GeoDev Germany Blog - Page 2

Hey fellow geo geeks.

Last week we have been hosting our last geodev meetup for this year. The topic this time was "The Power of Scripting" and it was all about automating your work, be it analysis or administrative talks. It turned out that December 6th (aka Santa Claus) was not a perfect timing, so many thanks to those of you who made it anyhow! And for those of you who couldn't make it, don't worry, we've got you covered with recordings.

Chenyu Zuo, TU München: Mining traffic information from social media data

Social media has become prevalent in the last decade. People publish various topics, for instance food, work, traveling, sports, health, on a variety of social media platforms on a daily basis, which reflect a wide range of socioeconomic phenomena and human behaviors. The rich social media data can also be used for traffic information extraction and analysing. For example, where and when do people complain about public transport services? How is traffic congestion related to traffic accidents? Which kinds of people activities are related to traffics. Ming such information is very interesting and challenging. In this talk, we hope to provide you solutions for events extraction from textual data and innovative ways of geo-data analysing.

Jan Wilkening, Esri Deutschland: R for GeoGeeks - The Interface between R and GIS

Interesting things happen at the interface of GIS and the popular scripting language R: GIS users can profit from the broad range of publicly available R scripts, while R users can profit from the power of user-friendly GIS. This talk shows GIS users what R is and how they can use it for their daily work. For those more familiar with R, the talk will also highlight how R users can enhance their R routines with GIS.

Alexander Erbe, Esri Deutschland:The ArcGIS Python API

The powerful ArcGIS API for Python lets you script and automate tasks in ArcGIS using a Pythonic library. With the Python API, you can streamline data analysis, content management and web GIS administration. This lecture will give you a brief overview of the possibilities based on some practical examples, e.g. the convert of OSM data using the OSM API to ArcGIS feature services.

Enjoy your christmas break! 

Alex and Lars

Geo Developers‌Python‌GIS Developers‌ a.erbeesri-de-esridist‌ https://community.esri.com/groups/esri-deutschland-partner-community?sr=search&searchId=4e07ff40-e3e...‌

Wherever many people come together, challenges arise. Both in outdoor areas, but especially within buildings, it can quickly "bump" somewhere. This is not uncommon in major events such as concerts or sporting events with several thousand visitors. But even with a few hundred people, the single toilet can be crowded before, or provide a lecture room not enough space for all participants.

Would not it be nice to be able to see live on a map of the building, how crowded a specific place is, if there is still space available, and whether it is worth taking the road at all?

And would not it be nice for the organizer to always have an up-to-date overview of the utilization of individual areas of the building during the event, and perhaps proactively avoid bottlenecks?

Would not it be great if you could use the results of a current event to be better prepared for follow-up events?

This is precisely the question we asked ourselves in advance of this year's Esri Developer Summit in Berlin .

Together with our startup partner, Square Metrics  , we have developed a demo scenario in which iBeacons are used to measure the occupancy of specific locations in the building by measuring when and how often a particular beacon is triggered by the approach of a participant becomes.

The (anonymous!) Information sent by each beacon was first sent to the Proximity DMP of Square Metrics, where the individual beacons were registered and organized. From there, every single event was sent in real-time to the ArcGIS backend, where a GeoEvent server received the information, evaluated it in real-time and saved it for later analysis. The following graphic shows an overview of the components used and the interaction between them.

The graph also makes it clear that ArcGIS Enterprise can be upgraded to a full-fledged IoT platform in conjunction with external device management .

This allowed us to show on a map how many times a particular sensor was triggered, both when entering a certain area and when leaving it. If you now place a beacon in a room, you can quickly calculate how many people went in and out at a certain time. Compared with the actual capacity, one can quickly create an indicator that indicates whether a particular room is overcrowded or whether there are still free seats available.

Hotspots and coldspots can be identified quickly and thus conclusions can be drawn as to which lectures are good and which are less well received by the audience.

Taking into account not only a single beacon, but all the sensors distributed in the building, you can even detect motion profiles, for example, whether or not there is a connection between certain places (and content presentations). For example, did a Javascript developer also attend .NET lectures, or was he in the cafeteria at those times?

With all this information, you can react to specific events during the event and then analyze the current event so that the following events are adapted to the behavior of the participants.

No more congestion in front of the toilet, always a free seat in the lecture - it does not have to remain a utopia: with iBeacons and ArcGIS as a real-time IoT platform!

Vom 3.-9.3. findet wieder der Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, Kalifornien, statt. Wir möchten Euch einladen, dort Eure Arbeit vorzustellen. Es ist wirklich eine einmalige Gelegenheit, vor so einem Publikum zu stehen und die eigenen Ergebnisse zu präsentieren. Letztlich lebt ein solches Event auch von Euren Beiträgen.

Ihr habt noch bis zum 12. Januar Zeit, Euren Vortrag einzureichen. Ihr könnt über Tools, Technologien, Innovationen, Lessons Learned, gelöste Probleme oder schlicht über Euer eigenes Projekt mit ArcGIS berichten.

Haben wir Euer Interesse geweckt? Dann geht es hier zur Anmeldung. Viel Glück! 🙂

Aus den am Ernst-Reuter-Platz in Berlin erhobenen Verkehrsdaten sollen Anwendungen entwickelt werden, die das Leben, Arbeiten oder den Verkehr vor Ort optimieren. Bis Mitte Dezember können Interessierte ihre Lösungen einreichen.

Gemeinsam mit der Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe und dem DAI-Labor der TU Berlin ruft Cisco jetzt zum Ideenwettbewerb „Smart City Berlin – Ernst-Reuter-Platz“ auf. Wie das Unternehmen mitteilt, richtet sich der mit 30.000 Euro dotierte Wettbewerb an Studierende und Startups aus Berlin. Sie sollen aus vorhandenen Daten Ideen entwickeln, die das Leben, Arbeiten oder den Verkehr vor Ort für alle besser machen. Bis zum 17. Dezember 2017 haben die Teilnehmer Zeit, ihre Lösungen einzureichen. Die Preisträger werden laut Cisco im Januar 2018 bekanntgegeben. Am Ernst-Reuter-Platz befindet sich das DAI-Labor.

Alle weiteren Infos könnt Ihr auf www.kommune21.de lesen (Originaltext).

Am 10. und 11. November fand in Münster der erste MÜNSTERHACK statt. Zu diesem Hackathon (MÜNSTERHACK - Hackathon für Münster ) kam die Tech-Szene in Münster zusammen und entwickelte gemeinsam Ideen und Prototypen, um die eigene Stadt noch lebenswerter zu machen. Insgesamt neun Ideenpitches wurden vorgestellt und anschließend in Gruppen bearbeitet. Begleitet wurden die Teilnehmer durch elf Mentoren von lokalen Unternehmen (u.a. auch Esri), die die Teams bei organisatorischen, technischen oder kaufmännischen Fragen unterstützten.

Am Ende der Veranstaltung am 11.11. (Helau! ) kamen alle Teilnehmer und Zuschauer zu einer großen Abendveranstaltung in den Räumen der Stadtwerke Münster zusammen, um die Ergebnisse zu präsentieren und die Sieger zu küren. Neben Ruhm und Ehre (und möglichen Folgeaktionen) gab es auch Geldpreise zu gewinnen.

Am Ende enschied sich die Jura für folgende Sieger des #MSHACK17:

1. Bus Reality

Die App berechnet aus den Soll- und Ist-Fahrtzeiten der städtischen Busse die aktuelle Verspätung und bietet zusätzlich die Möglichkeit, auch Prognosen für zukünftige Verspätungen unter Berücksichtigung von Wetter, Verkehr und Events zu berechnen. Als besonderes Feature wurde eine Augmented Reality Funktion entwickelt, die dem App Benutzer beim Warten vor einer Bushaltestelle die aktuellen Fahrgastinformationen und Verspätungen auf einer virtuellen Anzeigetafel live auf dem Kamerabild des Smartphones anzeigt.

2. Leih Leeze

Das Team der Leih Leeze entwickelte eine App, mit der Privatpersonen ihr Fahrrad ("Leeze") im Internet für Besucher oder Touristen anbieten können. Mit wenigen Klicks wird das Rad eingestellt und ist via Smartphone App sofort für jeden sichtbar. Eine integrierte Abrechnungsfunktion sorgt für die reibungslose Zahlung. Als Highlight wurde ein Alexa Skill entwickelt, mit dem man das Fahrrad auch via Spracheingabe suchen und reservieren kann.

3. Familen Dashboard

Das Familien Dashboard ist eine Informations-App für Bürger auf Stadtteilebene. Bürger können sich damit über aktuelle Baumaßnahmen, Veranstaltungen und Ereignisse in ihrem Viertel informieren. Das Highlight dieser App war vor allem die Nutzung von Open (Geo)Data als Datengrundlage.

Herzlichen Glückwunsch an alle Gewinner! 

Last week we hosted our fourth geodev meetup in Munich. This time it was all about spatial analysis. We had four great speakers sharing their projects and insights.

Have you missed the meetup? No problem, we have recorded all talks, see below. You also can find all slides at the end of this blog. And don't worry, after the meetup is before the meetup  You can find all the details on meetup.com or here on GeoDev Germany‌.

See you again soon!

Lars

Johannes Fuchs, Esri Deutschland: The Science of Where: Geospatial Analysis within the ArcGIS Plattform

Spatial analytics are how we understand our world—mapping where things are, how they relate, what it all means, and what actions to take. Spatial analytics is the heart and soul of ArcGIS. Within the ArcGIS Plattform everyone can perform those analyses across different clients anytime, anywhere and on any device. This talk will give a short overview of different types of analysis capabilities in different client applications. A particular focus will be placed on the desktop application ArcGIS Pro and the web technology ArcGIS Online.

Johannes Fuchs has studied Geography (M.Sc.) with a specialization in applied geoinformatics at the university of Heidelberg. For more than 3 years, he has been working at Esri Germany in his role as a sales engineer and technical advisor for customers in the public sector.

Mathias Wessel , University of Salzburg: The potential of Sentinel-2 data for tree species classification

Mapping forests and single tree species using high resolution imagery is a common practice in the field of forest management. The question arises if medium resolution and freely available data - like Sentinel-2 - can compete with costly commercial data. This talk will provide an overview of the workflow and steps that were performed to achieve high accuracy data, especially by classifying tree types for a detailed level of complexity.

Mathias Wessel gained his first experience with GIS during his bachelor studies of geography in Salzburg. Afterwards, he joined the master program “Applied Geoinformatics” and completed his master thesis focused on Sentinel-2 data in July 2017. 

Thomas Zerweck , Munich RE (Münchener Rück): Global Damage Footprints

Munich Re is one of the largest Reinsurance companies of the world. Natural catastrophes - like the Hurricanes Harvey and Irma that just happened in the North Atlantic - cause huge insured losses up to several billion US$. For a fast loss estimation, it is crucial to get reliable footprint information for these events. This talk provides an overview of the fully automated process chain from downloading NOAA storm track data to providing footprint information as geodata and map services, mainly implemented in ArcPy.

Thomas Zerweck studied geography (M.Sc.) and was co-founder and managing director of ZEBRIS Geoinformation Systems and Consulting afterwards. From 2004 to 2014 he was a freelancing GIS Expert for various companies and lecturer for Web Cartography at the Department of Geoinformation of the University for applied sciences in Munich. Since 2014 he is expert for Geospatial Solutions at Munich Re. His main responsibilities are building a Geospatial Platform within the company and for Munich Re’s Partners and clients, providing business units with Geospatial consulting and transfering geospatial data, services, solutions and know-how to the business.

Philipp Klüfers, Sicyon Risk Consulting and Paul Klüfers, tunatools: Risk Monitor: Monitoring and Geo-referencing political risk events

In the globalized world of the 21st century, political risks emerge as serious obstacles not only for governmental and political institutions, but also for economic and social actors. We present a tool-based approach of how these political risks can be monitored and assessed - thereby helping decision-makers to cope in a complex and uncertain risk environment.

Philipp Klüfers is a political scientist at the Universität der Bundeswehr. He works as a researcher, lecturer and publisher focusing on international security issues. In 2014, he and three colleagues founded the start-up "Sicyon Risk Consulting" specialized in the field of political risk consultancy in the public and private sector.

Paul Klüfers works at the interface between supply engineering and web-based tool development. After gaining profound knowledge in the sector of renewable energies at AZUR Solar and EnVersum, he founded the software company "tunatools" in 2015.

Last weekend I had the chance to attend HackZurich, one of the biggest hackathons in Europe. And what can I says? The event was a blast. Over 580 people from 58 countries showed to spend 3 days together at TechnoPark Zürich and work on various challenges. And that was actually only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, the organizers had to close applications already in June counting an unbelievable 4864 applications. Not bad, hm?

So many hackers of course attract a lot of sponsors too, be it now challenge or technology sponsors. I was really impressed by the breath of sponsors: Google, Microsoft, SNN, Thomson Reuters, Wikidata, Randstad, Rai Lab, Swiss Re, Swisscom, Zühlke and SBB were just a few of the big names.

They all had very diverse and interesting challenges. Here are 2 out of the 18(!) that really caught my attention:

• Bühler Group, a manufacturer for food processing machines, asked for ideas to improve wheat production.
• Reuters opened up their API to basically access their news database.

Talking about the challenges: I liked the clear instructions the organizers gave. team size between 2 and 4 and the clear goal to actually build something in the 3 days.

Esri was one of the technology sponsors and gave a tech talk on Saturday to inspire people. Additionally, Matthias Schenker‌ (Esri Switzerland), John Yaist and David Martinez‌ (both Esri Inc.) made themselves available at the Esri booth to support the various teams.

Curious about the outcome? In our next blog, we will describe a few of the teams and of course will tell you finally won the Esri price. Stay tuned 🙂 And be sure to reserve your seat early enough for next year. There won't be less hackers willing to go.

Finally, here are some more impressions:

On September 18th, the third GeoMonday of this year was held on the topic “artificial intelligence and geodata”. More than 30 good-humoured Geogeeks, well supplied with pizza and beer, listened to exciting lectures and discussed lively about them.

Did you miss this past GeoMonday? No problem, we have recorded all talks and took some pictures, see below. And don't worry, after GeoMonday is before GeoMonday. You can find all the details on meetup.com or here on GeoNet.

See you again soon!

Your GeoDev Germany & GeoMonday Team!

Michael Marz, Esri Deutschland:

How neural networks make GIS-supported crop production more efficient

High-tech has already arrived in agriculture. Modern agricultural machinery and geographic information systems make precision farming possible. An important aspect in crop production is the basic fertilization with nutrients and additives. The pH value can already be determined in a small scale and during the crossing of a tractor with specific sensors. For essential macronutrients like phosphorus, on-site soil sampling as well as complex and cost-intensive determination of the content in the laboratory are still necessary. Phosphorus content depends on chemical and physical soil conditions. If these conditions are known, the content of phosphorus can be estimated. This paper provides extracts from a research project on how neural networks help to estimate local phosphorous content for fertilization by learning those nonlinear multilateral relationships in the soil.

Martin Wilden and Matthias Stein, con terra:

Natural language understanding in web mapping applications

"Will speech soon do away with typing?" - This question has recently been raised by a large German newspaper. Lately, more and more speech assistants like Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, Mircosoft's Cortana or Apple's Siri are reaching the market and allowing users to control many parts of their life by voice input. This technology is called natural language understanding (NLU) and may also be used to control Web mapping technology. Imagine that you could say "show me all schools in Berlin" instead of using a selection tool to select those features.

Some impressions:

Kreative Ideen für die intelligente Mobilität sind gefragt: Wie können mit GIS und Geodaten Mobilitätsprozesse, -verfahren und -abläufe sicherer und zuverlässiger gestaltet werden?

Der Deutsche Mobilitätspreis (#DMP17) ist eine Initiative des Digitalgipfels und des BMVI. In der diesjährigen Open Innovation Phase vom 4.9. bis zum 16.10. wird gefragt wie mit Geodaten Mobilität zuverlässiger und sicherer gestaltet werden kann. Daher unterstützt Esri diesen Wettbewerb.

Der von Deutschland – Land der Ideen ausgerichtete Wettbewerb spricht Einzelpersonen an, die mit geringem Aufwand ihre Ideen im Wettbewerbsportal darstellen können.

Nach dem 16.10 entscheidet eine Jury unter Leitung des BMVI über die Gewinner der drei Geldpreise.

Zum Wettbewerbsportal geht es hier: https://ideen.deutscher-mobilitätspreis.de

Links:

Digitalgipfel: www.de.digital

BMVI: www.bmvi.de

Deutschland – Land der Ideen: www.land-der-ideen.de

Twitter: #DMP17

What a blast! The last geodev meetup in Munich was just great! Many thanks to all of you for coming. With over 80 attendees it was our biggest meetup so far . My special thanks go to the three speakers, and of course also Google Germany for hosting the meetup at their campus in Munich.

Have you missed the meetup? No problem, we have recorded all talks, see below. You also can find all slides at the end of this blog. And don't worry, after the meetup is before the meetup  You can find all the details on meetup.com or here on GeoNet.

See you again soon!

Lars

Matt Bühler, vrbn - Mapping 3d worlds

Mapping is an inherently graphical & therefore creative task, where everybody may need individual, tailor-made solutions. In this presentation, Matt shows examples of his work of creating 3d maps, where he's leveraging cutting edge technology and scripted workflows for historic reconstructions, city planning scenarios and the creation of entirely fictional environments.

Prof. Mark Vetter, HS Karlsruhe - How digital maps are changing our spatial orientation skills?

The use of digital maps in smartphones will have an impact on our spatial orientation skills and our map reading competence. Therefore, we conducted a study with Munich high school students in the years 2013 and 2015 to reveal and quantify these changes. What could possibly be done in future school lessons to avoid further loss of this cultural competence?

Thomas Felber, Linde AG - BeeZero. Carsharing service with Zero Emissions

BeeZero® is the world's largest and friendliest car sharing with hydrogen. With BeeZero, a new environmentally friendly and modern form of mobility comes into the city. Thanks to the innovative hydrogen technology, we help you to reduce pollutants and traffic noise without sacrificing the convenience of a car. Learn about how we built a fully functional car sharing system within 100 days from scratch. In this talk you will also hear about the telematics used to operate and maintain to cars, the challenges we faced around map visualization and why we decided to start from scratch. Bee part of it, Beezero.