topic Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT in Esri Training Questions

Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

AdenaSchutzberg1 — Wed, 22 Nov 2017 18:48:43 GMT

Event details:

What: Join instructor John Shramek, course host Linda Peters and Education Manager Joseph J. Kerski, Ph.D., GISP for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) live on the GeoNet Community in the Location Advantage MOOC group. Ask the panelists anything about the topics covered in the course and any fun, interesting and thought-provoking questions.
When: The AMA event will take place in this discussion thread (right on this page!) on Thursday November 30 , 2017 from 12:30pm-1:30pm PT.

How to participate:

During the AMA, if you are logged into GeoNet (here's how to log in with your Esri credentials), you can post your questions in the comments below and the panelists will reply to your questions in the comments.
You're welcome to post questions ahead of the AMA but we won't begin answering them until the AMA begins on November 30th at 12:30pm PT.

Reminder: AMA Tips and GeoNet Community Guidelines

You will need a GeoNet account (uses Esri credentials) in order to ask questions. If you do not yet have Esri credentials, get them right away; it can take a day or two to process the request.
When asking questions and making comments during the AMA, remember to follow the GeoNet Community Guiding Principles.
During the AMA this discussion page will not auto-refresh, so please remember to refresh this page to see new questions, comments and replies.

You'll know the AMA is live when you see a picture below with John, Linda and Joseph. From there on, remember to refresh the page to see our updates and new questions and comments.

Thanks for joining us and we'll see you on Thursday!

12:30 pm - And we're live! Go ahead and ask your questions!

1:00 pm - We're halfway through, Great questions! Keep them coming!

1:25 pm - Five minutes to go! Got any fun questions for Joseph or John?

1:30 pm - Overtime! We'll take your questions too during this bonus 10 minutes!

1:40 pm - And that's a wrap! The live AMA has ended but Joseph, Linda and John will continue to answer questions as schedules allow. Thanks for joining us and asking great questions!

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

HeatherJones — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:33:31 GMT

I graduated with a Bachelor of Liberal Arts degree a few years ago. What advice would you give someone like me, who didn't specifically study Geography, on how they can get into the GIS field?

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

AdenaSchutzberg1 — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:38:16 GMT

If I'm just opening a new small business (a small gym), what's the simplest way to take advantage of a tool like Business Analyst? How can I get the quickest return on investment?

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JosephKerski — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:38:21 GMT

Hi Heather. That is a great question. There are 2 main databases of GIS programs ... one is the Guide to Geography Programs in the Americas from www.aag.org - and the other is the list and map maintained by geotechcenter.org. I would say that you are already doing 1 key thing - being active in taking courses, like this MOOC. The other thing you can do is (1) go through some of the lessons on http://learn.arcgis.com and (2) explore some of the GIS tutorial books on www.esri.com/books. Then, I would say, be active on LinkedIn with the GIS groups, attend a F2F conference or two each year if you can such as a state event or the Esri UC, subscribe to scgis.org or a state GIS listserv, which are often filled with GIS positions, and also ... think about perhaps taking a certificate program in GIS offered by a community college or a university. I'll cut it off there but happy to fill in more details. --Joseph Kerski

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

LindaPeters — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:38:24 GMT

Hi Heather,

Thanks for the great question. I didn't start out my career in GIS either, but once I understood the power I went back to to study GIS. There are many great online courses like this MOOC that can help you sharpen your skills. I would suggest you think about how you might like to apply GIS, look for a company that needs these skills and go market yourself! There is incredibly high demand for graduates who understand how to think spatially.

keep thinking spatial!

Linda

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JavierGamero — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:41:01 GMT

I am not sure if this is the right place to make questions but I am a business student. I am from Honduras. The Choosing the Right Location and Understanding customers sections were awesome but I wonder, ArcGIS and Business Analyst provides data for my country?

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:42:05 GMT

Hi Heather - I would say, GIS is often a field that is used to complement another career or industry. In other words, many people who use GIS wouldn't say it's their job, or even their field. It's great for applying to almost any other industry, from insurance to IT to oil & gas. So, you could take free or paid GIS courses, in person or online, at a college or other providers, and integrate it into your own career of choice. It, IMO, is more about getting the GIS Technician-level skills, and maybe a certification, than about needing to pursue another degree or something.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

LindaPeters — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:42:37 GMT

Business Analyst will allow you to better understand the market you want to open up in as well as the customer base. I would explore the data using the techniques learned in week 4 - know who your target customers are and how best to reach them.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

LindaPeters — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:44:42 GMT

Javier

You can look at Esri Demographics | Explore Data and see all the different types of data available.

We have data for over 100 countries and counting!

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:45:04 GMT

Javier, we have data in Business Analyst for over 135 countries. And, ArcGIS Online has millions of data layers, if you use the Add button in the map, and search 'ArcGIS Online'. In Business Analyst Web, click the country flag icon at the top right of the map, and change the country dataset to Honduras.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:49:15 GMT

Adena, great question. Business Analyst can be used for very quick, dynamic analyses, or for more in-depth, long-term, trend analyses or similar as well. In Business Analyst Web you can use the Color-Coded Map to look at the differing levels of a single variable to quickly to get a look at the demographics or market characteristics of an area where you may be thinking of locating. Or, you can use Smart Map Search to filter and compare up to five variables. Use these to either decide on the best potential area to locate in, or look at the types of consumers who may live in the area you're already located, for marketing purposes.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Jia_ChengZhu — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:54:16 GMT

Hi to all! I am a user from China and it's about 4:30 AM here.

My questions are

* could anyone hear or know about an example of using ArcGIS tools for social studying, as their data may be not as accurate as the economic data? In the discussion forum of the course, I saw many people's use are neighborhood oriented, not dealing with big data like labor statistics but in small scale. How will GIS tool make an impact on local communities?

* Usually in China, we as citizen see the governmental report in the compiled format with the rough numbers instead of detailed attributes of target areas, I am thinking of tracking them in lists of data, could you give me some pieces of advice in this kind of reversing engineering the data using ArcGIS tool?

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JavierGamero — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:55:10 GMT

What about tapestry segmentation if I wanted to know socioeconomic and demographic composition of a place? I mean, I am not really sure what methodology was used in order to get data, moreover, there are many places a bit forgotten here.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

LindaPeters — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:56:00 GMT

Javier - here is another link - that lets you browse country by country:

doc.arcgis.com/en/esri-demographics/

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JeanMegope_Foonde — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:56:53 GMT

1- I have been using ESRI products for quite a while now. I wonder why ESRI keep multiplying separate applications such as Bathimetry, Business Analyst online...

2- Some Parts of the world have very little(resolution) if not coverage at all on some ESRI products. What steps are you taking to reduce the coverage divide?

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

LindaPeters — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:59:09 GMT

Jia -

Thanks for the great question. I would suggest you look at the National Statistical Bureau website for China. Typically these agencies do have in different areas including population and housing, labor, unemployment and more.

You may have to do some work to compile this data for analysis, but it would let you study at sub-national levels.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 20:59:29 GMT

Javier, Tapestry is a great dataset, but at the moment we only have it built out for the US. Esri invests a lot in collating great datasets like this, and we're working continually on improving coverage all over the world, so hopefully soon we'd have a similar product for Honduras. Without it, there is still census data for most countries to get insights on demographics and socioeconomics. Here's a link to the for Tapestry, scroll down just a bit to see links for the methodology:

Tapestry Segmentation—Esri Demographics | ArcGIS

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JosephKerski — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:02:51 GMT

Greetings Jean: Great question. The resolution and types of data vary widely around the world. I used to work at data gathering institutions (US Census Bureau, USGS, NOAA) and those agencies still exist, churning out data, but not every country has agencies like that, or if they do, the data is sold OR you have to pay royalties on it OR it is simply not releasable to data users. The good news is that there is an open data movement happening for about 10 years now that has resulted in more data being available now than ever, and Esri works actively with organizations to help them serve their data, and we host some in The Living Atlas of the World. We write about these issues on http://spatialreserves.wordpress.com every week. But - you are correct - there are still significant gaps and I suspect there always will be.

--Joseph Kerski

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

Anonymous User — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:03:18 GMT

Which geographic region has the best coffee in your opinion? If you can provide lat/long too that would be great.

Re: Location Advantage MOOC AMA (Ask Me Anything): Thursday Nov 30, 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm PT

JavierGamero — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 21:05:26 GMT

When you do that, please let me know how I can cooperate.