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EIGS PERSPECTIVE
October 2007
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Lisa Stone
Acting Director, EIGS |
We are pleased to release the most recent economic impact
data for Mississippi’s geospatial technology industry cluster for
2006-07. Once again, the cluster saw overall growth in jobs, salary,
investment, and revenues. We were particularly pleased to see at least
five percent growth in both jobs and average annual salary. Year after
year, Mississippi’s geospatial companies continue to create higher
paying, high technology jobs that are positively
impacting the state’s economy. During the past year, 687
people were employed by EIGS member companies. The average annual
salary, which has consistently grown by at least five percent annually
for the last several years, increased to $57,800. Notably, this keeps
Mississippi competitive with GIS salaries at the national level
($60,050) as recently revealed by the URISA salary survey.
Click for a larger image |
This year’s economic data also show that this industry
sector continues to produce a solid return on investment for the state
of Mississippi and demonstrate the positive impact the high tech,
geospatial industry is to the health and prosperity of our state.
A total of $287 million has been invested in Mississippi’s geospatial
technology cluster from 1998 through 2007 with the EIGS member companies
cumulatively contributing $261 million including facilities, operating
expenses, R&D, and payroll. During this same time frame, $25.8 million
has been invested by the state of Mississippi and NASA. This represents
a ten-fold return on the investment in the geospatial cluster.
Click for a larger image |
There are many factors that impact the continued growth of this industry
in Mississippi including the commitment of private industry to growing
their business in Mississippi, the strong support at the state
government level, and the comprehensiveness of the statewide programs
that support critical areas such as research, workforce development,
technology innovation, and entrepreneurship. We look forward to
witnessing the results in the state and the region from the continued
growth of this dynamic industry.
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IMAGE
OF THE MONTH
Melissa, shown Sunday in this 11:19 a.m.
EDT satellite image, was downgraded to a tropical depression.
MIAMI, Florida (AP)
-- Tropical
Storm Melissa weakened into a depression Sunday far out in the open
Atlantic while the remnants of Tropical Storm Karen dwindled away in the
central Atlantic, forecasters said.
At 5 p.m. ET, the degenerating remnants of
Melissa were centered about 665 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands and
posed no immediate threat to land, according to the
National Hurricane Center.
source:
cnn.com
SEEN AND HEARD
Stennis a "story we should tell"
”Stennis
Space Center is probably Mississippi’s best kept secret. The
capabilities that Stennis offers for NASA and for private aerospace
companies who’re seeking to expand the boundaries of technology are
truly amazing. That’s why more and more companies are coming to Stennis
and creating good, high-tech jobs there. It’s a story we should tell.”
U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-Miss.)
Mississippi Business Journal, September 3, 2007
(Commenting on the groundbreaking of a new rocket engine test stand at
Stennis Space Center, August 23, 2007)
CONGRATULATIONS
Diamond Data Systems Honored as the 2007
Innovator of the Year Bronze Awardee
CityBusiness newspaper has
awarded Diamond Data Systems the Bronze medal for 2007 Innovator of the
Year. DDS was recognized for revolutionizing
meteorological and oceanographic data systems for the U.S. Navy, one of
the firm's largest clients.
EIGS
congratulates DDS and its dedicated staff on the achievement.
>
Read the announcement
UMC Prof to present at ESRI 2007 Health GIS
Conference
Dr. Fazlay Faruque, Director of GIS and Remote Sensing and Professor of
Health Systems at The University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC), will
discuss "Real-time Hospital Data Collection for Surveillance" during the
Plenary Session at the 2007 ESRI Health GIS Conference. The UMC was one of
the first medical centers in the world to establish a Geospatial Information
Services program. The ESRI Health GIS conference, being held October 7-10,
2007, in Scottsdale, Arizona, brings health and human services professionals
together to share and discuss successful approaches to using geography to
improve research, management, policy decisions, public health and hospital
preparedness, and health care delivery.
>
For more
information...
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UPCOMING
EVENTS
October 7-10, 2007
ESRI Health GIS Conference
Scottsdale, AZ
October 15-17, 2007
Rocket
City Geospatial Conference
Huntsville, AL
November 5-7, 2007
2007 ESRI Homeland Security GIS Summit
Denver, CO
November 13, 2007
7th Annual
MAGIC GIS Day Conference
Memphis, TN
November 27 & 28, 2007
8th Annual Conference
on High Technology
Mississippi TelCom Center in Jackson
For more information or to join the Conference on High Technology as a
sponsor, please contact Sandra Buckley by email or by phone, 601-960-3629.
DID YOU KNOW?
In days gone by, mapmaking was
a growing and thriving industry. However, have you ever stopped to think
about how the computer revolution has dramatically changed all that? The
first stop for people who want to get from Point A to Point B is usually MapQuest or Google Maps. Did you know there are mapmakers who are unloading
shelves and barrels full of maps from the '60s, '70s and '80s at must-move
prices - 25 cents to a buck or two each? A spokesperson for AAA of Northern
California said the auto club will hand out more than 5.2 million paper maps
this year. That's down 14.6 percent from 2001, she said. Many are reluctant
to forecast that paper maps will ever go away completely.
>
For more information…
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RESOURCE
SPOTLIGHT
Working with Cross Sections in ArcGIS
GIS Weekly Review
September 17-21, 2007
CrossView Earth Surfaces for ArcGIS from A-Prime Software, is a new
cartographic tool for ArcGIS users that allows users to do topographical and
subterranean cross sections at a cost effective price point. A-Prime
Software is a newly launched division of DPRA with a focus on developing
unique technologies to assist with their outreach, production management,
and data analysis that work directly within the ESRI platform. DPRA is a
government contractor tasked to aid in large-scale environmental restoration
efforts. A simple and intuitive platform, CrossView is also the first among
many wizard-based upgrades to the ArcGIS platforms that A-Prime Software has
planned for the future.
>
For more information…
New District Graduation Rate Map Tool
edweek.org
The Editorial Projects in Education Research Center is proud to announce a
powerful new online mapping tool to help the public, policymakers, and
educational leaders combat the graduation crisis.
For the first time, comparable, reliable data on graduation rates are
readily available for every school district in the country.
>
For more
information…
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FEATURED ARTICLE
NVision Solutions Adds
Staff to Meet Growing Base of Clients
NVision Solutions, Inc., is pleased
to welcome new staff members Jamie Hughes, Shelia Reed, Aaron Gibson, Nate
Coolidge, Suzanne Shean, Jeff Hudson, Jason Weick, John Nielson, and Tara
Cross who recently joined the company to serve NVision’s growing client base
using ESRI’s ArcServer 9.2 as well as Oracle and other technologies to build
next generation GIS applications.
Aaron Gibson |
Jessica Herr |
NVision currently works onsite at two FEMA
offices in Mississippi and Florida. NVision also has staff onsite at the
Mineral Management Service in New Orleans, LA. In addition to these
enterprise ESRI and Oracle installations, NVision supports the National
Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), the Naval Facilities Engineering
Command Atlantic Division (NAVFAC), Applied Enterprise Solutions, and 3001,
Inc.
NVision continues to grow to support these and other clients developing new
enterprise GIS applications that provide new capability with integration of
legacy systems.
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Jamie Hughes holds a degree from the
University of Southern Mississippi and is a graduate of the NASA Develop
program, He joins NVision as a 3-D Feature Extraction Specialist.
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Sheila Reed has a degree in Computer
Science and Applied Mathematics from Alcorn State University and has
over a decade of experience in the Information Technology field and will
specialize in database support.
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Aaron Gibson received a B.S. in Computer
Science from the University of Southern Mississippi and will provide GIS
web application development for NVision’s customers.
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Nate Coolidge received his Computer
Science degree with a minor in Mathematics from the University of
Southern Mississippi and is trained in developing ArcGIS Server 9.2
applications for both the .NET and Java frameworks.
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Suzanne Shean comes to NVision as a GIS
Specialist with extensive and diverse experience in GIS, Remote Sensing,
Web Application Development and a Master’s degree in Urban & Regional
Planning.
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Jeff Hudson is a member of the Oracle
Technology Network and is certified in Oracle Architecture and
Administration and received and Associate degree in Computer Information
Systems. Jeff is joining the NVision team as an Oracle specialist.
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Jessica Herr has a Bachelor’s degree in
English from the University of Southern Mississippi and recently joined
NVision as a Technical Proposal Writer.
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Jason Weick received a BS in geography and
brings a strong background in GIS and Image Processing to NVision’s 3-D
Feature Extraction and GIS teams.
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John Nielson received a BS in Mathematical
Sciences and comes to NVision as a GIS Web and Remote Sensing
Application Developer.
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Tara Cross comes on board with an
undergraduate degree in Geography and a Masters degree in Geography. She
joins NVision’s new 3-D Feature Extraction Team.
The knowledge, experience, and skill of these
new NVision team members will continue to grow NVision’s reputation as a
nationwide, award-winning leading integrator in the geospatial technology
industry. For more information about NVision Solutions, Inc., visit
www.NVisionSolutions.com
CONFERENCE
SPOTLIGHT
Memphis Area
Geographic Information Council Presents the 7th Annual MAGIC GIS Day
Conference
Date: November 13, 2007
Time: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Location:
Holiday Inn - University of Memphis
3700 Central Avenue
Memphis, TN 38111
> Register online
The Keynote topic will be "The Effect of a Major Earthquake on the
Infrastructure of the Mid-South." Keynote speakers are Jim Wilkinson,
Executive Director of the Central United States Earthquake Consortium, and
Gary Patterson, Director of Education & Outreach for the Center for
Earthquake and Research Information.
The cost to attend the luncheon is only $45, $20 for Students. (Those
individuals registering for the Public Safety Session will be provided a
lunch.)
Individuals registering for the student lunch rate or the free ticket
without lunch must present a valid student ID when they pick up their
conference ID badge.
If you are a past member who has not paid for the 2007 calendar year, please
do not mail in a membership application. You will still have to register for
the Conference. Applications for 2008 will be accepted at the Conference and
anytime up to March 31, 2008.
Anyone interested in being an Exhibitor or Sponsor please contact Vic Young
at 901-748-1811.
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
Nano-Satellites - Future of the Future
Russia-InfoCenter - Moscow, Russia
Small space crafts are already
widely used for Earth remote sensing, ecological monitoring, earthquake
predicting and studies of ionosphere.
Call For Moratorium On Spy Satellite Program
Scoop.co.nz - New Zealand
The use of geospatial information
from military intelligence satellites may turn out to be a valuable tool
in protecting the homeland.
Nano-Satellites - Future of the Future
Russia-InfoCenter - Moscow,Russia
Small space crafts are already
widely used for Earth remote sensing, ecological monitoring, earthquake
predicting and studies of ionosphere.
Google Earth helps uncover tax fraud
GIS Development
Argentina's tax authorities are
using Google Earth's satellite to track down fraud. According to Buenos
Aires province tax official Santiago Montoya, images of properties from
the sky can help square the actual size of properties with that declared
by taxpayers to make sure the proper amount of taxes is being paid.
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EIGS IN THE NEWS
Schools Choose Digital
Quest
Mississippi Business Journal -
September 17, 2007
Ridgeland, MS, --
Digital Quest, Inc. and SkillsUSA are pleased to announce the gold medalist
in the Postsecondary Geospatial Technology Challenge at the SkillsUSA
National Leadership and Skills Conference and Competition that was held in
Kansas City, Missouri.
>
More information
Nvision Solutions, The Boeing Company, And Navteq Have Created A
Cop System For Emergency Management
Geospatial Solutions - September, 2007
NVision
Solutions, The Boeing Company, and NAVTEQ worked together and jointly
developed a web-based emergency management system- referred to as HazNet.
The system gathers incident reports collected with GPS-equipped handheld
computers, conveys the data via a cellular or satellite wireless network to
an emergency operations center, maps the incidents, and provides emergency
personnel with a real-time common operating picture (COP). In a recent
interview with Geospatial Solutions, Craig Harvey, CIO of NVision Solutions
and Joel Lawhead, a program manager for the company talked about the
components that comprise the system.
>
More information
ESRI Joins Digital Quest, Inc., and SkillsUSA to Honor Student's
...
DirectionsMag.com (press release) -
Glencoe, IL, USA
June Garneau of
Berlin, New Hampshire, earned a gold medal in the Postsecondary Geospatial
Technology Challenge, receiving ESRI's ArcView software and ...
>
More information |
