Spatial Data Management Group - Notes June 19, 2003

Notetaker : Matt Gregory

Treats : Kelly Christiansen

(Notetaker spaced out taking down who was there …)

Agenda Items :

Awards

Theresa will be getting lots of freebies at the ESRI user's conference for upcoming awards. Kelly and Matt got virtual awards for treats and notetaking.

Train the Trainers - Theresa

Theresa recently attended a "train the trainers" workshop so that she would be able to train FS employees in Arc8 software. She was videotaped while giving a presentation on ArcGIS Module 1 and a committee will soon review if she gets the go-ahead to start teaching.

Unix Network Charges - Terralyn

Terralyn reported that eight UNIX machines have been pulled from the network, so that for this year fees will remain the same. The next fee structure will be out in about six months and Terrayln thought that there would be an increase at this point.

There was also some talk at this point about mass storage options for backup of data. Jerry noted that there is an available DVD burner in Richardson 215 for backup of either UNIX or Windows data. Sean also pointed people to the COF's backup policy (http://www.cof.orst.edu/helpdesk/policies/service/backup.html) for further investigation.

Upcoming Meetings

Theresa will be attending ESRI's user's conference from July 7-11. If anybody has any specific software questions for her, she will take them to the "Doctor's Office" to get answered. One of the major questions still out there and of concern to this group was whether or not it makes sense to migrate DOQs (and presumably DRGs, etc.) to the SQL Server geodatabase. Theresa has heard conflicting reports on this and hopes to have this straightened out by asking at the conference.

Sharon noted that there was a Geosciences Implementation Meeting for soils and geology frameworks being discussed today in Portland.

ArcObjects Group - Matt and Michael

Matt and Michael reported on their first meeting of the ArcObjects special interest group. They had a pretty good turnout of folks interested in using ArcObjects for their applications as well as a number of people who just wanted to know if it was worth the investment of delving into it.

Theresa volunteered to lead an introductory course on ArcCatalog and ArcMap on July 1 at 1:30 pm in Richardson 203. Michael and Matt will also present some code snippets from projects they have worked on.

Edward Tufte - Ray

Ray brought a brochure announcing an upcoming seminar featuring Edward Tufte, who is a noted graphic artist/designer specializing in symbolizing information. (http://www.edwardtufte.com/1000790921/tufte/). Tufte will be appearing in Portland on July 24 and the fee is $320, which includes all three of his books. Ray will likely be going and wanted to find others who may be interested as well …

ArcIMS/ArcSDE Users Group - Theresa

Theresa reported on a new user's group which has started in Portland. She wondered about the possibility of setting up a similar group in the Mid-Willamette Valley and if we had the numbers to support it. She would look into the possibility of having an ESRI representative help organize this. She also noted that an upcoming meeting of the Portland group would be discussing images/photography in ArcSDE.

Topology in Arc8 - Theresa

Theresa brought in an ESRI poster which described the topology model for ArcGIS at version 8.3. John Sherrard (from ESRI Olympia) will our featured speaker on July 17 and will go into this at more length.

GIS Day - Sharon

Sharon wanted us to start thinking about what kind of activities we want to present for next November's GIS Day. She thought that we should coordinate with Dawn Wright in Geosciences to see what they are planning and also to see who will be in charge of calling to invite guests (from schools? retirement homes? etc.). It was also suggested that we might try to find some corporate sponsors (HP?) that would be willing to underwrite the day's activities.

Other items -

Next Meeting :

July 17, 2003 9:00 am. Talk by John Sherrard. Treats by Ray and Theresa

Following Meeting :

August 14, 2003 10:00 am.

Notes : Terralyn

Treats : Sharon