Blog - Page 36 of 37 - Ryan Davison

Gardengraphic Information Systems – How Maps and Data Help Gardens Succeed

by Ryan DavisonGIS February 24, 2012February 3, 2022No Comments

Spring will soon be upon us and gardeners of all stripes will begin pruning landscapes and planting vegetables. The National Gardening Association reports that gardeners spent nearly $3 billion in 2011 on food gardening alone. With this much money being spent (not to mention the amount of time) to grow produce or create beautiful landscapes, it stands to …

Are Paper Maps Dying?

by Ryan DavisonGIS February 18, 2012February 3, 20222 Comments

With all of the visualization technology we have available, why do we still find itnecessary to print maps? With desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets, it would seem that paper map production should be all but extinct. This does not seem to be the case though. Technology has broadened our access to maps we previously could …

Free GIS Data – Ten Favorite Sources

by Ryan DavisonGIS February 14, 2012April 20, 2018No Comments

GIS data is everywhere. Some you have to pay for but much of it is free and widely available like at the sites below. Doing a search for free GIS data will yield some of the data sources I mention here. Locating other sources just takes a little digging. Almost all of these sites are …

Getting Your Bearing In A Digital World

by Ryan DavisonComPosts February 9, 2012No Comments

There is no doubt we live in a geospatial age. We are inundated with location based data wherever we turn. While some mapping applications like OpenStreetMap appeal to targeted users, others such as Google maps, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps and MapQuest are main stream and are accessed by millions of users every day. But are …

Using Pinterest to Catalog Online Maps

by Ryan DavisonGIS February 3, 2012April 20, 2018No Comments

What is Pinterest?Cartographers and GIS users are often visual by nature. Pinterest is a tool that allows the visually minded to capitalize on images posted throughout the web. In a nutshell, Pinterest allows a user to “pin” images, found on the web, to virtual pin boards. These pin boards are organized by topic and the …

The KidsRuby 1.0 Adventure

by Ryan DavisonProgramming January 22, 2012June 6, 2018No Comments

Today my seven-year-old son and I embarked on a mission to learn how to program with KidsRuby 1.0. Before ever hearing of KidsRuby my son had expressed interest in programming so he could create games. I use Python on a regular basis and had considered using the language to teach programming basics. However, there are …

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Add Custom Color Ramps To ArcGIS From The ESRI Mapping Center

by Ryan DavisonGIS January 17, 2012June 7, 2018No Comments

**This post references ESRI ArcGIS Desktop 10.0. While the steps listed might work in previous or future versions of ArcMap, it is not guaranteed. There is an updated version of this post here.** When you have a continuous raster such as a DEM in ArcGIS, you will likely want to adjust its color ramp to better …

GISnation.com, Social Networking for the Geospatial Community?

by Ryan DavisonGIS January 12, 2012April 20, 2018No Comments

A new GIS centered web site called GISnation.com launched yesterday. According to the site’s mission statement its purpose is simply to promote “geospatial solutions” and provide a multi-use platform to showcasing GIS projects. The site tries to pack a lot into its pages. It attempts to provide tools and services such as social networks, job boards, …

What is in Your Office Desk Drawer?

by Ryan DavisonComPosts January 7, 2012February 3, 20223 Comments

I took a look in the top drawer of my desk at work the other day. I’m not talking about the glance you give when you throw something in that you might need “someday”. I actually looked at what was in there. It was kind of scary what I had let accumulate. Here is a …

Social Media Speaks and the Government Listens

by Ryan DavisonComPosts January 7, 2012No Comments

The idea of social media command centers is not a new one. The best known centers might be from Gatorade and Dell who each use theirs for brand monitoring. But businesses are not the only ones accessing large amounts of social media data. Carahsoft, a private government solutions company currently markets the InTTENSITY Social Media …