Upcoming Events
Past Events
Media Archive
Registration History
|
|
NERCOMP EVENT
Virtual Globes: GIS 2.0
 Printer Friendly Version
|
Virtual Globes are being used increasingly by the news media; federal, state and local agencies; teachers; commercial agencies, and by people of all ages for personal use. A Virtual Globe is a three-dimensional software interface that allows users to observe and manipulate representations of the Earth or other worlds from a variety of views over the Internet. Users can often customize their own Virtual Globes by adding place makers or other geographic information such as satellite imagery, buildings, roads, demographics, etc. Virtual Globes have enormous potential for incorporating spatial information and spatial reasoning within a learning environment. A variety of Virtual Globe products and applications will be presented followed by a discussion of the various technologies.
Workshop Organizer/Host: Patrick Florance of Tufts University
Date/Time:
Friday, January 19, 2007
9:00am - 3:15pm
Registration begins at 8:00am
Location:
Southbridge Hotel and Conference Center
14 Mechanic St.
Southbridge, MA
Click
Here for a Map
Click Here for Directions
Special instructions:
Pricing:
NERCOMP Members: $111
Non-Members: $211
By clicking on the "Register" button below, you are indicating a commitment to attend and will be held responsible for the registration fee.
Your fee can be refunded if you notify us of a cancellation at least 8 days prior to the event via email to nercomp@nercomp.org.
|
Additional Information
Event Schedule:
8:00am – 9:00am Registration and Coffee
9:00am – 9:55am NASA World Wind, Open Source 3D Visualization Platform
Speaker: Chad Zimmerman, Free Earth Foundation Board Member and Active Contributor to World Wind
NASA World Wind is a fully extendable 3D geospatial visualization platform. This freely available tool provides absolute security and unlimited extendibility that will readily service any data delivery needs due the fully accessible nature of the open source code. Specialized extensions can be *readily* built to service any requirements, while you continually benefit from the increasing sophistication of the open source core application. Additional features and functionalities will continually be made available by others, whether free and open source or via commercial enterprise. This presentation will cover the World Wind application, how to add and view custom imagery / data into World Wind as well as its uses in education.
9:55am – 10:55am Release the Hounds! Using Google Earth in the Classroom
Speaker: Jon Caris, GIS Specialist, Smith College
Google Earth holds great promise for Educators at all levels. Surprisingly, Google just recently (October 2006) developed a resource page for educators, although many GE community sites have sprung up since its release in summer 2005. Are educators adopting GE as rapidly as we suspect, and if so, how are they using it in the classroom? Are best practices emerging that make GE suitable and easy for classroom use? What the decision points in choosing to use GE rather than a GIS to present and explore spatial relationships?
We will discuss these issues and in the process decide if GE is the next killer application for educators. We will explore many examples (please bring your own to share!) of how GE is used in liberal arts colleges to illuminate strengths and perhaps some weaknesses of using virtual globe technology in the classroom. We will also sort out the role of students in using and developing GE applications.
10:55am – 11:05am Break
11:05am – 12:00pm Placing 3D Models into Google Earth
Speaker: Neal Hirsig, Senior Lecturer, Assistant Director of Instructional Services ITS, Tufts University
Google Earth is a stand-alone application which displays satellite imagery of the earth’s surface. With the recent Version 4 (Beta) release, it is also possible to incorporate user generated, textured 3-dimensional models within the Google Earth environment providing a geographical context to the 3D artist's creation. Google Earth's 3D companion software, Sketch-up, incorporates tools to easily place 3D models within Google Earth. However, the Google Earth application itself allows 3D artists using a wide variety of modeling software to import 3D information in (COLLADA) .DAE format. Google Earth then exports the model information along with its Google Earth context in (Keyhole Markup Language) .KMZ format. This .KMZ file can then be distributed and opened locally in anyone's Google Earth application.
This presentation will examine the “3D model to KMZ” file creation process and includes:
- 3D file considerations (objects, orientation, scale, shading, colors and textures)
- Collada Export .dae - (contents and settings)
- KML/KMZ – (Creating folders, Placemarks and information windows)
- Displaying and sharing KMZ files
During the course of the presentation I will demonstrate this file creation process using a textured Blender model of The Mayan Temple of Kukulkan, Chichén Itzá, Mexico; demonstrating the Collada export process, importing the model into Google Earth, creating Google Earth overlays and placemarks and finally exporting the KMZ file.
12:00pm – 1:00pm Lunch
1:00pm – 1:45pm An Experiment in Migrating Data and Applications to Google Earth
Speaker: Robert Chavez, Manager, Tufts Digital Repository Program, Tufts University
Edwin C. Bolles, professor of English at Tufts College (now Tufts University) in the late 19th century, assembled a substantial focused collection of materials on Victorian London. These materials include conventional print sources as well as folio descriptions of the city, contemporary 19th century maps in various shapes and formats, illustrations and prints from the 17th through the 19th century, all of which capture a record of how the Victorian era British represented the city.
In the 1990s the Perseus Project and Digital Collections and Archives at Tufts University built a web-based map interface (using University of Minnesota's MapServer) to facilitate access to the Bolles Collection materials. Users can explore London (modern, Victorian, or 18th or 17th century) within the web application while the interface reveals the geographic context of the additional materials in the Bolles Collection.
With the advent of Google Earth and the Tufts Digital Repository, it was decided to attempt to move the current Bolles Collection geospatial dataset into a format that could be easily managed in a digital repository, and also easily accessed and imported into a rich geospatial environment such as that of Google Earth.
This presentation will discuss the process of migrating data from an existing web-based mapping system to Google Earth and will explore use of Google Earth not only as a geographic information tool, but also as a vehicle for accessing non-geographic, contextual information from external systems, such as a digital repository.
Discussion points include:
- several methods of working with ESRI shapefiles, raster, and tabular data in Google Earth
- tools for converting data types to KML and the implications of such a conversion
- using Google Earth as a general access and teaching tool for the Bolles Collection materials
- methods of integrating the data presented in Google Earth with external resources such as the Tufts Digital Repository
- experiments in access and delivery of the Bolles project dataset with various Google Earth Enterprise Solutions
1:45pm – 2:30pm What's Next in Web Based Mapping
Speaker: Matthew Davis, Regional Manager, ESRI – Boston
This talk will outline what ESRI considers to be a complete system for authoring, serving, and using Geographic Information Systems on the Web. The presentation will cover new web based mapping functionality that goes beyond visualization to offer rich GIS capabilities and promotes collaboration across disparate communities. New tools and technologies allow for fusion of geographic information from distributed systems both server side and client side providing very powerful tools to share, explore and communicate geographic knowledge. GIS' can also be integrated with other systems using standard IT protocols allowing organizations and individuals to further leverage their knowledge and investments.
2:30pm – 3:15pm Breakout Discussion Session
3:15pm End
Speaker:
Chad Zimmerman
Chad Zimmerman has been a member of the Open Source community of World Wind uses since October 2004, founding board member of the Free Earth Foundation founded in 2006. He is active in development of the Earthquake Plug-In for World Wind and has created several scientific add-ons. He works closely with the NASA World Wind team to help bring data into World Wind from governmental sources in the US and Europe. He is currently working on projects to help bring World Wind into the classroom and is working with and giving presentations for the Rendezvous Center in San Diego,
California. Graduate of New Mexico State University he currently works and lives in Michigan.
Speaker:
Jon Caris
Jon Caris, born in Spain, raised in suburban American, and a Vermonter at heart, Jon is trained as a geographer and environmental planner. In previous incarnations Jon was a solid waste planner in southeast Vermont before bootstrapping himself into a GIS professional. During the transition from garbage to maps, Jon spent five years developing a GIS Service Center in Southeast Vermont and fours years as president and co-founder of Cartographic Technologies, Inc., a small innovative GIS company in Vermont. He also served as the first private-sector board member, appointed by Governor Howard Dean, to the Vermont Center for Geographic Information.
At one time he was on schedule to be employed at each of the 5 colleges (UMass, Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith), but now seems settled in as the GIS Specialist at Smith College in Northampton, MA. Jon’s main responsibilities are maintaining the Spatial Analysis Lab as part of the Environmental Science and Policy Program and to teach and support spatial thinking.
Speaker:
Matt Davis
Matt Davis is the Regional Manager of ESRI's Northeast region covering upper NY State and New England. He has over 18 years experience in GIS working with the Department of Defense, state and local government entities, as well as private companies representing many industries. Matt received his BS degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Hampshire.
Speaker:
Neal Hirsig
Neal Hirsig has been teaching courses in 3D Design at Tufts University for many years. Two years ago he switched from 3D Studio Max to Blender as the primary software employed by my students. Since then, Neal has developed a rather comprehensive set of online learning materials which focus on understanding the basic Blender functionality and strategies for applying Blender modeling to a creative design challenge. This online material is now available on the Tufts University OpenCourseWare site: http://ocw.tufts.edu/Course/28/Coursehome
As many of his students are from the architectural and archeological disciplines Neal became extremely interested in the Google Earth application as a means of displaying 3D models depicting both contemporary and ancient structures in a geographical context. Blender’s current support for Collada export unlocks vast possibilities for 3D visualization of this material and the need for 3D artists to understand the various processes available in the Google Earth KML markup language.
Speaker:
Robert Chavez
Robert Chavez is project manager of the Digital Repository Program at Tufts University overseeing the development and management of the Tufts digital repository and applications for disseminating digital content. Robert also serves as technology manager for Tufts Digital Collections and Archives providing guidance and support digital content development projects . Robert previously worked with the Perseus Project as a developer and GIS specialist and continues to work in interest in web-based GIS systems.
Related Media Files:
NERCOMP_ArcGIS_Explorer_Handouts.pdf
NASA World Wind (Use Of World Wind in Higher Education) - Chad Zimmerman.ppt
Contact Information:
Lisa DiMauro
860-345-2081
ldimauro@wesleyan.edu
Hotel Information:
Please call the Southbridge Hotel directly at 508.765.8000. The room rate is $119.
Technical Requirements:
|
|
NERCOMP reserves the right to use any photographs or other mechanical recordings taken at NERCOMP events in promotional materials.
No mechanical recordings of any kind may be used at NERCOMP events without the prior written consent of NERCOMP organizers and presenters.
The views and opinions expressed at NERCOMP events do not necessarily reflect those of NERCOMP, nor does NERCOMP make any representation regarding the information presented at NERCOMP events.
|
|
|
 |
|
EDUCAUSE
Read more about our affiliate organization, EDUCAUSE
and how we all work together to further the cause of using technology to
improve academia....
|
|
|
|
NERCOMP 2010 Annual Conference - Register Now
Monday, March 08, 2010
NERCOMP 2010, "The Next-Generation University: Rethinking IT in Disruptive Times."
Whether your...
|
|
|
|