Graduate on time: See your advisor regularly

This one goes out to our currently enrolled students:

The Star-Ledger reported this weekend on the relatively low 4-year graduation rates at many of the schools in New Jersey.  As the article points out, one of the many reasons is difficulty in getting into required classes.  One of the best ways to avoid this is to meet with you advisor regularly. S/he knows how to plan ahead, some times multiples semesters in advance of the problem, to avoid getting stuck.  

Grand Challenges for GIScience?

In response to a call from NSF May Yuan, the new president of UCGIS, has written an open response on the Grand Challenges of GIScience over the next 10 years. All told, 100 were submitted.

Snow Day: Public Processes

Today, despite relatively poor attendance, we talked about some different forms of participation.  Examples that Steiner mentions include:

• Task Forces
• Samoan Circles
• Delphi Technique (and Policy Delphi)
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Visual Preference Surveys (pdf)

We also talked about trying to figure out the "problem" with complicated situation after watching this short video:

Sandy River Flood from alexandra erickson on Vimeo.

Spring 2011 Speaker Series

United States of Shame

Someone has made a map highlighting each state's shame.

Intersting conference: Space and Flows

SPACE AND FLOWS: AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN AND EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
Monash University Prato Centre
Prato, Tuscany, Italy
17-18 November 2011
http://spacesandflows.com/conference-2011/

Following the success of our 2010 conference at the University of California, Los Angeles the 2011 Spaces and Flows Conference will take place in Prato, Italy. Prato is located in the Tuscany region of Italy, a short train ride from Florence and close to the Florence airport. Prato has yet to be transformed by mass tourism, even though it is in a beautifully preserved Italian Renaissance city. Historically home to a thriving textile industry, Prato has seen an influx of immigrant workers in the last 20 years. This juxtaposition of the local-historical with the global-hypermodern makes Prato an excellent location to discuss human spatial conditions in global flows.

This conference aims to critically engage contemporary spatial, social, ideological, and political transformations in a transitional world. In a process-oriented world of movement, the global north and global south now simultaneously converge and diverge in a dialectic that shapes and transforms cities, suburbs , and rural areas. This conference addresses the nature and mapping of these forces and the dynamics that propel these changes. The conference also examines and defines the myriad of different spaces that make up our contemporary world, including urban, edgeurban, de-urban, micro-urban, greenfield, and off-the-grid.

In addition to plenary presentations, the Spaces and Flows Conference includes parallel presentations by practitioners, teachers, and researchers. We invite you to respond to the conference Call-for-Papers. Presenters may submit their written papers for publication in the peer reviewed 'Spaces and Flows: An International Journal on Urban and Extraurban Studies'. If you are unable to attend the conference in person virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for referring and possible publication. You also have the ability to upload your presentation to the Space and Flows YouTube playlist. Please sign up for our monthly newsletter http://spacesandflows.com/ideas/newsletter, and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 17 February 2011. Future deadlines will be announced on the conference website after this date. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. Full details of the conference, including an online proposal submission form, may be found at the conference website: http://spacesandflows.com/conference-2011/ .

GIS keeps growing

A new report out last week shows how quickly the GIS economy keeps growing, even in down times. The head reads "GIS/Geospatial sales up 10.3% to US$4.4 billion Growth forecast to top 8.3% in 2011" but the content gives some real insight. It isn't just the recent growth, but the future growth in apps, imagery, phone apps, and enhanced uses of geospatially enabled CAD.

Lecture: Paul Keyes, 'Estates at Alpine, Alpine NJ"

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Paul Keyes

Wednesday, 1/26 at 4:00 pm,

Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall

Estates at Alpine, Alpine NJ

The Estates at Alpine Development is a subdivision of the 60-acre estate formerly owned by Dr. Henry Clay Frick. The developer, Richard Kurtz, purchased the estate for $58 Million and subdivided the property into individual parcels leaving the original estate on 20 acres. The first home in the development was constructed on speculation and is on the market for $68 million.

Paul Keyes Associates designed and styled the development entrance as well as the landscape and gardens for the primary residence. I also managed the installation and construction of our design work which included locally mined hand carved granite walls, custom iron gates and lights, granite paving and mature plantings. Richard was extremely passionate and involved with the design and details. It was another great opportunity to work closely with a fun client and the results were spectacular. I’ve always said that my best ideas come from my clients and this is certainly a prime example.

Paul Keyes  graduated from Rutgers University in 1989 with a B.S. in Environmental Planning and Design and a minor in Ornamental Horticulture. Paul continued his education by Graduating from Montclair State University with a M.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Education.Paul established Paul Keyes Associates in 1996.

For more information see: http://www.paulkeyes.com/index.html

Atlantic Crossing on WNYC

Rutgers had a nice showing on Leonard Lopate Friday, with Scott Glenn and Dana Seidel talking about the new movie abut the Atlantic Crossing. 

Arcosanti

A couple years ago I finally got to visit the formerly futuristic commune-like Arcosanti.  This is Paolo Soleri's dream of how we could build future cities, although it was also a living experiment in how to incrementally advance the forms and ideas of a such a place as a self-sustaining community.  And since it was in the desert of Arizona, sustainability is especially difficult.  My visit was limited to an hour or two, so I was interested in reading someone else's account of a recent visit in PlaNetizen. 

Talk on Changing Land Use Rules

Wednesday morning (the 23rd) the Hunterdon County Planning Board is hosting an early morning talk on the changes in the timing rules in New Jersey's Municipal Land Use Law.  This "coffee with the County" event should have some pretty serious discussion of a topic that may sound minor but has the potential to alter day-to-day planning in New Jersey.

Quote of the Day

"Nature abhors a straight line"

- Capability Brown

A new memorial

The new Rosie the Riveter Memorial has opened in Richmond, CA.

Great project site

The web site is up for Holly Nelson's Senior Studio investigating the Salt River Bay on the island St. Croix, VI.  The representations of the site include creative studies of both the land and people:

But it also includes more spatially explicit studies of the site.

And soon it will include the final design the students presented to the National Park Service and partner institutions.

Another great MLK Day link

The City Fix talks today about Public Transportation as a Civil Right.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr Day

This video of the I Have a Dream speech includes not only one of the great American speeches, but some compelling shots of the areas around the Lincoln Memorial.




The work at the MLK Memorial site continues, so you might want to check out this virtual tour:

Scientists explain why are students are failing

Too much research.

Best Building in NYC?

Places' Mark Lamster asks, What is the Best Building in NYC?  The comments, still growing, are pretty good.

A different sense of scale

Ogle Earth has a link to a news article that reports that Google Earth has had over 800 million activations.  That is pretty amazing.

Jack Dangermond at TED

Since there aren't many Landscape Architects talking at TED, we are extra excited to see GIS and LA represented in Jack Dangermond's TED Talk on GeoDesign. Go team!