The Future Looks Bright!
In the spirit of the New Year, here are some resolutions to speed you along the way to your cartographic goals in 2019.
Resolve to clean your data. Statistics show that the geospatial data scientist’s single biggest issue is attempting to analyze dirty data. Legal descriptions are generally entered freestyle into your legacy system, so spend some time parsing them out as best you can. Also, linking a scanned copy of the source document to your tabular database wouldn’t hurt as customers spend a lot of time having to organize their documents later.
Resolve to fully map your polygons. Mapping to the nearest quarter section or quarter abstract isn’t always good enough - opportunities lie within the nuanced details of accurately mapped assets. While some projects need accuracy only to the quarter section, you’ll eventually want to accurately map your holdings.
Resolve to Stay Up-To-Date with Data and Software. Yes it matters when enhanced cartographic data becomes available. With modification dates for each polygon, you can now easily see if your project area has any changes. Also, staying two releases behind your software vendor availeth thee nothing. Leverage the power of the enterprise platform to build your business tools and applications.
Resolve to Think in terms of “What If” - Too often, GIS projects are built reactively in response to specific geographies. Instead, recognize that proactive scenarios can occur anywhere and at any time. You want to have immediate access to the data to build projects in response to opportunity on-the-fly. The trend in business towards “Big data analysis” cries out for access to large geographies of data.
