shrug-l: META: QGIS: New to shrug list

Rick Labs rick at clbcm.com
Mon Apr 4 11:13:48 EDT 2016


Hi All,

I'm new to the shrug list and interested in mapping, but just starting 
out, not sure if this is appropriate? For the past few months I've been 
teaching myself QGIS (so far/very impressed/ with it, and the price 
can't be beat, /free!/)  Is this listserve pretty much exclusive ESRI 
users, and professional/government? Are beginners to mapping O.K.?

More below on what's of interest to me and what I might be able to offer.

Rick

------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm relocating to Tallahassee this summer/fall and I have some 
familiarity with some of the Leon.shp files (parcels, zoning, streets, 
bing aerial, imperv, trails, etc.) BTW that is a very impressive set of 
.shp data available from TLCGIS! I'm also beginner level familiar with 
Open Street Mapping.

I have no formal training and no professional experience with mapping or 
spatial analysis, and no programming experience specifically in Python 
(although it looks a lot like VBA for Excel, which I'm well familiar 
with.) I can get VBA to look up lat/longs for a list of street 
addressees, and record tracks in a handheld GPS, however beyond that I'm 
very new. A "million years ago" I was a Boy Scout with a topo map and a 
compass, more recently a BSA leader (its amazing how useful some of 
those practical BSA skills have turned out to be later in life...)

My full time "day job" is investment analysis (stocks and bonds, not 
real estate investing so far...) with a heavy emphasis on relational 
financial and economic data, and (simple, non exotic)  forecasting. I 
have a "hobby level" interest in mapping right now (plus using QGIS to 
help for site search for a small home & office in Tallahassee.) I have 
some background in market research, consumer, media, and census type 
data (blocks, block groups, zip codes), psycho-graphics, clustering, 
etc.  from years ago working at an advertising and public relations firm.

O.K. confession time, I don't at present even know what any of the 
following tags mean that this list uses for Subject tagging:

    Arc8:
    AV: (ArcView)
    DEMS:
    SDE:
    RS: (Remote Sensing)
    META:

Arc8: & AV: (ArcView) strike me as ESRI software products. META in my 
financial world can get remarkably complex (from table column headers to 
.xsd schema, OWL Ontologies, etc.) RS: is another area that is 
potentially very complex in my mind (as in /sensing /and /sensor fusion/ 
in the aerospace industry?)

QGIS is very well documented and free support is quite good at 
http://gis.stackexchange.com/ so I have no need to ask rudimentary 
mapping software questions on the  list here, especially if everyone 
else is on ESRI platforms.

Right off the bat could use any tips on simple /ground water run off/ 
analysis in Tallahassee (small retention pits for very small commercial 
buildings, permits, annual clean outs, changes to simple roof gutter 
systems, simple dry wells, etc.) I very much understand that storm water 
management is a significant issue. I'm looking at a small commercial 
building to purchase for a home/office that is well out of any flood 
plane, but some have adjacent imperv parking lots, building roofs, and 
small hold back areas. (Soil in the area I've been looking is mostly 
/Orangeburg fine sandy loam, 5 to 8 percent slopes/). I need to spot 
check for adequate runoff,  perhaps need to find a professional to scope 
specific parcels out.

Over the longer term (and not pressing by any means) can see some 
interesting areas where GIS intersects with financial analysis. Have 
seen some network "maps" of economic entities and their 
directors/leaders, measuring distance  and relatedness that were quite 
interesting. Logistics / supply chains, and economic performance, 
input/output analysis is another area I see where spatial analysis could 
potentially be very helpful.

On a volunteer level I might also be interested in things like planning 
50 years out for FL DOT, area economic development, or emergency prep / 
disaster response (including experimenting with open linked data, 
SPARQL, Oasis EDXL / Reference Information Model), etc, as time permits.

Am I in the right place here, or pretty much way "off the trail"? lol.

All leads and connections very much appreciated.

Rick

-- 
Richard J. Labs, CFA, CPA
CL&B Capital Management, LLC
Phone: 315-637-0915
E-mail (preferred for efficiency):rick at clbcm.com
Mailing address: 8 Laureldale Dr., Pittsford, NY 14534-3508

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