December 3, 2015 ” A geodata expert at emapsite is celebrating a prestigious UK industry award.
Liz Scott, Content Manager, beat off a field of more than 30 other entries to scoop the Award for Best Paper at Geocom 2015, the annual conference and exhibition run by the Association for Geographic Information (AGI).
The focus of Liz's talk was to offer practical help for GI professionals keen to tackle more data visualisation outside the traditional map context, for example through learning database skills and coding.
Liz, an Accredited Ordnance Survey Data Consultant, said: Many of us want to tap into the new sources which are becoming available now from both open data and data collected from citizen science projects, but often datasets turn out to be messy, inconsistent or not even contain a location element. Using traditional desktop GIS skills just isn't enough now to exploit much of this data, and a lack of database and coding skills can put off many GI users from even trying. Picking up new skills outside of your comfort zone may take time, but using simple online mapping tools and practical courses allows users to practise coding, query writing and create basic visualisations which can give us insights from the data which a map can't provide. It is more important now than ever before to expand our skill sets to be able to keep up with understanding data, and it was a pleasure to talk with other conference delegates and hopefully spread some encouragement to have a go.
emapsite CEO James Cutler said: AGI events and the conference in particular continue to be the geodata community's watering hole. Liz's paper was very much for the community, reflecting her interest in and commitment to widening access to geographic information through the rich array of tools now available. That it was seen as such by her peers is testament to a recognition that the industry must embrace mechanisms to reach out to remain relevant, something I would widely endorse. Many congratulations to Liz for such thought-leading and for the much deserved award.
Geocom 2015: Resilient Futures was held at Chesford Grange in Warwickshire. Category sponsor of the Best Paper award was Informed Solutions.
