Project Managers' Meeting exposed to landuse monitoring by QGIS

Waiting for my turn

Mesyuarat Pengurus Projek didedahkan kepada pemantauan gunatanah oleh QGIS

Semalam, saya dijemput untuk memberi taklimat di Mesyuarat Pengurus Projek anjuran jabatan saya di Penang tentang kebolehan QGIS untuk memantau pembangunan gunatanah. Ianya dihadiri oleh semua Pengarah Projek, Pengurus Projek, Pengarah Negeri/wakil. Sudahlah subjek GIS teknikal, tambah pula diikuti dengan topik yang mendalam dan waktu yang agak 'berat' (3:30ptg), maka tidak terkejut saya semasa menerangkan proses step-by-step dilihat semua pengarah-pengarah keluar dan seorang tertidur. Hanya 2 soalan dibangkitkan: Mengapa saya memilih kawasan kajian tersebut dan apakah perbezaaan antara PostgreSQL RDBMS dan analisis spatial oleh QGIS. Pertamanya, saya menjawab tidak mudah nak mencari data 'bersih' dan kawasan kajian tersebut cuma merupakan the 'best'. Kedua, saya menerangkan kebolehan RDBMS untuk menangani isu one to many dimana perisian GIS sama ada open atau close source tidak boleh menangani dan memandangkan data tepat perlu dikumpul, maka adalah wajar dipertingkatkan penyimpanan data GIS mngikut cara tersebut. Saya masih memikir mengapanya tiada respon. Mungkin taklimat saya sungguh hebat, mungkin ianya terlalu teknikal bagi pengurus projek, mungkin ini bukan pengkhususan mereka atau mungkin mereka takut bertanya kerana boleh menonjolkan kelemahan masing-masing. Apa jadi pun, saya percaya taklimat saya adalah baik. Sebelum saya keluar, sempat saya bertanya 5 orang antaranya yang lansung tiada latarbelakang GIS dan semua menjawab mereka faham saya. Mesyuarat tersebut penting bagi saya kerana ianya menunjukkan janganlah pandang rendah tentang Open Source GIS tapi sekurang-kurangnya cuba guna lah dulu.

Project Managers' Meeting exposed to landuse monitoring by QGIS

Yesterday, I was invited to brief my department's Project Manager's Meeting at Penang on how QGIS has the ability to monitor landuse development. It was attended by all Project Office directors, project managers and state directors or their representatives. The subject GIS was technical further compounded by a indepth subject and it was already a dry 3:30pm so when I went through the process step-by-step I was not surprised to see all the directors leave and someone doze off. Only 2 questions were asked: Why I chose that study area and what was the difference between PostgreSQL RDBMS and spatial analysis by QGIS. I replied firstly, it was not easy to find 'clean' data and that study area just happened to be the 'best'. Secondly, I explained the importance of RDBMS at addressing one to many issues which GIS software open or close source cannot handle and since accurate data needs to be collected, it becomes necessary to upgrade GIS data storage to this level of data collection. I am still thinking why there was hardly any response. Maybe my presentation was par excellence, may it was too technical for project managers, maybe it was not their expertise or just maybe they were too afraid to ask because it could show their ignorance. Whatever it is, I believe I did well. Just before I left, I asked 5 people, one of whom did not have GIS background and all replied they clearly understood me. To me, this was a very important meeting because it shows one not to look down on Open Source GIS but should at least try first.