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The Data Czar: NYSAPLS 53nd Annual Surveyors Conference and Exhibition
This year the 53rd Annual New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors held their conference in the beautiful city of Saratoga Springs, NY.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | January 17, 2012 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Crafting a Strategy for the Professional Surveying Company
Jack Welch, iconic business leader and transformer said – ‘Strategy means making clear cut choices about how to compete’. In his book ‘Winning’, he explains that the key to success is picking a general direction and implementing the ‘HE- double hockey sticks out of it.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | October 18, 2011 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Enterprise GIS - A Preamble
Geography has ascended to an increasingly important role in today’s organizations. Geography enables spatial thinking and establishes the framework that GPS and GIS tools use to mold location into patterns for business critical consumption.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | September 13, 2011 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Data Reviewer
In the business of quality assurance one requires a meticulous demeanor. From a data quality standpoint - identifying the defects or errors in data is a primary first step.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | June 13, 2011 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Deregulation & HB-5005 - An Economical Perspective
The HB-5005 caused quite a commotion over the last month in Florida, especially amongst the four thousand plus Professional Surveyors and Mappers residing in the state, placing at odds those for and against deregulation.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | April 11, 2011 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: GIS at the NYSAPLS Conference
The New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors (NYSAPLS) 52nd Annual Surveyors Conference and Exhibition was held Wednesday 19th through Friday 21st of January 2011 at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York. The conference was exceptionally hosted and despite the snow storms and economic backdrop – was well attended.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | February 7, 2011 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Quality is a Decision
Quality is a decision - a decision based on a desired outcome. When it
comes to data, GIS data in particular, it is as the saying goes -
garbage in – garbage out. As project pace picks up and milestones turn
into deadlines, it is easy to overlook the relevance of data quality as a
front line mechanism in assuring purposeful data.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | December 3, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Super Voter
GIS is a versatile technology. Its power to decisively transform ‘vanilla’ maps into layered arrays of points, lines, polygons, backed with information, and infused satellite images produces ‘mashups’ that results in a multitude of choices that decision makers that can find useful.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | October 26, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Oil Spill - Deja Vu
Within just six months, two explosions have occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. There needs to be more stringent safety standards and policies to be enforced and ultimately consequences and penalties for those who blatantly disregard them.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | September 8, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Gulf of Mexico Data Access Center
In this age of transparency and heightened environmental awareness, it is essential to provide the public – both laypeople and professionals alike – GIS data that will allow everyone to understand the horrendous effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
by Darron Pustam MBA, GISP | August 12, 2010 | Comments (0)
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Data Czars: Data and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
Twenty days after the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and sank into the Gulf of Mexico, I received an e-mail from Andrew Stephens (Drew), founder and director of the GIS Institute, a nonprofit organization that combines GIS support, planning and training around the world. Drew was heading to Houma, La. – a small town 60 miles southwest of New Orleans – to offer his support, and he invited me to join him. I agreed.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | June 9, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Developing a Life Cycle for GIS
One of most significant constituents in the structure of any business is its information systems. Information systems are critical mechanisms that support an organization's strategic goals. To keep projects on track, on time and on budget, adherence to the software life-cycle process is crucial.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | April 19, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Social GIS
GIS always seems to meander its way into our lives in one way or another. The latest is its infiltration into the social media realm. With hundreds of millions of users, the marketing potential is phenomenal.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | March 22, 2010 | Comments (2)
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The Data Czar: Cloud Computing
The emerging trend of cloud computing can deliver both SaaS (software as a service) and HaaS (hardware as a service) to consumers who can realize a benefit from shifting their capital expenditure into an operational expenditure. Is your company ready to relinquish your systems and IT infrastructure to an application service provider?
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | February 18, 2010 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: The Shapefile Genre
There is a generation of differences between GIS and CAD users of yesteryear and those of this new decade. One of those differences is the use of shapefiles. Although the modern alternative, a geodatabase, has existed since ArcGIS 8.0, the structure and concept of that contemporary form is still foreign territory to many.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | January 13, 2010 | Comments (5)
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The Data Czar: Putting Reports in Their Place
Reports are part of the lifeblood of a company since they play an instrumental role in the functioning of business processes. But look closely at the link between the reports and the processes. Which one is derived from where? As technology gives us the ability to look at information in multitudes of ways, it is essential to establish business processes first and then engage reports to support those processes.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | December 22, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Protecting Our Children
Following the tragedy in Clay County, Fla., last month, I can't help thinking about the role of technology in protecting our children. GPS devices made specifically to track the location of children exist. But can we really protect our kids with GPS technology? And what about the GPS devices used by law enforcement officials to track convicted offenders? Can such technology keep predators away from our kids?
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | November 10, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Tips & Tricks - The Windows Key
We spend a considerable amount of time on our computers. Knowing shortcuts in navigation can help minimize that time, especially during multitasking, which I am sure is a regular for each of us around the office. Here are a few tips using that infamous Windows key that we all seem to bypass on our keyboards.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | October 22, 2009 | Comments (4)
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The Data Czar: People vs. Technology
We change daily as we grow, as we gain new experiences, and as we develop as humans. The software and hardware that we work with also change continuously. Synchronizing the two--people and technology--becomes a tug–of-war with each side demanding superiority and our fully focused attention.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | October 5, 2009 | Comments (2)
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The Data Czar: Rebranding GIS
GIS technology is becoming so integrated with other systems that it could lose its definition or even morph into an entirely new brand. Are you prepared to participate in the new GIS?
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | September 16, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Socializing Data
Does the sharing of data come down to socialism? Is the stigma of technological egalitarianism preventing the growth of GIS by politically stifling the sharing of data on a federal, state and/or local plane?
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | September 2, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Harnessing Your Data
A datum is used as an established point of reference for the purpose of meaningfully measuring, synchronizing and positioning data. Without a reference point, measurements are relatively insignificant. It is the same for our data. Without centralized storage, our data are often so scattered across our folders, desktops, servers and collectors that they become unrelated and meaningless.
August 19, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Bringing GIS Back Home
It is no wonder that geographic information systems and surveying are in a state of turmoil over supremacy. The information-conscious among us seized the opportunity to manipulate the data left on the servers, and the birth of geographic information systems began. As this realization occurred to the surveyor, the battle to regain control of collected data ensued.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | August 5, 2009 | Comments (3)
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The Data Czar: Finding the Birthplace of Your Data
By uniquely tagging each piece of data in a process, we can do almost anything and have a permanent record of that action and how it relates to other processes. We can pin down the birthplace of each piece of data—how it was created, who created it and what format it was created in. When each piece of data is created once and tagging it uniquely, we can ensure that it is routed efficiently through the rest of the system.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | July 20, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Diagramming Your Processes
Once you have a thorough understanding of your user data needs, the next step is to begin mapping the major workflow process in your organization from beginning to end. To build efficient and timeless processes, data must flow smoothly from process to process and do so from a single source.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | June 23, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Breaking Down User Data Needs
Users give a general idea of the type of solution they need. However, their responses, as anyone else’s, are based on their beliefs, experiences, areas of expertise and personal agendas. It is therefore important to direct user responses toward the data by asking the correct questions
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | June 10, 2009 | Comments (0)
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The Data Czar: Getting Over the Ownership Mentality
Channeling data with a bird’s eye view of our organizations' strategies and processes as well as those of the wider community will lead us on a journey of new discoveries rather than down the beaten path of ownership resolution.
by Darron Pustam, MBA, GISP | May 27, 2009 | Comments (3)
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