeographer,” but how the only difference between him and the neogeographers is that their shirts are untucked and his isn’t. He used Open Street Map, Wikimapia, and Google Earth as examples.
Overall, Dr. Goodchild gave a good presentation about where the geospatial world is and asks what’s going to happen next and how is it going to effect us all.
I apologize that this post doesn’t capture everything, but it’s something.
