Spatial Data Management Group Meeting Notes for August 18, 2005

Note taker: Terralyn Vandetta
Treats: David Hockman-Wert

Attendees:

Theresa V, George L, Keith O, Jerry M, Terralyn V, George M-W, Ken V-B, Dave H-W (notes)

Topic of Meeting: Report on 2005 ESRI User Conference

Theresa got a map of the HJ Andrews included in this year’s ESRI Map Book.

We had a discussion about ArcGIS Server and ArcIMS, and the challenge of learning how to use these components. Quote of the day: “The wall to comprehension and use of ArcGIS Server is 17-stories tall, with little tiny rungs to help climb over it.” – Terralyn. “And they’re pouring hot oil over the wall?” – Keith.

George L. attended many ArcIMS sessions, so he “could ask Theresa intelligent questions about it.” He attended a sub-par metadata workshop. He was very impressed with a presentation by 4th and 5th graders from central Washington who work with farmers to find and map horny toad habitat.

2. Python Group: report on August 17th meeting

This was an excellent meeting, with a number of tips and tricks presented. The minutes are posted on the web, along with more samples and code from group members.

3. Status of ArcGIS 9.1

ArcGIS 9.1 is available for COF and FRESC now. As USFS just got v9.0, it seems unlikely that they have v9.1 yet. ArcIMS and ArcGIS Server have been upgraded to v9.1 on the development (Zephyrus) and production (Mercator) servers. Terralyn will put a directory structure on Zephyrus to allow people to try out their applications. The present version of SDE appears to be compatible, but it will also be updated soon.

4. Training needs: nothing reported

5. GIS Helpdesk: nothing reported

6: 2005 DOQ's

The Institute for Natural Resources (INR) is working on a contract with the state of Oregon to make the 2005 color DOQs (1/2 meter resolution) accessible on the Web. They should be available by spring 2006. The College of Forestry computer group is in conversation with INR about how this could work and whether COF can/will be involved in the project.

7. Round table:

  • George L. will be leading a ˝ day metadata mini-workshop for FRESC grad students this fall. He was encouraged to do such a workshop for all COF grad students.
  • Keith is our newest dad, with Ava born on July 26. He is reportedly getting some sleep.
  • Ken was in Brasilia recently for a Society for Conservation Biology conference, where he organized a symposium on Freshwater Conservation. While at the Freshwater Working Group meeting, he was tapped to be the new chair of the working group. Amidst all this work, he even managed to get in some birding.
  • Luca has left the building, and the country! He has returned to Italy, but will stay connected via the magic of computers in order to finish up his work on the coho salmon lifecycle monitoring basins project. The project involves counting smolt escapements and adult returns in each basin, and then feeding that data into a multivariate statistical analysis to assess and explain differences and similarities among 6th field watersheds. Luca is looking for a job now, in a variety of countries, and may decide to return to OSU to pursue a PhD.
  • Dave said there are a limited number of scripts available to perform a random selection of points along lines (e.g., sample sites along streams) in ArcGIS. The one available is written for v8.x and needed tweaking to work in v9.x. It also is unable to set a minimum separation distance, which would be useful.
  • Theresa has two students working with her now: Son, a computer science student(?) who is working on Watershed DB, and Nate, a geosciences grad student who may work on an ArcGIS Server project to set up a way for a visitor to an ArcIMS website to click on a point and draw a watershed.

    Next Meeting September 15th: Matt working on speaker for Sept 15th

    Next Meeting Days: October 13th

    Notes: Keith

    Treats: Terralyn