Author: maryellenkennedy

Many public works organizations have made a large investment into gaining and deploying a Geospatial Information System (GIS) to track their spatial assets, maintain historical records and sustain an accurate inventory. GIS data provides invaluable information to these asset management organizations. Whether your organization has utilities, parks and recreation, roads, bridges, signals or facilities, a…

Cities and counties across the nation are having to catch up to the new wave of open data requirements that society expects. As a result, constituencies across the nation want to know what the city is doing, how much it is costing the taxpayers and in what condition the infrastructure in their area is. Unfortunately,…

There has been an explosion of popularity in crowdsourcing and sharing – we’ve seen ridesharing and even homesharing, and you may have heard of all manner of projects being funded via websites like Kickstarter and GoFundMe – these microloans can give instant momentum to entrepreneurs who may not be able to launch their ideas otherwise….

You are probably already familiar with IoT (Internet of Things) by now because you may own a device like a smart home assistant, a cloud-based thermostat, a webcam-equipped refrigerator or maybe even a doorbell with a video camera inside. If you don’t own one of these devices the odds are pretty good that you know…

You probably have more projects in your backlog than you can afford. How do you prioritize them? Once you do, how well can you defend your plan with actual data? Don’t forget to think about risk management: how uncertain are you of the outcomes, and what is the likelihood of a loss? What’s the deal…

Over the last few decades, there have been plenty of examples of organizations who make their own custom, in-house applications to solve their specific problems and to capture and manage their data. These solutions often work great for a while, but they inevitably fall apart when the individuals who create them move on, when security…

All too often, asset intensive organizations spend a great deal of time and effort collecting data that is never used, or, even worse, they don’t collect the data they need to make effective decisions. Not all data is created equal. Sometimes, your collected data will permit you to see your organization’s efficacy, while other times…

Undertaking a GIS software upgrade can be a daunting task. Sometimes, it can take time to get everything together and cleaned up to ensure a smooth transition process. It tends to be difficult to ascertain what benefits you will receive from upgrading your GIS to the latest and greatest version. In fact, the worry stems…