Geo: The Big 5 - Launching our 2014 Events!

Last week we launched our main events series for 2014 titled ‘Geo: The Big 5’. This is a series of six national events (the five referring to the issues) made up of five one day events and the annual conference.

With this year being the 25^th Anniversary of the AGI we wanted to ensure that rather than looking to the past we produced an event series that is tackling the issues in the industry today and looking towards changes in the future.

Throughout 2013 we held discussions with our members, SIGs, delegates at events and industry experts to help identify some of the top issues and challenges that the industry is experiencing today. We had great feedback on this and have managed to group most of these issues into the following five areas:

·        Future Cities

·        Open Geospatial

·        Big Data

·        BIM and Asset Management

·        Policy

Each of these topics will have its own one day event dedicated to it and have been chosen because they are nationally significant.

The first event of the series will be Future Cities and will (rather appropriately) be held in Glasgow, home of the Future Cities Demonstrator on the 18^th March.

It’s important to note that we aren’t neglecting other areas of the industry and each conference will contain a strong second stream of content showcasing best practice and innovation beyond the main theme of the conference. The second stream in Glasgow for example will showcase great uses of GI from within Scotland.

All of these themes will feature in the annual conference ‘GeoCom: The Changing Face of Geo’. The new annual conference will serve to bring together the discussions from the other events and set the agenda for Geo going in to 2015 and beyond.

Plans are well underway with a number of speakers already lined up and a call for papers ready to go for what is going to be an exciting programme of events. Last year’s showcase events were a great success but we’re confident that this is going to be something a bit more special.

To book for any of the events click here

If you want any more information or are interested in volunteering with the organising groups for any of the events (or think you know a great speaker) then please get in touch! (chris.rhodes@agi.org.uk) 

Also as part of the new look events series we are using the lovely new logo you can see at the top and will be tweeting under #geobig5

Search, Optimization and the Personal Map Experience

Some idle chat over lunch at the DGI conference yesterday got me thinking about personal maps. By personal maps I mean the digital maps we use every day on our laptops and smartphones; Google, Apple, Open Street Map and the rest.

Obviously the huge draw of these maps is that they are interactive and searchable, not only can you find where you’re going but you can find your nearest coffee shop, railway station on pub. Or rather you can find the nearest one of those that the map provider has decided to list (for whatever reason). I used to work for what was effectively an SEO agency and as a result I find this ‘searchability’ and the personalisation of results very interesting. Far from being (as some critics originally suggested) a uniform and boring representation of the world these mapping applications deliver an incredibly varied user experience. Obviously there is a debate to be had about the amount of influence commercial bodies have over what the majority of people will regard as a true representation of the world (which is the reason for Open Street Map).

However I want to take a simple ‘out of interest view’ on the personalisation of user experience that exists with the modern digital map. We know that Google (and the other search engines) personalise results based on previous search history and a range of social metrics as well as providing auto complete suggestions that are an amalgamation of popular searches and search history. This seems to be similar for maps with two major differences. The first is obviously the location factor, if you are searching Google from a desktop it can make a rough guess at your location based on IP and will localise searches based on geographic terms you enter (e.g. pubs in Putney). If you are using Google maps with a GPS enabled device however this becomes much more specific to the extent that a more nebulous search (local pubs) is likely to return relevant and accurate results.

These results are then of course affected by the second difference; advertising. On a normal Google search page pay per click advertising entries are (relatively) distinct from the organic search results. In Google maps this is somewhat less clear and the ordering of results by relevance (A to whatever) does appear to be impacted by this. For example when I search ‘local coffee shops’ from my laptop in West London result A is in East London about 7 miles away, not really local for a city! (a lot of the other results are quite close though)

Anyway the sum of all this is that two people standing in the same place searching for the same thing on Google maps (assuming they are not browsing incognito) are likely to get very different results or at least results in a very different order. Now this got me thinking of an interesting experiment/gimmick/probably impossible business idea...

If what you see on your map is determined by where you have been and what you have searched before then what if you could swap with someone else’s history? Ignoring the obvious data protection issues for a second this could be quite interesting. Say I go to Manchester for the weekend with some friends, I don’t really know Manchester that well and like most people I am quite lazy when it comes to researching things. As a result which restaurants I eat at and which bars I go to are likely to be heavily influenced by what comes up to on a Google maps search (pending no terrible reviews). Well what if I could download someone else’s personalised search (not the history just the algorithm results)? Then I could end up visiting a completely different set of places that I would never have been to otherwise.

It’s like a horribly impersonal 21^st century version of letting your friend’s friend who you’ve never met organise the trip, it might be fun though. With the added bonus that you can’t yell at a search engine for suggesting a rubbish gig. 

Six Things You Should be Doing to Enhance Your GIS Career

Yesterday I read an excellent article from GIS Lounge on six ways to further your career in GIS. Although the article names GIS specifically I’m going to assume a lot of this will apply to other areas of GeoSpatial and indeed most industries with a technical focus. Anyway what I quickly noticed is that the AGI can help its members fulfil each of their six recommendations!

1. Continue a Habit of Lifelong Education

This point is pretty self explanatory and fits perfectly with the AGI CPD (Continuing Professional Development) scheme. The CPD scheme is a benefit where members are encouraged to and get recognised for things like attending training courses, conferences and producing exceptional work. This is an excellent way to stand out from your peers and show interest and expertise in your chosen field.

2. Consider Certification

This is the logical extension of the first recommendation and serves a similar purpose. Certification is concrete proof that you are continuing your education and working to become an expert in your field. A great certification to have for a GIS professional is CGeog (GIS) which is offered by RGS through the AGI. In fact the AGI CPD scheme can be used to count towards your final CGeog status.

3. Interact with your peers

Hopefully this goes without saying and you don’t just sit at your desk glaring suspiciously at co workers. However it is important to interact with your peers at different companies and indeed slightly different industries. This is particularly true if you are your company’s only ‘GIS person’ and are somewhat isolated from other professionals in your area. The AGI provides a huge range of opportunities to interact with your peers from attending events and conferences to more low key evening seminars and networking events. All of these are a chance to keep up with the latest developments in the industry and share your thoughts (or be reassured that everyone else is encountering the same problem).

4. Share

That leads me nicely on to the next point, if you’ve done something interesting and innovative or you have a new take on an idea or a piece of technology show it off! It’s all well and good doing great work but doing great work and then presenting it to an audience of peers (and possibly potential customers/employers) is even better. The solution here is simple, don’t just attend an event, submit a talk or a paper to this year’s event series (submissions opening soon). You might even win the best paper awards which probably doubles up as certification as well.

5. Play in the Sandbox

Sadly this isn’t sandcastle building (something at which I am quite skilled) but an encouragement to learn technologies, platforms and techniques other than those involved in the day job. The Special Interest Groups and the afternoon and evening seminars and workshops they run are particularly relevant to this (the Tech SIG are running just such an event on the 3^rd Feb).

6. Pay it Forward

A slightly more opaque heading but essentially volunteer your skills. Volunteering obviously has all the altruistic benefits and can also help to boost your CV. Volunteering with the AGI has the additional advantage that you will be developing skills beyond technical GIS expertise. AGI council and SIG members are involved in running events, helping with project management and producing papers among other things. All of which can serve to broaden your experience and give you a chance to do things that you wouldn’t necessarily experience in your day job.

Of course you can always volunteer with our supported charity Map Action as well!

AGI, Cymru, Northern Ireland, Scotland and... England?

There has been a lot of debate (some heated) going on within the AGI recently with regards to national identity and how the various nations of the UK fit in to the AGI as a whole. Obviously this is a topic open to much personal bias so I’ll lay my cards on the table before discussing the debate. I'm English but apart from my long suffering support of the England football and cricket teams and a love of real ale I am not really interested in national identity. I don’t mind being described as English, British or if you like European, in fact I probably identify with my city (London) more than any of those other labels.

With my bias of apathy exposed there are two main issues, one of which has grown out of the other. The first is the relationship between AGI Cymru, NI and Scotland and the AGI as a whole (AGI UK if you will). Secondly coming out of this debate there is the question as to whether there is a need for and AGI England and this is the issue I am particularly keen to here comment on (as you may have guessed I’I'm not fussed).

Currently there is a feeling that there is an imbalance between the AGI as a whole and the national (and indeed regional) groups and that there is not enough engagement between the bodies. This is a fair point and definitely something that the AGI as a whole recognises and wants to address. There is also a perception that the AGI Council somehow corresponds to London and a narrow London view. Perhaps some of this perception is a result of how devolution has worked in the wider political landscape but it is one that I would challenge from my experience at the AGI. Although the AGI offices are based in London the significant majority of council members do not live in London and are in fact scattered as widely as Belfast, Edinburgh and Bristol (among others). Secondly (and crucially) all the national and most of the regional groups (except AGI North at the moment) have a representative on council. We are far from perfect but I would argue we are doing much better than Westminster.

It has been suggested by some that a good solution to this would be to create an AGI England group thereby ensuring that all the constituent nations of the UK have equal representation. The current lack of ‘AGI England’ is due to the wider nature of devolution. Devolved Government means different policies and different policy access points and this (along with new stronger identities) was the driver for setting up the national groups. Currently England in my opinion has no such driver for a national group; we are ruled from Westminster with no local representation and the main AGI is geared at the Westminster level. I can see the identity arguments for creating AGI England but I fear that without a devolved English state we would be expending some of our scant resources on a group that served no practical function.

Of course this is just my opinion and many will disagree. Really this is an attempt to assess whether our members feel there is a need for an AGI England group. I would also be keen to hear from members of the existing national groups as to what their perspective on this would be. Any thoughts on greater co-operation between the nations and the AGI as a whole also most welcome!

New Year, New Beginning... Time to Find your Graduate Job?

That title probably sounds like an email you would get from a recruitment agency where you phone up to apply for the dream job advertised only to find it has mysteriously been filled. But would you be interested in one of the telemarketing roles they have available...

Job hunting is essentially a massive pain, all the more so if you are still at university and are smart enough to have started job hunting before the 31^st June (in which case you’re already doing better than I was). There are January exams, dissertations to finish and the looming prospect of rubbish retail jobs if you can’t get something sorted in time. Anyway the Guardian had a great article about how using LinkedIN can help graduates land their first job (which is definitely worth a read).

This got me thinking about how the AGI can help our ever growing pool of student members to help find a job in GI (and how students can use the AGI to help them stand out). After some fuzzy clicking over of cogs I came up with three things; the first of which is appropriately the AGI LinkedIN group. Joining and taking part in discussions in groups relevant to your chosen industry is a great way to get noticed. You can actually point to a way you have shown an interest rather than just going for the bland ‘I’m really passionate about x topic’. Also recruiters using LinkedIN as a tool (which virtually any recruiter will be) will be able to see that you are active and have something to say helping you to stand out from the dozens of other profiles.

Secondly you can become more involved with the AGI, volunteer, committee and organising roles are not restricted to senior people. AGI Scotland are currently actively looking for  a recent graduate to join the committee and the other national, regional and special interest groups are all happy to take on enthusiastic students and graduates. Volunteering has been a way of making your CV stand out for a long time but volunteering with something directly relevant to your chosen career is much more effective. If you are enthusiastic and proactive you can find yourself doing things that are tangibly CV building like helping to organise seminars or participating in debates within a SIG. The need experience to get experience conundrum is a common one faced by graduates and volunteering with the AGI can be an excellent way to show and interest and develop some skills and experience.

Third and finally is networking. LinkedIN is an excellent tool for advertising yourself and creating greater visibility with potential employers but nothing beats meeting people face to face. Our annual events series along with the less formal seminars and evening sessions all provide a great opportunity to meet more experienced people working in the industry alongside potential employers. I know of at least one AGI member off the top of my head who got their current job via an AGI networking event. The added bonus with networking at the conferences and seminars is that your very attendance shows that you are proactive enough to further your knowledge of the industry.

Anyway those are my thoughts on how the AGI can help graduates help themselves to get ahead in the great job scramble. If anyone has other ideas or experiences of how to get ahead and get the crucial first job then please share!