True Orthos vs Trad Orthos & ArcGIS Reality

First, what is ArcGIS Reality?

I'm not entirely sure, here's what Esri says: ArcGIS Reality is a suite of photogrammetry software products designed to enable reality capture workflows for sites, cities, and countries.

One main feature seems to be the abilaity to create & use so-capped True Orthophotos as opposed to Traditional Orthophotos.

• True Orthophotos vs. Traditional Orthophotos: Why do pixels matter in the age of AI?
• The Different Types of Ortho Images Created in ArcGIS

The animated GIF below demonsrates the main difference between true orthos & trad orthos. 

Ethics in GIS

Interesting read: Enlisting AI to Mainstream Ethics in Spatial Data Science Education

Here's a new-to-me term: Ethics Across the Curriculum or EAC - the idea that ethics should be woven throught the entire curriculum from beginning to end. Here are some resources:

• The Guide to the Geographic Approach  contains 15 open-access modules & some of those include ethical issues and questions.
• Now there is GISEthics.org and its collectiom of 21 case studies.

What to do in-practice? Three things: 1) use a formal case study analysis, 2) use a disucssion forum prompt, and 3) include an ethics-related learning objective. How you may ask? Try the AI-based Ethics Case Study and Discussion Prompt Creator and create yourself a case study that aligns with your course content, a customized discussion forum prompt. and even your learning objective for the course syllabus.

Here's a complete case study from Claudi.ai: When the Map Has a Memory

Cartokit

Cartokit is a direct manipulation programming environment for interactive cartography on the web. Vey cool! See more over on GitHub: https://github.com/parkerziegler/cartokit

Cloud Optimized Data Formats

Cloud Optimized Data Formats is about as boring as it gets...but not when they are explained in a fun zine-comic book! Here's the link: Optimizing Geospatial for the Cloud

The Future of GIS?

Well, it was just a matter of time!

• The Web Mapper (powered by AI)
• The Map Doctor (powered by AI)

Mappy Holiday Ornaments!

Fun little mappy holiday ornaments!

• The Spiral Globe
• More Ornaments!

The End of GIS: AI!

The AI Revolution is Coming for GIS: What You Need to Know About Microsoft’s Latest Warning is a pretty dire read...but you probably should add 5-10 years to this timeline. Here are a few take-home messages for me:

• The impact will be most-significant on the entry-level jobs.
• But, field work and basic project management will still be around for a while.
• Coding is still a key skill, but it will be all about AI-assisted coding in the very near future. But, you will need to have a good understanding of coding and how AI 'thinks' in-order to effectively prompt the AI.
• Take an online class in maschine learning for geospatial applications.
• Combine GIS expertise with complementary skills such as urban planning, environmental science, and more.

Projections & Distances

Geodesic or planar: which to use for distance analysis (by Esri) is a nice overview of the issue. Take-home message: use geodesic distances!

GIS Certificate @ CCSU

Looks like they are running a 3-course GIS Certificate:

• Beyond the Map: Advanced GIS in Action
• GIS Advanced Certificate course
• GIS Essentials Certificate - Course 1 Fundamentals

They seem to have an Introduction to GIS & an Advanced GIS course - not sure what the 3rd course required course this.

Back in the days: a Bachelor's degree was 120 credits, the Gen-Eds were 40 credits, the Major was 40 credits, the Electives were 40 credits, a Minor was 18 credits,  a Certificate was 12 credits, and 1 full-semester course was 3 credits. Yes, there were some variations, but that's about what you could expect a normal public college or university.

Now the trend is towards 90 credits for the Bachelor's degree (completed in 3 years), Minors with 15 credits, and Certifciates with 9 credits.

Air Tours & UpToWhere

Here are two cool apps for exploring the world:

1. Air Tours allows you to explore cities by combining Google Maps 3D, Street View and more. For example: here's Boston.
2. UpToWhere is a basic viewshed tool, but creates a great 3D visualization.

The Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas

The Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas is awesome - have a look! You can display measurements, reanalysis, and model data at all kinds of geographies & time scales. And: download the data in a bunch of formats.

It is just too much...nobody will use it. Expert scientists will access the data directly and the general public will scared off by the complexity. This is really designed for the rare 'regular' person who is interested & competent enough to figure-out the tool.

Suggestion: Make a simplified version or walk-through video.

Overture Maps Explorer (Beta)

I really don't know much about it, but the Overture Maps Explorer (Beta) apparently lets you zoom-into any location on Earth & then download a bunch of map data.

More over @ Maps Mania: Free Map Data Grabbers

The John Snow Map

The first 'modern' map perhaps, depicting the spatial relationship between cholera cases & drinking water supply in 1854 in London. Here are two great ways to explore it:

• Interactive Web App
• Great zoomable version

The interactive web app is nice, but also an example of how much more data viz and data storytelling you can do with an Esri Story Map.

Baseball Network Analysis

Nice example of a drive-time analysis: Closest Major or Minor League Baseball Stadium by Drive Time The interactive map is embedded below, static map here.

Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics (2nd Edition)

Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics 2nd Edition is out! The 1st Edition was great so go get the 2nd one.

Quizzes!

This is fun: The Mashed World.

• Make your own quiz
• Geography Quizzes
• GIS Quiz

A Beginner's Guide To Satellite Data

Good place to start: A Beginner's Guide To Satellite Data

Open Pedagogy in GIS Education

Have a read: The next layer: Towards open pedagogy in geospatial education (Abernathy 2023). A few comments:

1. There's nothing inherently 'bad' about commerical GIS products (= Esri products) and there's nothing inherently 'better' about open-source GIS products - it's all in the way that you use them for teaching & learning.
2. GIS teaching & learning does not all of the sudden become 'active' or 'inquiry-based' or 'diverse' or 'participatory' when you use QGIS & an open-source book.
3. The vast majority of employees that hire my students use Esri products.
4. The biggest challanges for open-source GIS products: 1) there is no pratical solution for a Web GIS and 2) for GIS apps.
5. I will continue to use the Esri GIS products.

Inexpensive 3D Printer

Looking for an inexpensive 3D printer for the classroom? The X-MAKER 3D Printer may be just what you are looking for!

Mapping Parking Lots

Is Your Town a Parking Lot? by Maps Mania is a nice compilation of parking lot web maps/apps.