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SDI Events Roundup – May 2016

Published Date
Author Gordon Plunkett

Get a recap of the Canadian Open Data Summit 2016, the Esri DevSummit and first GIS and Policy event, and learn about upcoming SDI events in this month’s roundup.

Here’s a roundup of events happening in Canada and globally related to spatial data infrastructures (SDI). You’ll also find insightful reports from recently held SDI events that you may find useful for your own projects.

Esri Developer Summit presentations & videos now available

Didn’t manage to make it to the March 8-11 Esri Developer Summit this year? No worries, all the innovation and insight from the DevSummit is now at your fingertips. View and download user presentations and stream select videos from the tech sessions. Shown above is the DevSummit keynote by Douglas Crockford, JavaScript luminary, who spoke about JSON, the future of programing language and the difference between Star Trek and Star Wars.

Canadian Open Data Summit 2016 (CODS16): A great success

Among the CODS16 delegates were New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant and other federal and provincial MPs. There was a full house of attendees and delegates were treated to a packed agenda of experts and open data leaders. The Open Data Leader of the Year Award was presented to Dr. Tracey Lauriault from Carleton University in Ottawa. Other award winners included: Scott Hardy (Edmonton), Chris Kershaw (Strathcona County), Elaine Dawson (BC) and Bill McKay (Surrey).

First GIS and Policy event held in Washington, DC

Esri’s policy team recently hosted the first GIS and Policy event in Washington with nearly 100 policymakers attending to learn firsthand how the growing policy community uses GIS to inform and disseminate public policy. Recently, the U.S. Library of Congress expanded its web GIS services, including cartographic maps, geodata and interactive web maps. This shared geospatial analysis enables policy makers to identify how features intersect with proposed policy, and sometimes how those features intersect with a member’s geography.

Upcoming Events

Big Data: What is it? Technology and Applications Workshop
June 1, 2016
Ottawa, ON

CCA 2016 Conference – Imagery to Map
June 7-9, 2016
Winnipeg, MB

37th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing
June 7-9, 2016
Winnipeg, MB

TECNOVATE 16 – Where Innovation Happens
June 22, 2016
Calgary, AB

About the Author

Gordon Plunkett is the Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) Director at Esri Canada. He has more than 30 years of experience in GIS and Remote Sensing in both the public and private sectors. He currently sits as a member of the Community Map of Canada Steering Committee, GeoAlliance Canada Interim Board of Directors, the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Technical Committee, the Canadian General Standards Board (CGSB) Committee on Geomatics, the University of Laval Convergence Network Advisory Committee and the Advisory Board to the Carleton University Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre. During his career, Gordon has worked on projects in more than 20 countries and has contributed to numerous scientific conferences and publications. At Esri Canada, he is responsible for developing and supporting the company’s SDI vision, initiatives and outreach, including producing content for the SDI blog.

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