Thinking Outside the Box - April 28, 2003

Message from the Editor

Welcome to GISWeekly! This week's interview with Jeff Thurston, director of his company, Vector One Consulting in Germany, touches on integrating geo-technologies, GI and IT, and geo-visualization.

GISWeekly examines select top news each week, picks out worthwhile reading from around the web, and special interest items you might not find elsewhere. This issue will feature Industry News, Alliances/Acquisitions, Announcements, Awards, Appointments, New Products, Featured Downloads, Around the Web, and Calendar.

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Best wishes,
Susan Smith, Managing Editor

Industry News

Thinking Outside the Box

A Canadian, Jeff Thurston lives in Berlin, Germany and is Director of his company Vector One Consulting. He holds a MSc. in GIS and has written internationally for several publications. His work has appeared in GeoWorld, GeoEurope, Geoinformatics, GIS India and online previously at GISCafe.com for GISVision Magazine. Currently he is completing a book for Wiley Publishing entitled Integrated Geo-Technology - to be published in 2003.

His biography is certainly impressive, but one of the most impressive things about him is his ability to address fundamental GIS issues but also “push the envelope” of technology and present new and dynamic thoughts on the subject of geo-technology.

Vector One integrates several geo-technologies including GPS, GIS, photogrammetry, remote sensing and visualization. GISWeekly asked Jeff to give us some examples of how his company integrates multiple technologies.

JT: One project I am working on involves climate change in forested environments. Physiological data has been collected on the ground across an area of almost 20,000 sq km. GPS is used to locate the sites and of course those coordinates are stored for each site. Satellite images over time are available to see forest change relative to those sites. Aerial photography is also available for both road network and urban planning in the area. GPS is used to geo-reference the images.

The trick has always been to integrate all those technologies toward visualization - GIS originates in the database, visualization from the camera perspective. When I speak about visualization I am speaking about 3-D visualization. That means the vegetation looks photo-realistic and all objects on the landscape can be moved around and viewed from alternative perspectives. We used Visual Nature Studio from 3D Nature for this because it links GIS to visualization well. In this case, the forest polygons can be projected into the future and stocked accordingly, providing a photorealistic presentation.

The value of this is that it provides a means to explore conditions into the future based on real spatial information. At the same time it provides a means to communicate to regional people and communities what might be anticipated. This then enables people and government to formulate suitable monitoring, planning and policy scenarios. In a broader context that affects hydrology, transport, urban growth and social issues - all of which contribute other sources of data. Thus a circle of continual integration. An article on this project will be available shortly in GeoInformatics Magazine, Netherlands.

Many of the articles on the Vector One website are very unusual in nature.

The Vector One GIS and Visualization website is something we have deliberately designed to be different. It includes all the articles we write for numerous publications internationally - including GISCafe.com. Since our interests and passion is GIS and visualization most of those articles discuss issues in that context. However, we are also quite interested in “pushing the envelope” and “thinking outside the box” as to how geo-spatial information relates to social issues, education, potential new technologies and alternative thoughts. Accordingly, there are examples on the site of alternative approaches toward interesting issues. We like to ask “what if?” and “what is possible?”

What percentage of your work is visualization work?

At the moment I spend a lot of time with clients assessing their current operations with a view to spatial information integration and heightening geo-spatial awareness. Offhand I would say 40% of my work presently is directly related to visualization representation. Currently I am working on a project to visualize climate change with data from 500 sites over a 100 year time period showing vegetative changes. Additionally, I continue to work on horizontal GIS where I am visualizing historical buildings and assessment methods. Most of my visualization work involves GIS, GPS, laser and image analysis.

I saw your column published March 2003 on GI and IT. It sounds as though the interest is in IT, but not so much GIS. If this is the case, why do companies with strong IT divisions have the GIS?

I wrote that article from the viewpoint that there appears to be an emphasis on IT and moving data within and between organizations. That is no small task where several proprietary formats and architectures often exist. Interoperability has become the quest and that is positive and needed. The point of the article was that the IT realm has many issues it has not sorted out - certainly not to the extent that we can buy proprietary GIS solutions covering most client-server functions fairly well from numerous vendors. To put it bluntly - the GIS people have sorted out their side of the equation. It is when GIS moves into IT that we keep contending with issues. Consider the recent announcement by IBM, Microsoft and BEA for a new web services proposal, while at the same time the World Wide Web Consortium is working toward the same thing. ORACLE, a major supporter of W3C is also heavily involved in spatial information. Many large installations using spatial information are ORACLE based. I don't know where that issue will lead, but tell me, if the web services standards issues aren't sorted out than how can people consider investing in IT divisions for GIS, which directly relate to web services?

Many companies have GIS but how many have it well integrated, functioning at optimum performance and are capitalizing upon a diversity of services? I also believe the whole location based servicing area is being hindered by inadequate telecommunications. Users do not want to subscribe to 4, 6 or 8 services to utilize the technology. I am also curious to know, given that more than 50% of IT will be outsourced, how those organizations truly plan to integrate spatial information into their workflows in such a way they capitalize (and maintain) spatial information systems.

Does a large amount of the visualization work support IT efforts, in providing a “presentation and presence” as you mentioned in your column?

I define visualization as those functions providing visual representation within a spatial information system. Ultimately, all spatial data (databases) held in organizational storage will be represented somehow in the form of a map. That in turn provides presence and presentation. The exclusion to this is in high-performance computing and often found in research environments. Scientists often do not look at maps, instead preferring tabular results.

A great many installations require the GIS analyst to understand network administration on a peripheral level. Yet really the two professionals need to understand each other's language but not do the work of the other. This is a whole new area of communication for them. Do you agree with this and do you see this happening?

Conceptually, IT and GIS should work smoothly together. Several people and organizations continue to wrestle with integrating spatial information into their workflows and IT functions. That is not because of GIS software or IT independently, but because of structure and strategic planning. It is also dependent upon the level of complexity of spatial services that they offer. By and large the data management - meaning access and distribution can be handled easily, using traditional IT approaches. A database is a database is a database.

As you move further along what I will call a “spatial service continuum,” where analysis and visual representation become more prominent, then GIS increasingly places higher demands on IT -- affecting disk space, network transfer speed, security and flexibility.

The IT person must contend with the enterprise network for all people. The GIS or spatial person focus's on the spatial needs. Structurally then, the organization, particularly larger ones with broader “spatial service continuum's,” need to ensure those positions are delineated with respect to each other. Yes, they must communicate but not at the expense of providing either spatial services or IT functions. When they are mixed together, it becomes very difficult to excel at either and therefore, I believe, why we continually hear of difficulties.

What do you think will happen with this GI/IT situation?

If it continues the course it is currently on then I think it will result in less than optimum growth for the GI industry. Most definitely GIS and IT should be working together. But it is the IT industry that is contentious at the moment, not the GI industry. When I say GI industry I consider it to be one of the best investments at this time. However, there are some very real issues impacting the IT industry at the moment - all over the world. Lay-offs, outsourcing, security, web service standards, proprietary versus open source, tele-communications issues and increasing privacy and security issues.

It is like the GI industry is standing at the door banging, wanting to come inside and get the job done in many creative and new ways. But the confusion on the IT side is preventing that from happening to a large extent - an extent that the GI industry can see. This is being compounded -- where suddenly privacy issues and security are veering from the original e-government direction - meaning access. At the same time I believe that we need to evolve new definitions for GIS/IT jobs and functions and develop a mechanism for very quickly and effectively broadening geo-awareness. In some ways the GI industry is insular. It speaks to those already converted. We need to reach out a bit more and that will contribute to better GI/IT integration.

The GI industry is promising. It will continue to grow and diversify. The last time I spoke with you I said that and I will say it again: it is “the best industry to be in.”

(see previous interview with Jeff Thurston, GISWeekly, Feb 10, 2003)

Alliances/Acquisitions

Q9 Networks Inc. of Toronto, provider of managed Web hosting and Internet infrastructure services, announced its win of a managed hosting contract from the Dairy Farmers of Ontario (DFO), an organization representing 6,000 dairy farmers, 75 independent milk transporters and 80 processing plants in the province.

The DFO operates several Web properties, including a password-protected site that enables the province's milk producers to access daily production and quality reports. The site also provides producers with payment statements and an online trading exchange for milk quotas. A geographic information system (GIS) feeds into the site, allowing processors to download the most efficient routes for raw milk collection, helping to reduce transportation costs. Information stored and reported on the site represents $1.3 billion in annual provincial agricultural output and 25 percent of Canada's raw dairy supply.

P2S Mobile, a unit of Freight Rate, Inc. d/b/a Power2Ship (P2S), a subsidiary of Jaguar Investments, Inc. (OTCBB:JGUR), announced its agreement to distribute Wireless Links, Inc.'s ("WLI") GPSLink vehicle locator devices ("Locator Devices"). The Locator Devices are sold with a handheld Personal Digital Assistant ("PDA") containing P2S' proprietary software at an extremely affordable price to truck operators that are members of the P2S MobileMarket(TM). The Locator Device utilizes the global positioning system to determine a truck's precise location at any given time and may be installed in a truck's cab within minutes. This location information is wirelessly transmitted from the Locator Device to the nearest cellular tower which then sends it through the Internet to the P2S MobileMarket(TM) for viewing by shippers and carriers.

Laser-Scan geospatial experts announced their membership of Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions Team GeoMedia Registered Solutions Center (RSC) programme. The aim of this programme is to help non-reselling partners build long-term relationships with Intergraph customers.

Announcements

The war in Iraq is still in the news, though not quite as urgently as it was just weeks ago. Readers maintain an interest in what satellite imagery and 3D visualization technology is being used in the war effort. DigitalGlobe announced that its QuickBird(tm) imagery, with 3D visualization technology from Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation (NASDAQ: ESCC) (E&S(), is being used by ABC News during the broadcast network's coverage of the war in Iraq. DigitalGlobe satellite imagery is combined with E&S's Environment Processor (EP() technology for a view of specific features in the Iraqi landscape. Using modeling techniques to extract specific features, the database revealed aircraft, land vehicles, ships and infantry and showed possible scenarios that the staff at ABC news was able to use to demonstrate information for their news stories as they received it. The 3D simulations, many of which depict actual events within hours of their occurrence in Iraq, will be featured in ABC News reports depicting the progress of the war.

Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions (NASDAQ: INGR), Shanghai Office announced JiangXi Power Electric has purchased G/Electric, Intergraph's next-generation AM/FM/GIS technology for electric utilities. JiangXi Power is headquartered in Nanchong City and is one of four provinces that form the Central China region. JiangXi Power operates a powerful transmission and distribution grid that covers approximately 160,000 sq. kilometers.

G/Electric and its Web-enabling component, will allow JiangXi Power to geospatially depict the province-wide electric network using various standard map scales as well as efficiently manage and maintain all pertinent information about the power grid.

MapInfo Corporation (Nasdaq: MAPS) announced results for the second fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2003. Revenues for the second quarter of fiscal 2003 were $27.1 million compared to the $20.9 million reported in the first fiscal quarter of 2003 and the $23.5 million reported for the same period last year. Included in second quarter revenues is $3.3 million derived from Thompson, which the Company acquired on January 6. MapInfo reported an operating loss of $1.5 million, inclusive of $1.7 million in severance and restructuring charges for the second quarter of fiscal 2003, an improvement over the first quarter operating loss of $3.2 million. Net loss for the second quarter was $742,000, or $0.05 per share, compared to a net loss of $348,000, or $0.02 per share, in the second quarter last year. MapInfo ended the quarter with $29.3 million in cash and investments, and generated $1.7 million in cash from operations during the second quarter. For the six months ended March 31, 2003, revenues were $48.0 million versus the $46.3 million reported for the same period last year. Net loss for the six months ended March 31, 2003 was $2.6 million, or $0.17 per share, compared to a net loss of $1.9 million, or $0.13 per share, in the same period a year ago.

The MapInfo Second Fiscal Quarter Earnings Conference Call was held on Thursday, April 24, 2003. A recording of the call will be available starting at 12:00N (EDT) on April 24, 2003 through 5:30PM (EDT) on May 8, 2003. To access the recording, domestic callers may dial into 800-642-1687 and international callers into 706-645-9291 (Code: 9616344). Replays of the Webcast are also available at www.vcall.com for 14 days following the call and at www.mapinfo.com/investors.

The Open GIS Consortium (OGC) announced that OGC member companies are at work on the Geospatial One Stop Portal architecture and prototype. As of this date, the following companies are actively participating or have agreed to provide technology: Compusult, CubeWerx, Galdos Systems, SAIC, Autodesk, Intergraph, PCI Geomatics, Sapient Technology, Questerra, Oracle and Northrop Grumman Information Technology, TASC. Twenty companies offered proposals in response to a December, 2002 Request for Quotations (RFQ)/Call for Participation (CFP) in the OGC Geospatial One-Stop Portal Initiative (GOS-PI). More information about Geospatial One-Stop is available at http://www.geo-one-stop.gov/.

More from the OGC: they have released the proposed OpenGIS® Location Services (OpenLST) Implementation Specification for public comment as a Request for Comment (RFC). The RFC defines XML for Location Services, which consists of interfaces for a variety of specific services. Also included in the RFC is a separate document detailing the interface for the Navigation Service Extension. The documentation is available at http://www.opengis.org/info/techno/request.htm and comments are invited from any interested parties for 30 days, until May 19, 2003.

Haestad Methods is looking to fill key positions at its Spring Open House on Saturday, May 3, from 3-5 p.m. in Hartford, CT. This event gives candidates an opportunity to meet face-to-face and discuss their individual career goals with the most innovative minds in the industry. The company is currently offering full-time positions in the areas of environmental and civil engineering, software development, geographic information systems (GIS), database administration and programming, and web development and design.

Those interested in attending the Open House must pre-register by April 30 by calling 203-755-1666. Pre-registration allows interested candidates to present their qualifications to Haestad Methods in advance.

Most positions require a bachelor's degree in civil or environmental engineering, computer science, or a related field. Relevant work experience is a plus. To obtain more information on Haestad Methods' Spring Open House or to pre-register, call 1-203-755-1666 or e-mail Email Contact.

LocatioNet announced that Telcel, Mexico's leading wireless operator with over 20 million subscribers, has chosen LocatioNet's LBS middleware platform and GIS engine for the deployment of Location Based Services in Mexico. With this contract, Telcel will be the first wireless operator in the country to offer commercial Location Based Services.

Map-based field surveying application ForestPadTM by GISnet Solutions Finland Oy has been selected by Finnish forestry centres to collect and store forest data. During a pilot project, a feasibility study is conducted to evaluate the benefits of the new technology in practice. In the next stage, all forestry centres will deploy the mobile surveying application in full operational use in 2004-2005, in case of a positive outcome of this cost/benefit analysis. Currently, there are about 300 forest planners and 100 forest inspectors working in the forestry centres. Using the ForestPad™ application aims to make their field surveying work more effective and easier.

A Census Bureau Report on African-American Population is scheduled to be released at a National Conference of Black Mayors. The report provides information on geographic and age distributions, marital status, family type and size, educational attainment, labor force participation, occupation, income and poverty. On Friday, April 25, 8:30 a.m. CDT, presenting Louis Kincannon, director, U.S. Census Bureau, and Marilyn Murrell, president, National Conference of Black Mayors; the event will take place at the Houston InterContinental Hotel, Houston, Texas.

Definiens Imaging GmbH, Munich, Germany, signed an agreement with DATA+, Moscow, Russia, on the distribution of Definiens' innovative remote sensing image analysis and feature detection software eCognition in Russia and the entire area of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). The DATA+ sales territory will encompass the Russian Federation, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

NavCom Technology, Inc., announced that it has signed AD Navigation AS of Norway to its global network of dealers. AD Navigation is an authorized representative for NavCom products and services in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. The combination of AD Navigation's market knowledge in Scandinavia combined with NavCom's high precision products is a promising one for customers.

On April 9, 2003, the URISA Board of Directors unanimously approved a "GIS Code of Ethics" proposed by the URISA Ethics Task Force.

The Code of Ethics is intended to provide guidelines for GIS professionals. It should help professionals make appropriate and ethical choices. It should provide a basis for evaluating their work from an ethical point of view. By heeding this code, GIS professionals will help to preserve and enhance public trust in the discipline.

GCS Research LLC and DigitalGlobe announced the inclusion of DigitalGlobe's QuickBird imagery as a significant commercial remote sensing component of GCS Research's recently announced Space Act Agreement with NASA. Over the course of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commemoration (2003-2006), GCS Research will work closely with DigitalGlobe and NASA to incorporate high-resolution, QuickBird (60 cm, pan-sharpened) imagery into the Lewis and Clark Geosystem and make these images available for viewing and analysis via Internet systems.

GeoCommunity readers are invited to participate in a spatial analysis and statistics workshop with Dr. Luc Anselin, one of the leading scholars in spatial data analysis and statistics.

Date: May 19-21, 2003
Time: 9:00am-4:30pm
Location: University at Albany Uptown Campus, CETL, Digital Workshop 2
(Albany, NY, USA)
Fee: US $450

If you are interested in attending the workshop or would like more information about it, please contact Julia Koschinsky at Email Contact

Lizardtech Software and Leica Geosystems announced support for Lizardtech's lossless MrSID(r) technology into Leica Geosystems' ERDAS IMAGINE product line. The latest mapping software vendor to support Lizardtech's lossless technology, Leica Geosystems' ERDAS IMAGINE users now will be able to view and store original-quality imagery for feature classification, military applications, or other mission-critical mapping uses.

Awards

The Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) Estes Memorial Teaching Award will be presented to Dr. Roger M. Hoffer at the Annual Conference of The American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) in Anchorage next month. This is the first time the award will be given.

Pharos Science & Applications Inc., provider of portable navigation and location-based services, announced it had been awarded the Microsoft Partner Achievement Award by Microsoft Corporation's Mobility Partner Advisory Council (MPAC). This award acknowledges a MPAC participant's superior achievement over the past 6 months.

ATS, Inc. was the recipient of the 2002 ESRI New Business Partner of the Year award at the 2003 ESRI Business Partner Conference held March 22-25 in Palm Springs, California. Recipients of this award had strong sales in 2002, brought an innovative product to market, brought ESRI into a new market with their specialized knowledge and expertise, teamed with ESRI on a project or were distinguished in some other way from the other partners in their region.

“Only a member of the Business Partner Program since March 2002, Applied Technological Services has excelled as a reseller,” stated Sheila Sullivan, Regional Office Manager, ESRI. “They have shown a commitment to the Business Partner Program by forming a close alliance with the ESRI-San Antonio regional office.”

Appointments

Field mapping software company Tadpole-Cartesia, Inc.,announced the appointment of Susan Park as executive sales manager for North American operations. Reporting to operations director Jason Linley, Park now leads the firm's business drive into the utilities, transport, local and state government, homeland security, and other GIS-centric markets.

Park is known for delivering customer value. She joins Tadpole-Cartesia after 4-years with GE Network Solutions (formerly GE Smallworld) where she progressed from account manager for the Denver area to sales director, Western Region and Canada.

Leica Geosystems announced the appointment of Jim Naismith as vice president of sales for the South Central region, and Rod Eckels as vice president of sales for the Southwest region. Naismith joined Leica Geosystems in 2001 and has been working in the SR Americas Machine Control Group. Prior to joining Leica Geosystems, he worked with Javad Positioning Systems in worldwide sales and support and Topcon in machine control research and development. He holds a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a Registered Professional Land Surveyor and Licensed State Land Surveyor in Texas, and he spent seven years practicing cadastral and engineering surveying.

Eckels is an Australian surveyor who has been working with Leica Geosystems for the last 16 years. From 1987 to 1997, he worked for Leica Australia selling and promoting GPS products in the Australian market. He transferred to the Leica GPS facility in Southern California, where he assumed responsibility for GPS OEM business, with a primary goal of developing new markets for GPS machine guidance technology. Since the acquisition of Laser Alignment in 2001, Eckels has been involved with promoting the full range of machine control product lines.

New Products

Aerial film cameras have historically been calibrated by the USGS to insure the instrument meets specifications, and the calibration process also ensures that imagery is metric and interoperable with traditional photogrammetric equipment. Digital sensors don't have a USGS process for specifications, and so they don't have the same kind of endorsement that comes with the USGS calibration.

An alternative approach to calibration for aerial digital sensors is being prototyped by the USGS in collaboration with NASA. The process characterizes the quality of the imagery produced by the digital sensor and post processing procedures instead of calibrating the sensor itself.

Emerge was one of the first companies to capture and deliver imagery for characterization earlier in the year, and recently completed an orthoimagery product characterization under a NASA Space Act Agreement.

Mapopolis.Com, navigation software developer for Palm OS and Pocket PC handhelds, announced Mapopolis GPS for Handspring Treo handhelds are immediately available. The unit comes with a special version of Mapopolis for Handspring Treo handhelds.

DigitalGlobe(tm) announced the availability of the 1"= 400'-scale digital orthorectified imagery product and a Civil Government License. The new orthomosaics are created using QuickBird two-foot resolution black and white images of the Earth. The product specifications, pricing and licensing are all tailored to U.S. local government requirements and standard operational procedures to better meet the needs of this sector's existing operational flow.

DMTI Spatial of Canada expanded its comprehensive topographic and land use classification file, extending its coverage from 157 to 745 urban centers. The inclusion of topographic and land use coverage for an additional 588 urban areas represents a near four-fold increase. Areas of land use defined include residential, commercial, resource & industrial, government & institutional, parks & recreational, waterbody as well as open areas.

Autodesk, Inc., (NASDAQ: ADSK) announced the shipment of Autodesk Envision™ 8 software, formerly Autodesk® Onsite Desktop, a geographic information system (GIS) and design tool for mapping, engineering, and land-use professionals. The product offers users the power to visualize, analyze, edit and publish 2D and 3D spatial data in complex scenarios. In addition Envision 8 supports Microsoft .NET, the Tablet PC, and AutoCAD® 2004 Design Web Format™ (DWF™) files.

Clark Labs announced the 14th release of the IDRISI geoanalytic and image processing system. IDRISI Kilimanjaro's new display features include: enhanced cartographic symbolization for immediate classification of data into equal interval, quantile and standardized ranges; layer blending to visually merge layers using alpha blending; background transparency and interactive RGB compositing.

RockWare, Inc., a developer and reseller of earth science software applications, announced an updated version of RockWorks2002 that allows the direct import of shapefiles. This addition will further allow RockWorks2002 users to take advantage of the shapefile format and its widespread use for base-mapping applications. Users of RockWorks can now import features such as sitemap locations; oil and gas wells; mine boundaries; and local, state, and county data.

Featured Downloads

GISCafe has many popular Downloads in various categories. Visitors are encouraged to go to the site and add new downloads or update their old ones.

Remote Sensing/Image Processing Software
Pixoneer Geomatics, Inc. Education Module consists of well-organized introductory and advanced curricula that provides in depth knowledge of remote sensing and geospatial technologies. The overarching goal of this effort is to empower educators of remote sensing, to stimulate students with engaging curricula, and to encourage educational institutes to incorporate remote sensing and geospatial technologies into their programs. Download a sample chapter.

Around the Web Geography Shapes War in Iraq National Geographic, April 2003 - See how the desert is both obstacle and opportunity for troops in Iraq.

U.S. Gives Bechtel a Major Contract in Rebuilding Iraq, (from NY Times April 18, 2003, by Elizabeth Becker & Richard A. Oppel, Jr.)

Going on in April

2nd SCAR International Antarctic GIS Workshop
Date: April 7 - 11, 2003
Place: Freiburg, Germany
Following the first International Antarctic GIS workshop in Wuhan, China in 2000 the Geospatial Information Group within the Geoscience Standing Scientific Group of SCAR plans on holding a second GI Technical Experts Meeting of SCAR.

THE 2003 INTERMOUNTAIN GIS CONFERENCE
Date: April 7 - 10, 2003
Place: Coeur d'Alene Resort Coeur d'Alene, ID USA

9th Annual California GIS Conference 2003 Date: April 9 - 11, 2003
Place: Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA USA
"The Evolving State of GIS" hosted by So Cal URISA and BAAMA (Bay Area Mapping Association)

Avenza Systems Training
Da<>e: April 10 - 11, 2003
Place: Toronto, Canada
MAPublisher training using MAPublisher 5.0 on Adobe Illustrator 10 on Windows. Given by Avenza technical and training staff.

GIS in Action
Date: April 21 - 23, 2003
Place: Portland, OR USA
For the past eleven years, the Oregon chapter of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) and the Columbia River Region of the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) have held a conference dealing with current issues on Geographic Information Systems (GIS) from a regional perspective. A full day of workshops will lead off this year's conference followed by two days of plenary and concurrent educational sessions.

Avenza Systems Training
Da<>e: April 24 - 25, 2003
Place: Washington D.C, USA
MAPublisher training using MAPublisher 5.0 on Adobe Illustrator 10 on Windows. Given by Avenza technical and training staff.

13th Annual Nevada State GIS Conference
Date: April 28 - 30, 2003
Place: CIRCUS CIRCUS Reno, NV USA
Nevada State GIS Conference, Reno, Nevada. This thirteenth annual conference, attracting GIS professionals from throughout the state and eastern California, exhibits the latest GIS technology and features introductory and advanced education sessions. For general information contact the conference committee chair; Sally Kleiner, phone: 775-954-4629, e-mail Email Contact

You can find the full GISCafe.com event calendar here.

To read more news, click here.

-- Susan Smith, GISCafe.com Managing Editor.