A geospatial career journey
[Author's Note: At the time of this writing, I am a member of the OSM US Advisory Council. This post reflects my personal analysis and opinion. It has not been endorsed by OSM US, and is not intended to reflect their views.] Recently, a proposal submitted to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) set off a … Continue reading The Siren Song of Global Identifiers
As I’ve recounted before, what became HIFLD started as the M: drive on a Windows server in a musty government building in Norfolk, VA. Early exercises made it obvious that the data on our M: drive didn’t match the data on other M: drives. They also made it clear that sharing data, especially across 2002-vintage … Continue reading Data Preservation: Let the Pain Guide You
Before it was HIFLD, it was briefly FGDWG. Before that, it was a nameless thing in its infancy. In those early days, it bounced around between conference rooms in Norfolk, Dahlgren, and Chantilly. I was fortunate enough to be in the rooms where it was born and took shape. I was a contractor supporting an … Continue reading HIFLD Open Is Dead*, Long Live HIFLD
I spent the past couple of days at the Esri Federal GIS Conference, still referred to by many as the “FedUC,” in Washington, DC. The primary reason I went was to attend some customer meetings. The FedUC draws many people (6,000 in this year’s case) from around the country and it’s a convenient place to … Continue reading In HIFLD, a Lesson
Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of 9/11. I tend to let that day go by without comment. My recollections of the day itself add nothing as I was 50 miles outside of DC at the time. Even that far away, the roads were filled with panicked people and the phone networks were crashing, but I … Continue reading Reflections, Twenty-One Years On
