(Sharon Clarke, Kelly Christiansen, Jonathan Brooks, Michael Guzy, Theresa Valentine, Jennifer Swensen, Sean SanRomani, Matt Gregory, Mark Klopsch, Don Henshaw, Paula Minear, Linda Ashkenas, Pablo Rosso, Doug Oetter (Girl Scout Cookies provider-thanks Doug!), Jenine Salwasser, and Ken Vance-Borland (notetaker) attending.)
Metadata Bug Awards (Theresa) Matt Gregory, Doug Oetter, Sharon Clarke, Karin Fassnacht, Theresa Valentine, Alissa Moses, and George Lienkaemper received chocolate Metadata Bug Awards for entering information about data sets they obtained or created into the FSRN spatial database. Congratulations on a job well done! Awards will be given each month to those who have made entries, so list your spatial dataset in the FSRN spatial database (http://www.fsl.orst.edu/helpdesk/gis/db.html) and win an Award. Maximize your chocolate take by making entries each month!
World Construction Set is here! (Theresa): Several copies of World Construction Set www.3dnature.com have arrived at FSL and the CoF. Visit the website to view impressive examples of the graphic capabilities of this program! Mark Klopsch will be loading 3 copies for public use, perhaps in Richardson 207 and the Lundeen lab. Theresa has it loaded on her machine and people are welcome to come see it. Theresa plans to invite Jeff Neighbert of Portland BLM to give us a workshop on WCS. Stay tuned...
Fall Forest Science Seminar Series: GIS/RS (Sharon): Sharon proposed we approach Tom Adams, Forest Science Department head, to ask if we can organize the fall seminar series, presenting GIS/RS work being done in the Forestry Community and elsewhere, as was done in the fall of 1998. Potential topics mentioned include: vegetation modelling/mapping (Matt); 1:100k-1:24k streams coverages comparison (Ken); CLAMS GIS (Jonathan); interagency cooperation (Theresa); Willamette River Basin vegetation mapping (Doug); Virtual Oregon (?); aquatic spatial data development for CLAMS (Sharon); ArcIMS and internet GIS resources (Paula); landcover change detection (Jenine). Jenn Swensen offered to help with logistics in Richardson Hall.
Potential GIS Training opportunities: Ideas were gathered for training within the Forestry Community.
Occassional ArcView workshops given by Michael Wing in Forest Engineering.
Free ArcGIS training by ESRI March 6, 2001, in Portland. Visit www.esri.com/arcgis SOON to register.
NE Oregon GIS Users’ Conference, Pendleton OR, May 18, 2001. Hands-on training offered May 16, 17, and 19. See www.eou.edu/gisconference .
We discussed the possibility of our Arc8 Workgroup facilitators presenting a workshop series in the fall, to share what we have learned about the new (and quite different) ArcGIS with the wider Forestry Community.
Arc8 Workgroup Progress: The Arc8 workgroup has met 4 times, exploring ArcCatalog, ArcMap, and ArcToolbox. We discovered (thanks Theresa and Keith!) spatial analysis functions using the new geodatabase model are quite limited in Arc8.0.2. Mark Klopsch installed the beta version of Arc8.1 on 6 of the machines in Richardson 203 and we used it to try spatial analyses within the personal geodatabase, with mixed results. This prompted Kelly and Russ to title the workshop they will be facilitating “Back To Unix!” In our ongoing attempt to answer the question “What can this new geodata model do for us, and what software and personnel do we need if we are going to use it?” , Sean SanRomani has put together a SQL server and installed SDE so we can expand our testing of Arc8. Topics of coming workgroup sessions include:
Testing raster data in a geodatabase looking for advantages and disadvantages.
Test limitations of SDE with multiple geodatabases.
Evaluate the utility of additional functionality available in the geodatabase model (assigning attributes to features; defining relationships amond feature types).
ESRI Representative Arc8 Question and Answer Session (Theresa): Theresa is arranging a visit from John Sherrard of the ESRI Olympia office for some time during the week of April 23-27. She will send him a list of questions about Arc8 we have developed during the course of our users’ group meetings, workgroup sessions, and the Needs Assessment meeting(s).
Other topics:
ArcIMS is installed and running on sequoia, and ArcSDE and SQL Server will soon be available as well. Thanks Sean!
The Spatial Data Management Group (that’s us!) web page is up and running at www.fsl.orst.edu/helpdesk/gis/sdmg.html . Thanks Doug!
Complete the Virtual Oregon Survey and win a prize from Theresa! http://virtual-oregon.nacse.org/survey/index.html
Next GIS/RS Users-SDMG Meeting: Thursday, March 22, 10am. We will meet in Richardson Hall, in hopes of stimulating greater interaction with the Forestry Community. Watch for location. Cookies by Jonathan Brooks; notetaking by Matt Gregory.