Helping users get the most of their interactions with LINK-GIS has always been a goal of NKAPC staffers. During the month of November, they stepped up their efforts and took to the road for several technical venues.
Christy Powell, GISP, Senior GIS Programmer, and Joe Busemeyer, GISP, Principal GIS Programmer led hands-on workshops for those wanting to expand their usage of linkgis.org. Morning and afternoon sessions filled quickly with employees from public and private entities. The two-hour sessions covered basic and advanced tips and tricks for the website and offered the attendees the opportunity to provide feedback and ask questions of the website developers. Some of the suggestions from the workshop have already been implemented on the website.
Kyle Snyder, GISP, Principal GIS Specialist facilitated GIS training at Northern Kentucky University on November 21st and 22nd. The first day provided an introduction/refresher to those using Esri’s Arc Map and LINK-GIS data; the second day focused on editing in Esri’s Arc Map. Esri is the industry leader in GIS software. This training session focused on increasing familiarity not only Esri’s products but also showing GIS professionals from around area data that is available through the LINK-GIS partnership. Participants attended from Tri-Ed, Kenton County Public Works, Northern Kentucky Water, Campbell County Planning, NKU’s Center of Environmental Restoration, Kenton County Schools, and the Campbell County Solid Waste Department.
Nick Brophy, manager of economic development at Northern Kentucky Tri-ED said, “I felt the ArcMap training session was very well organized and structured in a way where we gained relevant knowledge through practical application projects assigned to each topic of the course.”
Powell and Busemeyer visited Thomas More College later in the month to demonstrate the LINK-GIS website map-viewer capabilities to Professor Shannon Galbraith-Kent’s class. That class consisted of about 15 students (mostly environmental science and biology majors) in one of the available computer labs on campus. The students picked up the capabilities of the LINK-GIS website map viewer quickly and what it has to offer.
Students explored areas they are familiar with in Northern Kentucky. They compared current aerial photography with historic aerial photography. They also learned how to query multiple data layers to gather information about their community, including the intricacies of the many tools available on the interactive map.
The visit sparked additional interest with Thomas More College to acquire GIS software and begin providing classes to their students on how to use it. Feedback from this class was very positive and new relationships were formed.
If you are interested in attending a future workshop or would like the GIS staff to conduct a workshop at your location, contact a staff member for details.