Category Archives: Atlanta connections

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The Tableau Experience

  November 20, 2014 , , ,

Today I attended “The Tableau Experience.” I’ve been struggling with what to call it: a conference, a convention… It had only one speaker, and a Q&A – and a wet-bar.  So… I’m settling with ‘experience’ as they do. What it really was though, was an advertisement. Don’t get me wrong – I like using Tableau to recreate charts for the Tobacco Ebook I’m working on, and this ‘experience’ was worth it for several reasons: 1. The speaker demoed several ways to share data that I haven’t seen in action since I’ve only been using it to create charts for data sets that are already created for me.   2. There were a lot of people there from many different kinds of institutions.  I met others from universities like me – Georgia Tech, Gwinnett College, and so on. But I spent most of the time schmoozing with a lady from Home Depot, and then talked briefly to a man from a company called Norfolk. Everyone was using Tableau for something different – I’m pretty sure I was the only one making an Ebook. 3. I was able to ask about that pesky issue Ryan Cagle and I have been having in trying to get the distance between pane tick marks and labels to be exactly the same in all our charts so they’re uniform within the Ebook. Sorry, Ryan – there is no way to do this. The guy I asked said your idea was the smartest. Overall, I’m glad I went to … Continue reading

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Servers and SIF Longevity

  November 17, 2014 ,

This post will be a short update of some of the challenges I have run into with services available to students on campus in relation to servers and Esri’s ArcGIS. I’ve been working on two projects this semester which pair historical maps and planning documents for the city of Atlanta with present day data using Esri’s ArcGIS Online. One of the limitations of ArcGIS Online is that you are not able to host raster images on the Esri servers-you need to host them on your own servers. Server upkeep and support for ArcGIS was previously provided by a the technical advisor/GIS coordinator in the Department of Geosciences. For a number of reasons, this position is currently empty within department and, to my knowledge, there is no one at any level of campus providing the necessary support to GSU’s established GIS. Since the completion of these projects hinges on the ability to host this data and given the mission of CURVE for supporting the research and digital digital scholarship of students, I think it would be appropriate to explore possibilities of a server being available to students as a service of CURVE. This topic brings to light an interesting aspect of SIF that I had not previously considered–longevity:longevity in the sense that a project can continue once the current SIFs have graduated and moved on. To “continue” just doesn’t apply to a scenario where it has not yet been completed and the torch needs to be passed for the completion to be achieved-continue also means understanding how … Continue reading

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Changing the dialog around sustainability

  November 5, 2014

Yesterday, I spoke on a student panel for a conference that centered around issues of sustainability.  There were speakers from various universities (including President Becker from GSU), company heads, interested scholars and a diverse group of other individuals all with a vested interest in integrating and sustaining green systems into our schools, our work and our daily life. Many of the sessions were informative and enlightening, but what I enjoyed the most is when all 4 panelists (emory, ga tech, spellmen, and myself) came together with other interested participants to discuss specifically ways we can share our resources and knowledge to further the goal of sustainability on campus and around Georgia. We were able to exchange ideas, ask questions on how others have implemented certain programs with success, and discuss in general some innovative ways to approach the issues facing sustainability without falling into the trap of sounding like a “liberal, tree hugging hippie”. Now,  I say liberal, tree hugging hippie with love because that’s what many of my southern family members think of me.  I work in urban gardens, I buy organic food, I try to stray from overly processed and chemical based products, I recycle and I strive to include green development in my thesis work and future plans for a career.   The problem is that in this country, and especially in the south, sustainability is too broad of a term that many times is disregarded or resented because of its association with things that might be … Continue reading

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Integration and Finalization

  October 30, 2014 , , ,

This week has been truly and completely hectic. However this hectic schedule was not because of our work at SIF but due to our midterm examinations. Almost all our examinations and assignment submissions were due this week. Luckily, everything went well and we were able to do a good job. Coming to the work part, we have discussed about the possibilities of integrating online deliberation mapping tool with the Desire 2 Learn system. However, after having a discussion with Chad, we have realized that the integration is not a possible option. D2L is a closed system where additional features cannot be added by third parties. There can only be external communication between the tools and the desire 2 learn system. So, the possibility of Online Deliberation mapping tool getting integrated with Georgia State University’s D2L system is ruled out. Now moving on to the design part of the Online Deliberation mapping tool, we are following a process for taking a product or feature from design through prototyping, which we call as product design sprint. This design sprint follows a simple process of 1)Choosing and understanding the problem 2) Mind mapping 3)Writing Story boards and 4) Critique and Super Vote. The major goal of the Online deliberation mapping tool is to provide asynchronus conversations between professors and students. Since the problem which includes a platform for sharing ideas, developing and promoting ideas has alreay been clearly defined, we could well proceed to the mind mapping. The mind maps is a kind … Continue reading

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Inspiration from TEDxPeachtree: SIF Symposium

  October 30, 2014 , ,

Its here. Midterms. As the academic calendar continues to progress, midterms allow you the awareness of “further than we were, but not yet where we need to be” in classes and projects. The same mindset has been being applied to SIF as I had my first small group checkin yesterday. Myself, Ryan, Sruthi, Roxanne, and Valerie all met with Brennan to check in on project progress and the overall SIF experience so far. Because I had not not even met some of these SIFs before, (I’ll remind you that I was not at the SIF kick off meeting in August since I was still living in DC at the time) I really enjoyed that we got to spend a large portion of our time together simply sharing in detail who we are, what projects were were assigned to, and providing an overview of the details of each project and its current status. What was most enjoyable about this was, when these SIFs spoke about their roles and objectives, you could see their faces light up with excitement. And when you hear about their projects, it is easy to see why. My SIF colleagues are working on really meaningful projects that utilize technology in innovative ways. Ah ha. Just what we’ve been striving for all along. But that is my honest reflection towards these projects. People are excited about the work they are doing because it simultaneously interesting, challenging, and best of all-creating a useful end product. This same theme was … Continue reading