There is something about the multiple warnings received prior to downloading free software that gives me pause, and the pause leads to procrastination. Finally, I am neck deep in the QGIS tutorial and I find it both simple and aesthetically pleasing. I definitely see the potential to introduce this program to students, but need to continue to make the transition …

My project concept focuses on open source software, open source data, and shared hardware. Over the past several years I’ve taught a mediocre intro to GIS lab session – a scant 2 hours dedicated to the introduction of the concept and utility of GIS, with a canned walk-through of ArcGIS using years-old data. The students hated it, though I insisted …

As I hold the position of lecturer, a non-tenure track faculty position, I found myself dispassionately engaged with this week’s readings. My work is to teach and advise, and I do not share the same publication pressure of my colleagues. At the same time, coming from a laboratory and field research background, publishing (once upon a time) in ‘sexy’ journals …

I entered into this Faculty Learning Community with a goal to collect and share geospatially linked data transformed using open GIS software. I found “The Open Data Handbook” to be both liberating and overwhelming. The why and the what have been defined and clarified further here – specifically, that open data must be convenient and modifiable, that it must have …