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Hi All,<br>
<br>
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<i> very impressed</i>
with it, and the price can't be beat, <i>free!</i>) Is this
listserve pretty much exclusive ESRI users, and
professional/government? Are beginners to mapping O.K.?<br>
<br>
More below on what's of interest to me and what I might be able to
offer. <br>
<br>
Rick <br>
<br>
<hr size="2" width="100%"><br>
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.<br>
<br>
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...) <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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: <br>
<blockquote>Arc8: <br>
AV: (ArcView)<br>
DEMS:<br>
SDE:<br>
RS: (Remote Sensing)<br>
META:<br>
</blockquote>
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 <i>sensing </i>and
<i>sensor fusion</i> in the aerospace industry?)<br>
<br>
QGIS is very well documented and free support is quite good at <a
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://gis.stackexchange.com/"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://gis.stackexchange.com/">http://gis.stackexchange.com/</a></a>
so I have no need to ask rudimentary mapping software questions on
the list here, especially if everyone else is on ESRI platforms.<br>
<br>
Right off the bat could use any tips on simple <i>ground water run
off</i> 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 <i>Orangeburg fine sandy loam,
5 to 8 percent slopes</i>). I need to spot check for adequate
runoff, perhaps need to find a professional to scope specific
parcels out. <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Am I in the right place here, or pretty much way "off the trail"?
lol. <br>
<br>
All leads and connections very much appreciated. <br>
<br>
Rick <br>
<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Richard J. Labs, CFA, CPA
CL&B Capital Management, LLC
Phone: 315-637-0915
E-mail (preferred for efficiency): <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rick@clbcm.com">rick@clbcm.com</a>
Mailing address: 8 Laureldale Dr., Pittsford, NY 14534-3508</pre>
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