Essential Skills for a Successful GIS Career: A University of Washington Panel Discussion, Study notes of Geology

Download Essential Skills for a Successful GIS Career: A University of Washington Panel Discussion and more Study notes Geology in PDF only on Docsity! Nov 18 By Michalis Avraam Education, GIS* Points Add comments The essential skills to succeed in a GIS career I have been lucky enough to organize a GIS Day ‘09 career event at the university of Washington, joined by Harvey Arnone of city of Seattle, Marty Balikov of ESRI Olympia and Dane Springmeyer, freelance geospatial developer. The discussion was titled “What are the essential skills to succeed as a GIS Analyst”, and I have compiled some notes to help with all aspiring GIS Professionals out there. Feel free to add more details in the comments section as you see fit. The discussion ranged from skills to succeed in an organization using GIS to support business decisions (City of Seattle), ESRI, the leading GIS software producers and freelance development using GIS technologies. There is significant overlap for the required and desirable skills, but also some slight differences. I will list the skills in no significant order and provide a brief explanation. If a skill is something I personally added, it will start with an asterisk. GIS Skills Spatial Data and Algorithms understanding: Understand the special case of spatial data, how they work and their internals. Also, be familiar with how certain operations are carried out and when they are applicable. Many operations will run in the software, but not necessarily produce valid results. (Contributed by reader Duane Marble) Data entry: Be able to enter data into a database successfully with minimal errors. This includes editing said data as needs arise. Data conversion: The ability to convert data from either older sources (digitization) or from multiple sources to either a common format or common schema. It is extremely useful to be able to work with data coming from GPS and performing data corrections as needed. (With contribution by Jimmy Xu) Data maintenance: Be able to maintain data, correctly archive and ensure quality control. *Metadata creation and editing: Maintain logs of data processing and relevant information to include in metadata and ensure accurate creation and maintenance of said metadata. GIS Analysis: Be able to perform GIS Analysis as it is often used to solve common problems. An ability to extend and alter the standard analysis to meet requirements is a Go Free Demo | Analyze GIS Discover why ENVI EX is the premier www.IDL-ENVI.com/ENVIEX Docsity.com problems. An ability to extend and alter the standard analysis to meet requirements is a plus. Remember, data analysis can be performed on vector or raster data, therefore some remote sensing skills are required. (With contribution by Jimmy Xu) GIS Workflow: Understand the workflow to perform some procedure and be able to follow it and enhance it as needed. Model Building: Be able to create models of processes to allow for a workflow to be built. Also, model building in the ArcGIS sense is very helpful in this regard. Cartography and Graphic Design: Familiarize yourself with cartographic principles and graphic design principles. Maps are used in a variety of ways and presented in a multitude of media. You need to be able to work with that. Think of color, symbology, fonts, etc. Bad cartographic design will often make your analysis hard to decipher and interpret. (With contribution by DavidM) Programming Skills Basic understanding of programming: Be able to understand what programming is and what it can do to solve certain problems. Know the strengths and limitations of programming custom solutions to problems, as well as time requirements. (More about programming) Programming language: Familiarize yourself with a programming or scripting language, as it is often used to build workflows or custom solutions to problems. For scripting language, both ESRI and the open source community tend to gravitate toward Python. For programming languages, C++ will give you an opportunity to work in multiple environments, while C# and the .Net languages offer you good development tools and interaction with Windows based software. (More about programming languages) Object Oriented programming: Learn the concepts of object oriented programming and be able to apply them in conjunction with your programming language of choice. Most GIS development is leaning toward this paradigm, and you should too. (More about object oriented programming) Basic GIS architecture (desktop and web): Understand the architecture of GIS and the method of communication between the different parts of GIS. Be able to distinguish when one can introduce internet-based communication in the mix and how it would work. (More about GIS architecture) Web Services knowledge and experience: Web services are everywhere these days, and GIS is not escaping. Learn about them, how they work, and try to implement some of your own. HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML and related AJAX technologies are a valuable tool. (More about web services) (With contribution by Andy Anderson) Database Skills Able to understand data models and structure: When given a database, you should be able to explore the data models within it and understand the structure of the database. Often times, structure will be represented in diagrams (UML), discussed below. (More about data models and structure) Ability to design data models: Given specific requirements for data, you should be able to design data models to fit your data. Database Design tools knowledge: You should familiarize yourself with database Docsity.com