Socrata University exam

I'm working to pass the Socrata University exam. An extra credit portion of the exam is to embed a visualization in a blog post. Here it is:

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Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of America

In the interest of engaging more with my reading, I'm going to start posts about books and articles I've read.

The first is Richard White's Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of America. I had the privilege of seeing Dr. White speak at the WAML meeting in October 2011. I had been very interested in the Spatial History Project at Stanford and was excited to hear him speak about spatial history and using mapping technology to inform his work. Dr. White did not disappoint and gave an engaging talk about his use of maps, GIS, and spatial data in his work.

Railroaded is an immaculately researched book that details the financial, political, and business dealings of the companies and men who built the transcontinental railroads in the United States. It is very clear that White is unable to suffer the fools and foolish acts of the Big 4 and others involved in building these railroads. In fact, White's antipathy toward his subject make Railroaded an especially entertaining read.

The book discusses the financing of transcontinental railroads in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the Crédit Mobilier Scandal of 1872, and the nonsensical ways freight rates were manipulated to benefit railroads in spite of all logic. All of these missteps in the creation of railroads, that themselves had dubious utility at the time, lead one to consider just how central trust is with regard to the economy. Not only does White discuss, at length, trust among the heads of the railroad companies, but also trust with regard to lending money. Further, the trust extended by railroad employees that their bosses were capable of running a railroad, and safely, was continually tested and repeatedly failed. White's research and descriptions of the malfeasance displayed by those at the top levels of the transcontinental railroad companies are, unfortunately, all too familiar in a world where Enron and Goldman Sachs continue to lower expectations of those who are in charge of all the money.

A counterbalance to the corporate ineptitude displayed by Mark Hopkins, Collis Huntington, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford and others is the work and writing of Charles Francis Adams, Jr. who was president of the Union Pacific Railroad for six years in the late 19th century. White relies heavily on Adams for both logical and financial grounding, but also due to the fact that Adams wrote extensively about his mission to fix the Union Pacific Railroad. Adams displays his family's curmudgeonliness in full force with dour predictions for the Union Pacific which, as White repeatedly illustrates, is not undue.

White intersperses his spatial and business history with biographical and contextual interstitial mini chapters that lend a personal and broadening touch to Railroaded. This technique serves to bring the reader closer to the actors in the book and to provide useful context to the specific details of the focus of the work. Not until the conclusion does White engage directly with the men for whom he has an affection but is also consistently frustrated. After taking a journey with White through the history of railroading on the grandest scale possible, it is refreshing to hear his unfiltered opinions on the men who created a massive financial and political infrastructure project in spite of themselves.

Changes in location and otherwise

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Changes are afoot! I'm starting as the Data Researcher at Urban Mapping in San Francisco later this month. I'm very excited to work with the team there. I'm looking forward to using the geospatial data and metadata skills I've acquired over the past six years at UC Berkeley to augment and expand UMI's data holdings and services.

Reflecting on the change, I'm especially excited to explore and use a variety of metadata schemas and standards. Library cataloging is moving in the right direction, away from digitally recreating a card catalog framework, but the changes comes slowly. I'm looking forward to the fast pace of a development environment and the new challenges I'll face.

While the focus of this blog may waver from GIS in libraries, it won't be able to stray far from libraries in GIS. I'm looking forward to sharing more frequently and using this as a work blog to keep a record of my process and side projects. I plan on staying involved in WAML and MAGIRT as I think there are some important discussions to be had across geospatial libraries and library-like places.

Catch up

What I've been up to recently:

• Getting ready for WAML 2012 in Honolulu where I'll be serving as President of the Western Association of Map Libraries
• Finishing up scanning over 860 maps of the San Francisco Bay Area that are in the public domain. These maps will eventually be added to UC Berkeley Libraries' digital holdings and be available for free to anyone who is interested in the maps.
• Working with an awesome intern to georeference these maps (hoping for 285 by July 2013)
• Working with the Data Librarian here at UC Berkeley on an automated geospatial metadata project to create metadata for GeoData@UC Berkeley, the UCB instance of Open Geoportal. We're using BaseX
• Working with students on GIS projects and presenting geospatial thinking and software to anyone who will listen
• Continuing to work through Learn Python the Hard Way which is very awesome: thanks Zed!

Todd Park and Frank Warmerdam

 

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of seeing both Todd Park and Frank Warmerdam talk about their work. The contexts couldn't have been more different (Commonwealth Club for Mr. Park, GeoMeetup for Mr. Warmerdam), the crowds didn't have any crossover, and the topics were completely different, but I was struck by how both of them clearly love what they do and are willing to share their knowledge and interest broadly.

Todd Park talked about health data and a bunch of other stuff I wasn't familiar enough with to report here. What was clear was that he is very excited about working in technology in the federal government and is committed to making technology work for the US. He gave generously of his time, engaging with everyone who wanted to speak to him afterward, including myself. He told each person to email him and that he read his own email and would respond within 72 hours. I've encountered less important people for whom that is a challenge.

Frank Warmerdam talked at Geomeetup at Code for America in San Francisco. I arrived just a bit late due to sampling beer at City Beer Store, but in time to get a great seat to hear Frank talk about GDAL/OGR. I just started using GDAL to transform rasters for GeoData@UC Berkeley and became quickly enamored (enamoured?) of GDAL's straightforwardness and powerful capabilities. Coming from a desktop GUI environment, GDAL is awesome.

Mr. Warmerdam talked at length about GDAL/OGR, its history, capabilities, and future development. I was impressed, again, with his willingness to spend his time talking with what amounted to some clearly knowledgeable GDAL/OGR users and a number of fanboys, of which I had just become one. At one point, he wasn't able to open a web browser in OS X and waved his hands and claimed, "I don't know how to use this, I'm not technical!" Beyond not using non-Linux operating systems, Mr. Warmerdam was also extremely giving with regard to his time and answered every question the audience asked.

I'm thankful that I live in a place where people like this, who love what they do and want to share it, are interested in coming to talk. I hope I can put my fanboydom to good use in the near future and pay forward the same infectious enthusiasm and deep knowledge someday soon.