Free Online Mapping Classes From PSU and Coursera

Course dates: Last updated on 12/16/2014

Penn State has an online Open Web Mapping Class for free using open source software.  The course materials are available at: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog585/ through a creative commons license. You can also take the paid version of the online course for credit.  Coursework includes QGIS, GDAL, OGR, GeoServer, TileMill, Openlayers, and OpenStreetMap.  Penn State also has several map-related classes on Coursera.

Coursera has at least six relevant classes to GIS, GPS, and more during this upcoming fall 2014 and winter 2015 sessions.  Please note some of the courses do offer different tracts that range from basic to technical in difficulty.  This fall and winter there are exciting course offerings!

Introductory

• Maps and the Geospatial Revolution, March 25, 2015 (Penn State)
• Geodesign: Change Your World, July 8,2015
• Or sign-up for future sessions, just click the drop-down for the date.  You will get an e-mail announcement

One course is on Geodesign

• Geospatial Intelligence and the Geospatial Revolution, January 14, 2015 

Intermediate-Advanced

• From GPS to Google Maps to Spatial Computing, Just finished, next session TBD (University of Minnesota)

Another is on GPS, mapping, and spatial computing

• An Introduction to Satellite Navigation, with an interactive Worldwide Laboratory using Smartphones, Just finished, next session TBD (Stanford University)

• If you have a programming background checkout Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems, TBD (University of Maryland College Park).

Other-related

• Epidemics the Dynamics of Infectious Disease, TBD (Penn State)
• A small part of the course involves using GPS data generated over the course of a MOOCDEMIC or mock epidemic.

Also don't forget, ESRI does have some free and low cost tutorials for ArcGIS on their training page as well: http://www.esri.com/training/main.  Be sure to checkout Directions Magazine's articles and webinars for other opportunities.

If anyone else has any that they would like to share, feel free to write them in the comments section below!

Update #1:  Noteworthy addition:  ESRI is offering a free MOOC or massive open online course entitled "Going Places with Spatial Analysis".  Head over to the link below to signup for notification when registration begins, which is shortly: Going Places Signup / Start Page

QGIS 2.0 Dufour on a Nexus 7 Tablet

An update for readers of last year's post about QGIS on a Nexus 7 tablet/slate.  In this post, I will  cover downloading, installing, and using QGIS on a Nexus 7 Tablet (1st Generation, 8 GB) running Android 4.4.2 KitKat.  This is the same tablet I used last year.  Keep in mind this tablet's touchscreen is only 7 inches.  Larger tablets are on their way, with a 12" Samsung tablet already available.

You will also gain an understanding of what additional apps you will need to make the experience as smooth as possible.  Lastly, I'll discuss the strengths and weaknesses of QGIS on this particular tablet.

QGIS on Android is a work in progress.  Since many people may try installing QGIS for Android on their own tablet, a friend's, or even a work device, proceed at your own risk. To date: I have not had any problems with installing QGIS on my tablet.

Downloading, Pre-Install, and Installation

• Before installing QGIS, make sure your device has enough space for installation (~600 MB) and downloading at least a few GIS-related shapefiles or rasters.  On mobile devices, storage can run out really fast.
• Head over to the QGIS for Android page and select the "Download" link, then click the link for QGIS installer at the top of the page to download the *.apk or Android Application Package.
• You will also have to download Ministro which is available on Google Play.

To make your QGIS experience even better also download a file explorer app, such as File Manager, and a de/compression app like EasyRar or ZArchiver --since GIS files are really a set of files that work together. Clicking on the screenshots below will enlarge them.

A screenshot of an unpacked shapefile in File Manager

After downloading the APK, head to your download folder and follow the onscreen instructions.  Installation will take a few minutes.  QGIS will appear as a little green android icon with a Q on its stomach.  After starting QGIS, you will be greeted with the familiar loading screen and tips.

Using QGIS
When using QGIS on a tablet, you may want to consider un-checking the "render" button until you are ready for your map to be displayed.  You will  also notice a "canvas rendering" progress bar while maps are rendering.

For this post, I visited the National Atlas page in my tablet's Chrome browser and downloaded several tar files.  Next, I navigated to my "Download" folder on my device, extracted then to a new folder, and then unpacked the contents.

A Single Vector Layer
Even on a small tablet,you can see a lot of real estate...

 Unemployment Rate 2009, by County

Raster and Vector Data
Like a desktop GIS and QGIS on desktop, you can begin to create eye catching and more complex map products--with multiple layers, data types, and labels.

Hawaii, cities, volcanoes, and risk of lava flows, transparent, overlaying imagery. 

Metadata 
Metadata, important regardless of where you do your GIS work, can be viewed using several different programs, below using Android's text editor:

Saving a Map
One esoteric step is when you go to save a map or *.qgs file.  You will have to add the file extension ".qgs" to your filename to be able to successfully save your map. Otherwise, the "save" button will not be available.  (I am currently looking through the bug listings to see if this is already a known issue.)

Impressions 
Good with improvements over earlier versions.  Overall, installing, importing data, symbolizing it, and other basic features of QGIS 2.0 are easy to implement on a small seven inch tablet.

However, you will need patience working on a seven inch screen and there are limitations.  For example, some slide bars for large drop down menus were too thin to select, even with a stylus.  Reordering layers was almost impossible using this small touchscreen.  The map composer was also too difficult to use and did not display well.  Crashes are rare and generally occur when the user performs several different actions very close together in time or sequence.  Performance will vary depending on the device you use.

Newer tablets have increased processing power, memory, and storage--all of which should help performance.  Given the rapid rise of mobile, having a free desktop GIS on tablet so soon is a big achievement!  Later this year, I plan to get a larger tablet--which should improve the ease of use with QGIS. I will be sure to install QGIS for Android and give it another go!

Happy New Year!...What's Ahead This Year...

What can you look forward to from the Open Source GIS Blog--in the year ahead?  Well I hope to get the New Year off to a good start by finishing some R code for cleaning messy address fields. 

Most importantly, I will be featuring more ArcGIS vs. Open Source GIS "showdowns/throw downs"--comparing similar features in paid vs. free and open source GIS software, focusing on spatial analysis and other features.  These are one of my favorite posts to write but usually take the most time to create.  Here, you can check out one past post about kernel density in ArcGIS vs CrimeStat. I cannot guarantee open source GIS will win every time, but the journey will be fun!  In addition, we will be taking a look at download and using Landsat 8 data.  I also plan on posting more book reviews on books about open source GIS and other relevant topics.

Announcement:  If you are interested in Android App Development, check out the Coursera course "Programming Mobile Applications for Android Operating Systems" from the University of Maryland.  I will taking it and hope to see you there!  The course is free.  However, Coursera offers a Verified Certificate for $49--which may be worthwhile for professional development.  The course beings on January 21st, and lasts 8 weeks, so if you are interested get registered now!  Check out the video below!

I started this blog about two years ago...this will be third year!  Each year, I try to post higher quality information so stay tuned.  By the numbers, a few statistics:

• The blog has had a modest 5,700 page views since its first creation in February 2012. 
• Viewers have come from many different countries. 
• The most frequent users hail from my home county of the US, Latvia (real or bots/spam?), Germany, UK, Russia, France, Canada, Australia, China, and India.  However, many different countries have viewers including: Brazil, Portugal, and South Korea, and the list goes on! 
• There have been 56 posts - each with an important piece of information, software, analysis, web map, or links to great resources.
• By browser: 35% of page views have been in Firefox, 27% from Chrome Browsers, 23% from Internet Explorer, and the remainder from other mobile browsers.
• By operating system, most users are using Windows (74%), Mac (8%)--with reminder from Linux and mobile OS.

If there is something you would like to see on the blog, feel free to write in the comments below.  Again, happy new year!

QGIS on Nexus 7 Tablet

Update: For a more recent post on installing QGIS 2.0 onto a Nexus 7 Tablet, please visit: 
http://opensourcegisblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/qgis-20-dufour-on-nexus-7-tablet.html

Original Post:
Recently, I went to the QGIS website to check out the most recent version of QGIS for Android.  Note: This is a project in process and it has some limitations. Install at your own risk!

To download and install QGIS for Android visit here.  Note some files do not contain all assests/files for all devices.  For my Nexus 7 Tablet, I found the correct installation files here: http://www.opengis.ch/2012/11/21/new-qgis-workaround-version/

My tablet is WiFi only, but one can easily imagine the applications in the field with the added functionality of GPS.  I wanted to test how responsive it would be, so I loaded a shapefile of all census tracts in Maryland.  It was fairly responsive but did take several seconds to load.   Since many GIS files come zipped, you will also want to download an app for unzipping files.

For someone who has only used GIS software on a desktop, it is a joy to be able to navigate, zoom, and idenity by touch.  A screenshot appears below.

QGIS for Android on a Nexus 7 Tablet

Mobile GIS Apps

A number of GIS and related apps are worth checking out in the Apple App Store/iTunes or Google Play (formerly, Android Market). Many are free or low cost. 

• ESRI has a free ArcGIS mobile app for iOS and Android that allows you to access maps created on ArcGIS.com.  This app continues to have increased functionality and its future looks bright.  ESRI has a few other apps geared towards specific topics, i.e. business and health.
• iGIS is an interesting app that I hope to use more.  Right now, it is free to download.
• Geograph apps provides a relatively low cost way to view to geologic information for various states.
• A Google Earth app with related imagery also exists

Presumably, when Windows 8 is released later this year, we should see GIS apps on that new platform. As some Windows tablets will be able to run regular Windows programs, running a full GIS like GRASS or QGIS off an inexpensive consumer tablet should be a certainty. 

Many other GIS-related apps, even if just data viewers, are popping up: from flood plain apps to earthquake information. There are also many GPS and navigation apps ranging from a few dollars to some of the most expensive apps you will find anywhere.

Lastly, both iOS and Android Development kits are free or low cost. ESRI and Google also offer ways to tap into their maps and map services (for free and fee-based) to bring geospatial information into an app that you create!