Geomapix Gateway July Newsletter

Issue 20

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My Marketing Notes Well it’s vacation time and I decided to write up a nice and light newsletter on a few things that I have been watching for the past month. I am heading on vacation this summer so, like everyone else, I am trying to get a ton of professional and personal tasks completed before our family leaves for a camping vacation to the beach. I have my hands full with a bunch of marketing ideas and campaigns for my business. One thing that I have realized in the past year is that when you have created a product like our Local Information Utility, you need to commit as much effort in marketing the product as you do creating the product. I have recognized that being and staying connected today is a lot of work whether it’s for business or personal. Information is being consumed at an alarming rate and people have a short attention span. So your message in any situation needs to be short and to the point. I am very techy in nature and in a sales and marketing scenario the techy talk does not work that well. As a business person I have a couple of great avenues to be able to meet people and chat on a professional and a personal level. I am comfortable with beginning conversations on a personal level and letting the chat take its course.   This leads to me and the person I am talking to getting comfortable and “what we do” or “what we sell” comes out naturally. So I think the goal is to be yourself at all times and try not to talk or look-like something that you are not. This leads into the development of some great soft skills which is an additional asset for any professional. One soft skill that is very important to me is to first listen to the person you are talking to.   Recently, I found a group called Sip.Chat.Connect (SCC) and it’s bringing Nova Scotia businesses together at local café’s or professional centres to chat about business. Founded by Charlie Aubie in the 2011, the Sip.Chat.Connect meetings are totally relaxing and everyone is very open to conversation. The SCC goal is to create a living and expanding network of businesses that not only meet together, but work together, to build a community of expertise for everyone to grow and learn from. They have weekly meet-ups in a variety of locations across mainland Nova Scotia and I see it spreading to other parts of the province. Note, the weekly meet ups are free to attend and are open to any business.   As Charlie puts it, “It's about shaking hands, asking questions, and making connections. We have so much to offer here, in this great province.” Charlie is so right! We have a wealth of untapped potential here in the province. The Nova Scotia business community is smart, innovative, and full of free thinkers that know what it takes to run a small business in Nova Scotia. Please check out their website. Follow SCC   Techy Things We're Doing GISbuzz.com has certainly created some buzz! Our Analyst and GISbuzz.com creator Phil Schnetzer shared some stats with me last week. His Google Analytics numbers show for the first month after launched there were 5586 visitors to the site and there were 16594 page views. These are great numbers for a one month launch.   Our partner, Gerry Watson, has been working with us on the development of a web based permit tracking system for small local government. We have officially named this product PermitLogix. Local government staff will never have to deal with managing “the paper trail” again. Permitlogix is fully customizable and we can consume your current permit requirements so you do not have to change the way you do things. The PermitLogix web interface will work with any major mobile OS using a standard data connection.   Also, Gerry works with businesses to develop interactive web sites such as the one he just created for the Middle Sackville Baptist Church, check it out middlesackvillebaptist.org   Speaking of Cloud, another business partner, Annapolis Valley Computers, is part of a new dynamic way for IT managers across the globe to manage thousands of corporate desktops without the infrastructure, hassle, or expense. They have partnered with Faktor11 of Ontario to offer their MokaFive desktop management solution. This solution that can run on any hardware platform. . . Mac or PC, desktop or laptop, personal- or corporate-owned. But can still be integrated into an enterprise Windows environment. Welcome to the new era!   Don't Forget, If your in the Halifax area and would like to network please check out my calendar at Meet Up Halifax.   Do you like this Article? Share It Below

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The Geomapix Gateway May Newsletter is Out! - Read about our project work and internship with COGS student Allen MacMillan

Issue 18 Follow us and stay up to date View Previous Newsletter

Centre of Geographic Sciences: Student Final Term Project

Since 2009 our team has been working with the Centre Of Geographic Sciences (COGS) to provide graduating student a final term project and possible student internship.

Each year a COGS instructor contacts us to look at ideas for developing a work term. The goal is to create a real world project for the student so that they can get their feet wet when it comes to entering the GIS industry.

The process is completely professional and creates an opportunity for the sponsor to have a look at new GIS software processes and functions prior to implementing them across the business. The student gets a chance to build a project concept from beginning to end and build a project work plan, budgeting, and researching the proposed project. The final term project usually leads into an internship to prepare the student to enter the workforce.

Our 2013 student, Allen MacMillan, is a second-year cartography student with a keen eye not only for cartographic design but building a GIS and modelling for our project. Working with a local development authority we decided to look at a crop suitability model. The suitability model is based on growing hops for the brewery industry in the Annapolis Valley.

The goal was to identify the geographic data requirements and build a spatial analysis tool to identify a low, medium, and high potential of growth and put together a cartographically pleasing map product to be delivered to the Nova Scotia Agricultural Department.

By identifying data requirements we can understand what information needs to be collected or improved to build the suitability model correctly. Also by creating a Geographic Information System and analysis tool it will give the agricultural department the ability to expand their expertise in crop suitability mapping.

First off, Allen researched the best growing environment for hops; which is fast draining soils, South facing slope for sun exposure (using a TIN Model), a PH level of 5.6 or above, and excluded areas within 2 km of the shoreline. Other geographic data included identifying non forested and non wetland areas.

So Allen set out to create an Esri ArcGIS suitability model which became the heart of the entire project. Allen built the model so that values could be inputted into the model to build and output suitability areas for other crops.

The final touches are just about complete and we will be presenting the final map, GIS data, and modelling to the Nova Scotia Agricultural Department.

As a LGS Inc. intern, Allen is developing a Map Atlas generator using our Nova Scotia Geodatabase for Esri ArcMap. This will allow the production of custom maps for print and webGIS. Thank you Allen for all your hard work!

Please visit Allen’s portfolio website @ http://allenrm.com/

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Partner Profile: Gerry Watson of Snowbound Studios

We are always happy to identify partners that have made us successful. We're recognizing Gerry Watson of Snowbound Studios in New Minas, Nova Scotia, for his great work as our development partner.

Gerry has a keen eye for web design and has the uncanny ability to understand exactly what a client needs when it comes to web development. We have been able to work with him on a variety of GIS web applications including our flagship product, the Local Information Utility (LIU), the AGRG Community Mapping Project, and our new LIU product for a building inspection tracking system.

Gerry likes to learn, has a creative streak and wants to help solve problems. These are traits that can’t all be taught through higher education. Gerry sees the world as we do; that you can be a successful tech firm in rural Nova Scotia when you build local partnerships.

As a small firm it is difficult to be able to do all things tech. That's why LGS Inc. connects with small business expertise like Snowbound Studios because buying local and  growing the rural economy is important to us.

He sums his experience in web development quite nicely by saying;

“I am not a trained geek, it just came naturally, my education is in Geography and History, two topics that I still find deeply interesting BUT how does this make me suitable for web development? . . . I'm not sure - but I'm pretty certain it helps. I find this job requires a person, who likes to learn, has a creative streak and wants to help solve problems. These are traits you don't learn in school - well I didn't anyway.”

Gerry’s mission with Snowbound Studios is simple. He wants to work with people, talk to them, and help them realize their goals while continuing to foster his own personal and professional growth and development.

Visit Gerry’s website at http://www.snowboundstudios.ca/ or give him a ring at +19023652406

Geomapix Hosting Partner:

Cafe Style Consulting at the Paper Pleasures Cafe

We are currently developing a Permit Tracking system for our Local Information Utility webGIS services for local government. We recently met up with one of our partners on the project, Gerry Watson of Snowbound Studios, at the Paper Pleasures in New Minas, Nova Scotia. 

Check Out the cafe on Facebook by searching "Paper Pleasures at the Coffee Shop". It's got some great coffee, treats, lunch, speciality papers , and some really cool local art work.

We thought that we would change the scenery a bit by having our development team meeting at the cafe. This was a great opportunity for our team to come together in a relaxing environment and would suggest for any business to do this every once and awhile. By team I mean Three, Phil our GIS analyst is taking the picture.