Networking in GIS - Peer-to-Peer Support in the GIS Community

Tuesday January 14th 2003
Filed Under Features 

GIS is a broad field, requiring expertise in a range of areas ranging from cartography, systems administration, relational database management, programming and of course, spatial analysis. Even the well-versed GIS professional will come across many difficult tasks that require guidance from others in the field. Unfortunately, GIS professionals tend to work solo or in small groups, making it difficult to consult with coworkers for direction. Luckily, there is a strong support community readily accessible both via the Internet and through focused meetings. Below are outlined peer-to-peer resources that GIS professionals can utilize to help guide them through their projects.

Discussion Groups

Discussion groups have become essential to most GIS professionals. They are a free, and in most cases, timely source of information. There are two types: email lists and forums.

Email discussion lists require you to subscribe to a Listserver. All communications to the discussion list are sent via email to a common address. The Listserver then copies that email to every one subscribed. These lists can either be moderated or unmoderated. A moderated list means that all emails are first scrutinized for appropriate content before being passed on to the list. Moderation helps keep the subject matter of each email true to the philosophy of the discussion list. Unmoderated lists allow all emails through, regardless of content. This can be troubling as such lists are often the targets of spam - unwanted junk emails soliciting services as well as being an easy vehicle for spreading viruses. A good discussion list will have some level of either computer or human monitored activity.

Usenets are online options where registered users can browse email posts and on some sites, post replies and start new threads. These sites are also searchable which is useful when you are looking for a particular subject. Two GIS Specific usenet sites are Directions Magazine and GIS Café.

Forums are online resources where registered users can post messages. The function is very similar to email discussion lists. Forums are almost always moderated. Visit this site’s forum. For a detailed collection of GIS related email and forum discussion lists visit the Discussion category.

User Groups

User groups are small, regionally concentrated associations that are tied by a common agenda. User group meetings can range in size from a handful of attendees to over a hundred. User Groups tend to meet for one day only for a hours, making it easier to attend such meetings. User groups usually to meet on a regular schedule either monthly or quarterly. They are an excellent forum to exchange ideas and troubleshoot with other professionals most related to your line of work.

As mentioned above, user groups are tied by a common agenda. In some cases User Groups are related by Industry. For example, the Southern California Government GIS Users’ Group is a group of individuals working for local cities and governmental agencies in Los Angeles and Orange County. Other User Group meetings are tied by software type. ESRI organizes user group meetings once a quarter regionally on both a county and a state level. Agenda items for discussion always revolve around various software packages on offer from ESRI and the meetings serve to keep their users informed about changes and to answer questions relating to their software. Likewise, many of the other GIS software makers such as Intergraph offer the same type of User Groups.

User Groups - Local, regional and industry oriented user groups organized alphabetically.

Conferences

Like User Groups, conferences offer and opportunity to meet face to face with other GIS professionals. Unlike User Groups, GIS related conferences tend to meet only once a year and are held on a larger scale. In addition, most of the conferences charge a fee for admission to cover the cost of the event. Conferences tend to be held over a couple of days.

Not only are conferences a chance to see presentations by others, conferences usually offer the opportunity to interact directly with vendors. All of the larger GIS conferences have a exhibition area where vendors set up booths. This offers you a chance to see demonstrations of their products, receive take-home demos and ask any questions you may have.

GIS Conferences - GIS and Remote related conferences occurring worldwide can be browsed by month.
 





Read More

  • What is GIS?
  • Web 2.0 Mapping and Social Networks March Meetup
  • User Groups for GIS
  • Netzines
  • PPgis.net

    • « How to Get Rid of that Pesky “…missing (jsForm.htm)” Message in ArcIMS | Main | ArcView 3.x Developer Resources »

    Comments

    Leave a Reply