From on paper I received from Jacques Bertin
It is one of those things you hope will happen … and when it does, there is no real opportunity to pay homage to such a fine day; before the advent of blogging that is. Choosing cartography in an engineering setting (and applying practical knowledge) turned out to be a good start of a longer path in education for me. Twenty-five years ago today I received my engineering degree and I collected a few thoughts for the occasion.
A picture of the past. Actually, it was a time without too many pictures. I don’t recall (nor possess) a graduation picture (no worries, I have a few others). Just to frame the Zeitgeist and some educational topics:
Cartography versus GIS. There was big debate about the role of cartography in relation to geography and GIS. Is the cartographer just the visualiser? Where does GIS belong? I was never too fond of these kind of discussions, but did attend a few.
Analog versus digital. Everything got computerised and a C was added to almost everything: computer-aided communication, computer-aided-mapping, computer-aided-cartography, computer-aided-reporting. Always wondered how long it would last.
Computer inside out. We were taught how the inside of computers work, and I mean the bits and bytes. Think we had Tandems in high school, Prime Mini in college (with tty’s and runtime interpretation of code, if you get what I mean). I did not own a (IBM) PC until after college.
For those that like to tease me with a ‘how was life without email’ ( I admit to teasing with “can you live without social media?”) : I had email on my first day at work. But I don’t recall as much discussion about it as there is about social media (tools). Email was just a handy way of communication, at times.
The originial SYSTEM 9 Analytical Plotter
What have I learned? Too much for a (single) blogpost, so I will keep this short and will come back to it later. On the positive side: I found out there are many ways to learn and I discovered the ones that suited me best. I also learned things I was sure I would never ever use in-real-life; it appears to be part of any education. Boring topics (or teachers; they did exist) made it extremely hard to pass a class. But when the opposite was true (great topic and/or enthusiastic professor), the learning became so much easier.
Any advice I may have. It seems that giving advice (or the eagerness to give it) comes with growing older. Some of the recent tips I have given to students are in the realm of: become t-shaped (google that) ; follow a few good men (and women off-course); take models for what they are (not reality); read, and be critical; question the status quo. If I have any advice at all (for eternal students as well), it is the old and solid follow-your-heart paradigm. Simply find out what you are good at and what rewards you most. But then again, discovering that may take a lifetime.
Not an advice, but more of a tip: write things down. I don’t mean the blogging kind, just take a break and write down where you think you are going and what it may take to get there. If for nothing else, rereading that in a few years time is always good fun.
Imhoff, handdrawing of Säntis
Being able to reflect on one’s life certainly is one of life richness’s. Maps have always fascinated me and I have not yet found a cure. From the many options I had back then, starting out with a degree in cartography certainly was the best of many worlds for me. Little did I know that it was only the start of a path of lifelong learning. I am grateful to those I have met along the way and those who have guided me on that path. The opportunity to connect with science and the academic world – staff and students- , (whether by attending meetings, giving lectures, reading papers – thank you Open Access), is still a great motivator.
A road ahead. After I left college, I did not take me long to venture out into new areas of interest, but I have always kept geography close. A map is a great metaphor in many other areas (strategy, marketing, innovation, business development,…) and a great help to discover those areas as well. As of a road ahead, I am sure I will keep geography close to my heart. Maybe I did not map that much myself, but I like to think I contributed to the mapping success of many others. That bachelor degree in cartography was a good base for my road of discovery. I still highly recommend it.
GeoBusiness had maandag j.l. een themamiddag over innovatie en ik mocht invallen om kort een onderwerp toe te lichten, waarover ik relatief weinig weet (Innovatie in de zorg). Externe gastspreker was Gijs van Wulfen, de man van de VOORT innovatiemethode.
Tijdens zijn ‘onthullende presentatie’ (je had er bij moeten zijn) ging het o.a. over een aantal mooie verhalen (Gijs zat eerst in de soep), over wat innovatie is en waarom het moet (kort), maar vooral hoe je planmatig innovatie kunt oppakken: met de VOORT innovatie methode (een gefaseerde aanpak: Vertrekken, Ontdekken, Ontwikkelen, Reflecteren, Terugkeren). Het bijbehorende boek is mooi vormgegeven, is vooral praktisch georiënteerd én gebruikt de kaart als metafoor voor innoveren. Dat moet geo Nederland aanspreken!
Een leuke middag, hoewel innovatie als onderwerp (in mijn woorden: vernieuwing, die blijft; of beter: vernieuwing die is gebleven;) niet innovatief kan worden genoemd. Volgens mij werd er in het Romeinse rijk al aandacht aan besteed op school (even geen brononderzoek, slechts een leesherinnering). Maar innoveren is en blijft lastig (it’s the nature of the beast) en alle aandacht is meegenomen. Daarom drie tips uit de losse pols:
– Ga bewust en procesmatig om met heden en toekomst van je organisatie en de ideeën die er intern en extern over zijn, (zie het Ideation stuk in VOORT).
– Geef duidelijk aan de buitenwereld aan waarin je wilt innoveren (en waarin niet). Dat kan gemakkelijk op je eigen website, in de trend van : wij zoeken samenwerking op het gebied van open data en willen nieuwe opleidingen over dit onderwerp samenstellen.
– Deel successen en deel ook waarin je niet slaagt. Nu hoeft dat laatste niet meteen op een website te staan, maar in een besloten kring kan dat juist heel leerzaam zijn voor anderen.
Overigens, het bleek lastiger om een verhaal te vertellen, waarvan je niet zelf de auteur bent. Maar voor slechts 10 minuten was het redelijk en leuk om te doen.
Letter from the Low Lands / Directions Mag –
Webinars, podcasts, all social media tools aside: if you want to stay up-to-date on developments that matter, meeting face-to-face with colleagues is still indispensable. Conferences and “meet-ups” provide you with that context, and Holland has had its fair share of those opportunities recently.
Some unique characteristics set each of these events apart, but what they have in common is clear: getting people and organizations together to discuss where geospatial technology is taking “us” and the world collectively. Full disclosure (FD): I am a self-proclaimed fan of conferences in the various roles I get to play. So here are a few comments about the wave of “geoconferences” that recently hit The Netherlands.
GIS Tech
This yearly technical event, organized by Esri Nederland, brought “Getting to Know ArcGIS Online”. With over 900 participants – the venue could not host many more – the event brought keynotes, presentations and workshops for current and future users of Esri technology, all in Dutch. One of the key presentations focused on volunteered geographic information (VGI) and how citizens support Kadaster to maintain the national border markers. FD: I gave a presentation on practical steps to take while working with open geodata.
GeoSpatial World Forum
For a first time in Europe, GeoSpatial World Forum gathered 1,053 participants from all over the world. The conference had many guests of honors (ministers, mayors) which brought geospatial to an executive audience. Unusual for The Netherlands, there was a big awards ceremony (the Dutch are not big on awards, yet). Despite some small logistical glitches, official rumor has it that the Forum will be in Amsterdam for at least two more years. FD: I was the liaison to our professional society, Geo-Informatie Nederland, and organized a session on the European Digital Agenda.
whereCampEU
In almost every way, whereCampEU was the complete opposite of GeoSpatial World Forum. This “un-conference” took place the weekend after the Forum. Just a handful of people attended both events and the contrast could not have been greater: no suits, no ties, no program either. But it was all about maps, with topics like OpenStreetMap landuse tagging, one-linear mapping, real-time visualization and much more. With corporate attendance from Google, Yahoo and Nokia, the total attendance was about 150. FD: I was part of the local organization and gave a short presentation on what Esri would like to share.
International MapWindow Conference
Last but not least, the MapWindow conference is moving out of the U.S. for the first time and has been dubbed “the International Open Source GIS Conference” for the occasion. The location: van Hall-Larenstein University of Applied Science in Velp, just outside of Arnhem. The driver behind this conference is volunteer product manager (MapWindow 4.8) Paul Meems. Meems is supported by the Dutch OSGeo chapter, which was founded last December.
What does the conference aim to achieve? Says Daniel Ames, one of the driving forces of MapWindow, “I, personally, hope to receive a lot of useful feedback from both the user and developer communities regarding the MapWindow and DotSpatial projects and what can be done to improve them.” There will be workshops, presentations and codesprints. The organization expects to have members of the MapWindow, DotSpatial, SharpMap, NTS and other communities all represented.
FD: I will give a keynote presentation on “Where Open Innovation Leads Geographic Information.”
So where do all of these conferences take us?
From my perspective, conferences and meet-ups, whether they are of the formal or informal kind, are about learning from others and sharing lessons. They are places to connect and reconnect.
In the last couple of years, they have served a new purpose: meet up with those you have been meeting online for a long time already (thank you social media). That gives an extra dimension to conferences, one you might not expect in a small country like Holland.