The
Director's Cut
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Robin
Buchannon
Director, EIGS |
As I look around the state, it never ceases to amaze me how strong the geospatial community is in Mississippi. Over time, we have really developed the infrastructure, capacity and expertise necessary to address some of the most pressing issues facing the geospatial field today. Through academic programs, government support, the establishment of private businesses, and other programs, Mississippi has truly become a leader in the geospatial technology arena.
From cutting-edge research being conducted by the GeoResources Institute at Mississippi State University to the efforts being led by the University of Southern Mississippi to address the critical workforce development needs through an apprenticeship program, the state of Mississippi has developed a true cluster in support of the developing geospatial industry. The list goes on… from the work being done at the
JSU Trent Lott Geospatial Center to the GIS/RS courses and seminars now being offered by many of the community colleges to the championing of science and technology based economic development by the Mississippi Technology Alliance.
And the good things keep happening. For instance, did you know that Delta State University recently received a $900,000 grant to establish the Interdisciplinary Center for Geospatial Information Technology? And the establishment of the Mississippi Coordinating Council on Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems will help Mississippi move forward as we face more complex coordination issues. As David Shaw, Director of the GeoResources Institute, stated in the March issue of The Sensor, “The coordination effected by this law has uniquely positioned the state to maximally leverage federal, state, and local funds to become the national leader in this rapidly evolving technology.”
I believe that what has developed in Mississippi can truly be considered a cluster. Did you know that a cluster is not just a group of businesses? In fact, according to Michael E. Porter of the Harvard Business School, “A cluster is a geographically proximate group of interconnected companies and associated institutions in a particular field, linked by commonalities and complementarities.” This means that a cluster can include not only a variety of service companies and suppliers, but producers of complementary products, trade associations, government entities, and other institutions that provide specialized training, education, information, research and technical support.
By combining the market knowledge and expertise of our businesses with the talents and resources of government, education and economic development organizations, Mississippi’s geospatial industry cluster is better prepared to meet the needs of the global marketplace. In this effort to strengthen Mississippi’s global market position, these entities are striving to complement each other’s activities in an effort to build a truly comprehensive statewide geospatial cluster. Mississippi is on its way to fully utilizing complementary talents, expertise, facilities, and personnel to enhance geospatial science research, business opportunities, education, and workforce development.
By no means, is this column intended to be a complete laundry list of all the geospatial activities in Mississippi - it would be impossible for me to recognize every entity contributing to Mississippi’s geospatial capabilities in this short article, but I wanted to paint a picture of how all-encompassing it is. Additionally, I want our readers to know that EIGS is committed to strengthening relationships with these geospatial entities as well as others in order to propel Mississippi into a solidified leadership position within the geospatial technology arena. Be sure to stay tuned to future EIGS newsletters – we intend to highlight many of these statewide resources over the course of several issues of The Sensor.
On another note, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the EIGS team, Tony Wilson, the new Assistant Director for Commercial Operations. Tony will be spearheading efforts to help EIGS companies enhance their market, business, and procurement opportunities. Many of you will be hearing from Tony soon as he will be getting around the state to meet with all EIGS members. Please feel free to get in touch with Tony at 662-915-1353 or
abwilson@olemiss.edu.
Finally, I would like to welcome Jim Steil as the new director of Mississippi Automated Resource Information System (MARIS). Jim replaces Paul Davis, who retired this summer. Jim comes to MARIS from working at the MSU Cooperative Extension Service. EIGS looks forward to working with Jim on the software site license program as well as other related matters.
Providing a Critical Resource for the Future of Mississippi’s Geospatial Industry: The Software Site License Program
One of EIGS’ most notable and successful activities is the support of the statewide software site licensing program. As the first of its kind in the U.S., this program was established in 1999 for remote sensing/GIS software with three vendors –
ESRI, Leica Geosystems, and RSI. A few other states have followed Mississippi’s lead in having such a program that serves the entire statewide public higher education community. With an approximate annual cost of $267,000 for the software, the cost savings of this program to the State of Mississippi is enormous. With an open market value for these products of over $11 million, the state of Mississippi is realizing a total cost savings of over $10 million. The availability of this software has been integral to the growth of geospatial community in Mississippi, not only the academic realm, but also as a major boost to the economic climate of the state.
The management of the program is handled by IHL through MARIS with assistance from 4 campus coordinators at
JSU, MSU, UM, and USM. The site licenses are designated for educational and research purposes and allow for unlimited copies of the software at all 8 public universities and all 15 community and junior colleges. In FY04, over 2,800 core licenses were issued. The software is being used as part of curricula, supporting research applications by faculty, helping graduate and undergraduate students complete research projects, and training the next generation of employees for Mississippi’s geospatial industry.
This program is a resource that is critical to the research, development, and training mission of the participating universities and community colleges as well as the continued growth of the geospatial industry cluster. For example, at the community colleges a number of new seminars, courses, and projects are a direct result of the availability of the software. “Our students will be starting careers in emergency response professions, such as law enforcement, firefighting, engineering, health and epidemiology, just to name a few,” said Joyce
Brasell, Northwest Community College Director of Workforce Planning and Development. “GIS technology is increasingly important in planning for and responding to man-made and natural disasters. We want students and graduates to have the very latest in technical tools to give them the edge in the job market.”
The software site license program is resulting in trained students entering the job
market equipped with GIS and remote sensing skills. This is critical to addressing
the workforce needs of Mississippi’s growing geospatial industry, attracting new
businesses to the state, and solidifying Mississippi’s role as a pioneer in this
industry.
For more information about this program, contact Lisa Stone of EIGS at lstone@olemiss.edu, 601-853-4597.
Company Perspective: Reflections from the ESRI User Conference
More than 12,000 GIS practitioners gathered for the Twenty-Fourth Annual ESRI International User Conference, ESRI Education User Conference, Survey and GIS Summit, and Telecom and LBS Summit. Held this past August in San Diego, California, several EIGS companies attended including: Digital Globe, 3001, NVision Solutions, Digital Quest, Radiance Technologies and Forest One.
Clark Love of Forest One, Inc. observed that attendees seemed quite interested in ArcGIS Engine and the ability to publish services which allows for getting rid of Citrix implementations. The technical sessions got the most attention as usual – Geodatabase Concepts, Spatial Analyst, GPS Extension, etc. were all hot topics, while the vertical market sessions were quite small and received little attention.
Clark was especially pleased with several productive meetings with clients that led to new sales for Forest One – by far the best part of attending the conference. As usual, the party and food were excellent and the golf tournament was a lot of fun, but the Mississippi contingent was way back in the pack. Clark puts the blame squarely on Craig Harvey of NVision Solutions!
Craig Harvey and Don Peyton attended for NVision Solutions and used the opportunity to meet with existing clients and potential clients from around the country and the world. Where else in the country can you hang out with 12,000 or so people that are like minded about the geospatial industry? Craig finds that one of the biggest advantages is observing the state of the technology – knowing where the cutting edge is makes it easier to stay on it. NVision Solutions utilized time at the conference to market the technology to new and old friends. Finally, for the record, the real reason the Mississippi golf contingent was “way back in the pack” is apparently people from Mississippi can count better than their cousins from California and else where! Craig credits Mississippi’s fine educational system.
Working hard at the ESRI conference: Don Peyton of NVision Solutions, Eddie Hanebuth of Digital Quest, & Craig Harvey of NVision Solutions
Eddie Hanebuth of Digital Quest attends and presents at the ESRI Education conference every year. This year the buzz was about Digital Quest’s STARS certification and the fact that the Department of Labor Apprenticeship program requires it! The University of Southern Mississippi is running the GTAP program and presented the importance of the partnership with Digital Quest. They stated that the STARS certification was the best they could find. Digital Quest finds this to be a great conference for networking with schools and educators from all over the world.
REALLY working hard at the ESRI conference: Paul Connors of the University of New Orleans with Don Peyton and Craig Harvey of NVision Solutions, an EIGS member company.
And the following information about DigitalGlobe at the ESRI Conference was posted on GIS User.com: DigitalGlobe was on hand with likely the largest and most eye-catchy booths. The company was making news during the week with the announcement that their 60-centimeter resolution imagery collected by the QuickBird satellite has been merged with digital elevation data into Harris' ImageLinks TrueTerrain product. Together, these data sets create realistic and highly accurate 3-D terrain models for use by NBC. Harris also provided NBC 3-D models of Athens using its RealSite™ 3-D urban modeling tool. Harris and DigitalGlobe will continue to acquire imagery of Athens and Olympic venues based upon customer interest and demand. The company's booth was busy all week as attendees saw samples of the data products including SPOT and LANDSAT imagery, ortho imagery and
DOQQs.
National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center Internships Provide Law Students with Real-World Work Experience
In lieu of the Graduate Fellow Feature this month, below is an article about two Space Law Internships. The Graduate Fellow Feature will return in next month’s newsletter.
From Left to Right: Lori Moorman; Jacqueline E. Serrao, Associate Director, National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center; Joanne Gabrynowicz, Director, National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center; and Robert Kelly.
The National Remote Sensing and Space Law Center at The University of Mississippi School of Law is a research, advisory and training resource that serves the public good and the remote sensing and space industry by addressing and conducting education and outreach activities related to the legal aspects of applying remote sensing,
geospatial, and aerospace technologies to human activities. As part of their education, outreach and training efforts, the Center placed two second-year law students in high level summer internships that allowed the students to put their legal knowledge to work.
Lori Moorman interned with the U.S. Department of Commerce at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) in Silver Springs, Maryland. She worked for NOAA's General Counsel doing legal research and writing pertaining to licensing of commercial remote sensing satellites. The substantive issues she worked on included NOAA's shutter control provision with respect to First Amendment rights and NOAA's policy regarding satellite remote sensing data distribution to sensed states, among other regulatory issues. This unique internship opportunity afforded Lori a glimpse into government operations by sitting in on meetings, attending an agency adjudication, and visiting the National Institute for Standards and Technology
(NIST) and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO). “I was surprised to learn the far reaching implications of space law in everyday life. For example, a change in the government's regulations of satellites has the potential to affect our daily communications and the televised information we receive. I went into my internship with the idea that space law was a narrow field as far as future employment is concerned. Upon completion, I've found there are more places than the government that need space lawyers,” said Lori. She plans on pursuing a career in space law after graduation in May 2005.
Robert Kelly worked at the U.S. State Department in the Bureau of Oceans, International Environmental and Scientific Affairs in the Office of Space and Advanced Technology in Washington, D.C. The main thrust of his work over the summer was to research and analyze lunar and celestial property rights. The purpose was to determine if Article II of the Outer Space Treaty prohibited space property rights or if it allowed specific types of property rights while denying others. The point of which determines whether or not, and in what fashion, governments and non-governmental entities can begin the process of lunar and celestial resource use. In addition, Robert also researched delimitation issues, FAA regulations and international environmental treaties currently before Congress. He was also given the opportunity to represent the State Department at an international space law workshop. “I got an inside view of the processes and concerns that face the United States government when making foreign policy and international legal agreements. This internship also gave me the opportunity to develop my legal research and writing abilities while discussing a topic that I was familiar with and interested in. Overall the experience was phenomenal and provided me with an opportunity that I couldn't find anywhere else,” Robert stated. Upon graduation in May 2005, Robert would like to spend a year serving as a clerk for a federal district judge after which he would like to return to Washington, DC and practice law as an attorney with the federal government.
The Space Law Center and these two students were highlighted in an article in the August 2, 2004 issue of the Christian Science Monitor in an article titled, "Writing the Rules to Govern the Cosmos."
For more information about the Space Law Center and its activities, please visit
www.spacelaw.olemiss.edu
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Company
Spotlight
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Digital Media, Inc., a member of the geospatial technology cluster since 2001, is a television production company of 16 years that for the past five years has focused part of its resources on developing geospatial products for the broadcast industry. Digital Media, housed at the Stennis Space Center on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, is leading the way in the development and transfer of NASA technology to the private sector. This transfer of technology is resulting in new products that Americans have never had access to before.
One of these new products hitting the marketplace is Digital Media’s marine information service which is currently the most accurate available for individual subscribers. Based on the only federally-funded research project ever under taken for the purpose of creating a computer driven model to locate fish and their primary forage, Digital Media’s product is an innovative service for use by a wide variety of users including sportsmen, commercial fishermen, sailing and diving enthusiasts, charter boat captains, and private boaters. This product addresses needs of other markets as well such as broadcast and print media and the oil and gas industry.
The Digital Media products are unique because they utilize remote sensing data in combination with a proprietary software and processing system and can be displayed either individually or combined into a single, stand alone image. Products can be presented either in color for high definition Internet/computer display or in black and white for facsimile transmission. These products are possible over all sections of the eastern U.S. seaboard, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, Central America and southern California.
Commercial and private anglers are one of the more avid markets for the marine information product because Digital Media’s composite model allows the angler to go directly to the closest location, minimize his running time and expense, and maximize the time spent fishing. Digital Media accomplishes this by using a proprietary mathematical algorithm that accurately identifies where conditions consistently result in concentrations of baitfish. Using this information they can direct fishing interests to these locations using GPS coordinates. Originally developed by the National Marine Fisheries Service, the algorithm has been tested, studied over a number of years and has now been refined to achieve amazing accuracy. Factors contributing to the final composite image include sea surface temperatures, temperature gradients, water clarity, and water depth. This combined information is analyzed by remote sensing technicians to accurately deliver the location of baitfish in the Gulf of Mexico as well as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Subscribers receive a full color image of the offshore area of his choice accompanied by a text of information and have 24 hour a day access via Internet to all current marine images and information, local or remote to their locations. Using these same images and information, Digital Media produces customized products for interests ranging from saltwater tournament competitors to professionals performing marine research involving tideland, near-shore, and deep water conditions.
For more information about Digital Media, Inc., contact J. Vincent Phillips
at 601-954-2287, jvphillips@bellsouth.net.
If
you have suggestions for future SPOTLIGHTS, please send an e-mail
to lstone@olemiss.edu.
IMAGE
OF THE MONTH
The satellite images above are before and after pictures of a Mobile Home Park in Punta Gorda, Florida following the destruction of Hurricane Charley. The images are provided by
DigitalGlobe, an EIGS member company. The image on the
top was collected on March 23, 2004, and the image on the bottom was collected on August 14, 2004.
Additional Hurricane Charley images
Be
sure to visit the EIGS website at
www.eigs.olemiss.edu
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UPCOMING
EVENTS
Sept. 13-14, 2004
2nd Commerical Remote Sensing Conference
Denver, CO
Sept. 16-17, 2004
Intellectual Property Forum & Technology Expo
E-Center
Jackson, MS
Sept. 19-21, 2004
Defense & Aerospace Investor & Corporate Development Conference
San Diego, CA
Sept. 26-29, 2004
2nd Annual Symposium & Expo of the Spatial Technologies Industry Association
Walt Disney World, Orlando, FL
October 12-14, 2004
GEOINT 2004 Symposium
New Orleans, LA
October 16-19, 2004
Southern Economic Development Council Annual Conference
New Orleans, LA
October 17-20, 2004
Mississippi 911 Coordinators Association Annual Training Conference.
Tunica Resorts, MS.
For more information: Phone (662)363-4012
**Stay posted for the release date of the EIGS Annual Meeting.
**If you have any upcoming events that need to be posted, please email them to
Johnna@pfidc.com.
CONFERENCE
SPOTLIGHT
Mississippi Gulf Coast Geospatial Conference 2004: Geospatial Applications Supporting Community Endeavors
October 20-22, 2004
Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi, MS
Several EIGS members are participating in this conference including sessions by: Keith Alphonso of Diamond Data Systems; Eddie Hanebuth of Digital Quest; Brett Thomassie of DigitalGlobe; Craig Harvey of NVision Solutions; Tom Strange of Radiance Technologies; Adam Dunlap of AGT; and Greg Easson of the
UMGC.
LEGISLATIVE
CORNER
The
Mississippi Legislative Budget Office Hearings are slated to occur between
September 7- September 30, 2004. LBO Committee Members include:
Senate:
Lt.
Governor Amy Tuck
Senator Travis Little
Senator Jack Gordon
Senator Tommy Robertson Senator Terry Burton
Senator Billie Hewes
Senator Hillman Frazier
House:
Speaker
Billy McCoy Representative Johnny Stringer Representative Percy Watson
Representative Cecil Brown Representative George Flaggs Representative Steve
Holland Representative Diane Peranich
The
2005 Regular Session of the Mississippi Legislature will convene on January
4 with Sine Die on April 3.
SEEN
AND HEARD…
From Geospatial Solutions Magazine, July 28, 2004, “Congress Gets a Geospatial Progress Report”
"The [spatial technologies] industry in the United States comprises thousands of private companies that have combined annual revenues, estimated by some observers in excess of $30 billion and employing tens-of-thousands of highly skilled, well-paid professionals in all 50 states. A number of senior executives and analysts believe that the industry is growing steadily and was not affected as much as other components of the U.S. high-tech market, which recently experienced a downturn. The integrated spatial technologies industry is truly an outstanding American high-tech success story. It is estimated that there are millions of public- and private-sector professionals and citizens in the United States, and millions more around the world, who are dependent on commercial geospatial products, such as GIS software and GPS equipment. Recognition of the economic importance of the industry and robust economic multiplier effect of professionals and citizens using these capabilities is increasing. For example, the Bush administration's High Growth Job Initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Labor Employment & Training Administration [www.doleta.gov] has targeted the geospatial industry as a top priority in its national job-creation strategy. Commercial geospatial technologies and spatial data are being used daily by almost every agency of the federal government and agencies in all 50 states, as well as an estimated 80 percent of all local and regional governments and public authorities."
Fred Corle, Spatial Technology Industry Association
DID YOU KNOW???
Under Mississippi’s statewide software site licensing agreement with
ESRI, there are unlimited, FREE, introductory and advanced GIS and RS on-line courses via the ESRI Virtual Campus. Additional classes are available at an educational discount. There are currently over 40 classes and workshops that may be started by one of the 4 hub contacts at
JSU, MSU, UM, and USM. Once started, a class key can be issued for those interested in the class or workshop. Anyone who falls under the statewide software program can participate. Please contact Lisa Stone at
lstone@olemiss.edu
for additional details.
EIGS
PRESS RELEASES
Forest One and Texas Forest Service Awarded USDA Forest Service Research Grant to Address Critical Pine Beetle Infestation in the Southeast
August 17, 2004, Jackson, MS –
Forest One, Inc., in collaboration with the Texas Forest Service, is addressing Southern Pine Beetle (SPB) infestations for the USDA Forest Service using sophisticated software tools and satellite imagery. The project, funded by a USDA Forest Service research grant, will provide an automated, cost-effective and more accurate means of identifying forest mortality and the likelihood of SPB
outbreaks….::MORE::
Digital Media Helping Fishermen Pinpoint Locations of Game Fish
August 10, 2004, Stennis Space Center, MS – Digital Media, Inc. has developed an innovative, new marine information service for use by a wide variety of marine interests including sportsmen and commercial fishermen, as well as sailing and diving enthusiasts. What makes Digital Media’s product unique is they utilize remote sensing data in combination with a proprietary software and processing system. This allows fishermen to make the best use of their time and
money….::MORE::
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