38 GIS COMMUNITY NEWS International Users Focus on Today’s Challenges “Geo Learning” A column by Daniel C. Edelson, Vice President for Education, National Geographic Society Professionals Find GIS Solutions for Real-World Problems “It’s of utmost importance to bridge the gap between countries and continents,” says Esri president Jack Dangermond. “The end result: what stems from our events abroad reaches far and wide and makes great strides in designing our future for the better. It’s important for our users to realize that and be part of it.” Year-round, Esri distributors work to put on international GIS user conferences, providing convenient gatherings throughout the world for professionals to join forces in creating a stronger, more sustainable future. Esri Latin America User Conference Puts Geography in Action The 2009 Latin America User Conference (LAUC) is being held October 7–9 in Bogota, Colombia, at the Cosmos 100 Hotel. As the leading event for GIS users throughout Latin America, it brings participants together from across the continent and beyond, including GIS practitioners, managers, educators, developers, and business owners. Attendees are able to create networks of contacts to help in their GIS work—from Esri staff and business partners to industry leaders and peers— as well as receive guidance on how to launch and grow successful GIS projects. The Plenary Session kicks off the conference with examples of how GIS is being used to make a difference in the world. Dangermond is scheduled to give the Keynote Address and, along with other presenters, discuss trends, strategies, and the most significant efforts Esri is making to enhance GIS and benefit users. The LAUC agenda is geared to provide as many Esri resources as possible, including plenty of technical topics, realworld examples, and insightful presentations provided by the user community. The Map Gallery further illustrates how the power of place is being utilized throughout Latin America. More information about the conference is available at www. procalculoprosis.com/lauc09. Esri European User Conference Focuses on Geographic Awareness The 2009 European User Conference (EUC) is dedicated to users throughout Europe and is being held October 14–16 at the Vilnius Congress Concert Hall and Reval Hotel Lietuva in Vilnius, Lithuania, the European Capital of Culture 2009; this honor gives the city a chance to showcase its cultural life and development. The conference theme “GIS: Geographic Awareness” sets the tone for the event’s preconference seminars, paper sessions, technical workshops, and other activities that discuss how to best apply geography and technology for measurable results in any market. Attendees are able to increase their GIS skill sets; access helpful tools; and delve into special topics, from saving money and IT integration to best practices in mapping, cadastre, natural resources, urban development, telecommunications, and more. During the Plenary Session, Dangermond talks about the future of Esri GIS. Additionally, Esri staff members who create the ArcGIS software suite give updates on the most recent capabilities and techniques. Participants are offered a range of sessions and workshops. There is also a Gala Dinner at Belemontes, an old country estate situated on the Vilnia River. More information is available at www.esri.com/euc. Esri Middle East and North Africa User Conference Offers Key Resources The 2009 Middle East and North Africa User Conference (MEAUC), which will be held November 10–12 in Manama, Bahrain, at the Diplomat Radisson SAS Hotel, is designed to be a valuable resource for users in the Middle East and North Africa. Professionals in any industry and at any level of experience with GIS technology will be able to explore project issues and discover how to achieve more GIS-driven results in their organizations and societies. Attendees will hear from Dangermond; learn about the latest real-world GIS applications that solve unique problems and address recent trends; gain time-saving tips and tricks that further GIS investments; and be able to build relationships with other users, as well as Esri staff and business partners. From executives and managers to GIS and IT end users, participants will be able to strengthen their GIS knowledge and skills. Important resources, such as technical workshops led by Esri product managers and paper sessions on successful GIS applications, will provide many ways to get cost-saving ideas or solutions to technical questions. Visitors can meet one on one with Esri staff, hear from industry leaders on how to best leverage GIS in today’s changing world, and connect with their peers on how to use GIS best practices to address changes in different markets. More information and online registration are available at www.esri.com/meauc. Esri Asia Pacific User Conference Aims to Extend Location Intelligence The 2010 Asia Pacific User Conference (APUC), combined with Esri Australia Pty. Ltd.’s 2010 client conference (OZRI), will take place March 3–5 in Queensland’s Gold Coast, Australia, at the Conrad Jupiters hotel. The new combination will provide a larger forum for users to cover a lot of ground in their understanding and skill building as well as collaborate with their peers. “GIS: Extending the Reach” is the conference theme, recognizing that GIS has evolved from being seen as a tool to simply pair location and information to being acknowledged as a serious business system that delivers real benefits. The program will delve into three streams focused on how location intelligence solutions are making it easier to widen and deepen the reach of GIS, whether it is across the globe, throughout a business or department, or in projects of any size. With delegates expected from many countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, this event offers a valuable venue for professionals to share how their organization or community is applying GIS. Users are invited to tell their GIS story at the conference, communicating how they have pushed boundaries to extend the power of geospatial intelligence and helping numerous others learn from real-world GIS experiences. Presentation abstracts may be submitted at www.esriaustralia. com.au/esri. More Information For a complete list of Esri events worldwide, visit www.esri.com/events. GeoMentor eo Mentor.o r Making a Difference in Geo-Literacy G Psychologists who study mood have found that your sense of control over external events plays a big role in determining your mood. I believe this explains why so few people choose to get involved in education. In a set of classic psychological studies, researchers observed that feeling unable to control events is associated with a depressed mood. How does this apply to education? When most of us look at the shortcomings of our educational system, we feel little power to influence events. We do not feel that we can make a difference. That’s depressing, so we tend to turn away and devote our energies to something where we can feel what psychologists call internal locus of control. It doesn’t have to be that way. There are many things that we can do to improve education, particularly if we focus on the areas where we can make a difference. For the GIS community, the place where we can make a difference is in the area that I call geo-literacy, the slice across the science and social studies curriculum that depends critically on geographic analysis. Together with Esri and other organizations, National Geographic is creating opportunities for geographic professionals to make a difference in education and experience an internal locus of control. At the 2009 Esri International User Conference in San Diego, California, Jack Dangermond, president of Esri, introduced the new GeoMentor program (geomentor.org). This program helps GIS professionals find a classroom where they can make a difference in geo-literacy. It operates as a Web-based matchmaking service between GIS professionals and teachers. It also provides a structure to help two professionals who work in very different spheres collaborate successfully. The idea behind the GeoMentor program is to eliminate the obstacles to volunteering in a school that undermine an internal locus of control. Without the GeoMentor program, a well-meaning GIS professional would likely become mired in thoughts like, I don’t know how to find a school to work with. Would a teacher want my help? What could I even do? The response to the GeoMentor program at the User Conference was overwhelming. More than 850 attendees came by to talk to the National Geographic Education staff at the booth in G eo r the Map Gallery. More than 200 attended one of our workshops Mentor.o on how to be a GeoMentor. If you think you might be interested in working with a K–12 teacher to bring more geo-literacy learning into his or her classroom, you should visit the GeoMentor Web site. There you will find instructions on how to find and work with a teacher in your area (or elsewhere, if you and the teacher are comfortable with online collaboration). You will also find specific ideas for how you can work together, ranging from helping the teacher obtain resources for geo-literacy instruction to coming to the classroom to help teachers implement lessons that involve mapping or GIS. Everything that a GIS professional and teacher need to establish a successful geomentoring relationship is available on the GeoMentor site. Volunteering in schools is not for everyone, though. So we’ve created another way for GIS professionals to make a difference in education with an even lower barrier to participation. The National Geographic Society recently created the Fund for Geo-Literacy to enable concerned individuals to contribute money to our efforts to improve geo-literacy education. The fund supports the GeoMentor program and other geo-literacy programs for teachers and students. If you are not able to volunteer your time right now (or even if you are), you can make a difference in geo-literacy education with a contribution to the Fund for Geo-Literacy. Contributions are used to create and distribute free classroom materials and to support professional development programs for teachers. A gift of $25 is enough to cover the cost of providing teacher guides and maps to five teachers participating in the GeoMentor program. A gift of $100 can cover the cost of one day for a teacher from anywhere in the country to participate in a five-day workshop at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C. Our goal in establishing the fund is to give people who understand the importance of geo-literacy an opportunity to include support for geo-literacy in their annual charitable giving. These donations are important. As the National Geographic Society is a nonprofit organization, external grants and gifts are necessary to support our geo-literacy reform initiatives. Between these options for volunteering and giving, National Geographic and Esri are trying to increase opportunities for the community of GIS professionals to develop an internal locus of control when it comes to education. We want you to experience the feeling of having an impact. Working in our favor is the fact that locus of control is subject to positive feedback. A positive experience increases one’s sense of control, which, in turn, motivates more effort. So, whether volunteering or donating is the appropriate place to start for you, I urge you to choose one. You can make a difference. GeoMentor g More Information For more information, contact Daniel C. Edelson (e-mail: dedelson@ngs.org). Visit the GeoMentor program at geomentor.org and National Geographic Fund for Geo-Literacy at www. nationalgeographic.com/foundation/geographic_literacy.html. g