State Agency Reviews Policy On Facebook Prying

This social media story comes from Maryland, where the Maryland Department of Public Safety is reviewing a policy requesting permission to view new hire candidates Facebook page.

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G-I-S State of Mind

Those of you may remember the G-I-Yes!!! video from a few years ago that the Austin, TX GIS department put together. Well the very talented and funny group have returned with another very funny GIS satire on a popular song.  Enjoy!!!

Have You Taken The URISA 2010-2011 Salary Survey Yet?

URISA is now collecting data for the 2010-2011 Salary Survey. If you want to participate, just click in the link below and answer the survey!

http://www.urisa.org/2010_salary_survey

Feel free to spread the world about the survey by sharing this link with others!!!

URISA says "Thanks!!"...

URISA's Vanguard Initiative

URISA is pleased to announce its inaugural Vanguard Cabinet.

The Vanguard Cabinet (VC) is a new URISA initiative to engage young GIS practitioners, increase their numbers in the organization, and better understand the concerns facing these future leaders of the GIS community.  The VC is an advisory board made up of URISA young professionals who represent the young membership of the organization.  The Cabinet’s mission is to collaborate with URISA’s Board of Directors and Committees in creating and promoting programs and policies of benefit to young professionals.

See the entire announcement: http://www.urisa.org/vanguard

A GIS Journey - What GIS Is

Geographic Information System (GIS) software uses the power of geography, spatial location to gather, analyze, and visualize vast amounts of information. See how this innovative technology can be used to investigate the fascinating lands of Asia.

Social Media: Organizational Policy of Use

The social age has arrived!  Even if you try to stay away from social media, it’s unavoidable that others will do the same. Phrases like “friend me” for Facebook, or “follow me” for personal, industry and corporate blogs have become commonplace. “Liking” or rating your level of satisfaction or agreement with an article, a service, or a product became common practices embedded as part of our daily routine.  The latest we have heard about both private sector and government utilizing social media is Law Enforcement’s utilization of Facebook to deliver Amber Alerts and President Obama’s use of lingo from several social media sites during the latest State of Union address. Social media is unavoidable. Sooner or later we all will be there directly or indirectly.  Social media is emerging as a whole new frontier for the GIS community and the possibilities for outreach and community involvement are expanding rapidly.  Through technological advances organizations and companies are able to reach a larger and more diverse population, enabling new marketing strategies and creating new opportunities to involve their target audience and gain feedback. Technology is evolving quickly and the entire industry is seeing the benefits. The channels to enable an easy and effective way to share ideas, communicate, and discuss trends changed forever the speed and the ways things are done. Many of us have started conversations about social media and are arriving at the critical juncture that occurs with emerging technologies, “How do we use social media?” “What are the impacts of using social media (personal, professional, organizational, policy)?”.   While on the surface this may seem like a very straightforward question when you consider how social media sites work it can quickly become a more complicated discussion.   It becomes a discussion of not only how to use social media but in what ways as an organization, or a professional or even the average person should use it.  Social media in its very nature has a way of obscuring the fine line between a professional and private persona.  It is in the organizations best interest to clarify this line if possible to ensure that everyone understands clearly when using social media as part of an organization outreach if the response is of the individual or if it is part of that person’s professional responsibility.  This discussion is already being considered by many social media sites.  In January of 2011, the social media site Facebook altered its terms of use to become friendlier to governments in the hope to increase use by those public entities.  As social media sites continue to be used to reach out and communicate, organizational policies will become increasingly important. Bottom line it is that it’s recommended that organizations and companies have specific policies about the use of social media in an attempt to draw a more defined line between the persona and the professional that shares a comment, like or participate in social media forums. When is the individual no longer the professional and vice versa? Answering “the professional is the 8 to 5 individual” lately is not always considered to be accurate. The recommendation is that any policy of social media usage is better than no policy. What is your organizations policy in regard to social media?  Has one been discussed, if so do you know what it is?  Let us know by sharing your comments on our BLOG or LinkedIn groups.  Written by Claudia Paskauskas and Keith Smith

Day on the Job: GIS Analyst

Wesley Catanzaro is a cartographer and Geospacial Information System (GIS) Analyst for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He uses GIS technology to gather and organize information in order to improve pedestrian infrastructure. Part of ConnectEd's Day on the Job series, Wesley discusses his daily duties and the knowledge needed to be a Cartographer and GIS Analyst.