Where do you work and what is your role?
Hello! My name is Lee. I am a GIS Programmer Analyst at County of Sonoma (Sonoma County, California). I have been here for about 10 years. I worked in the County's Transportation & Public Works Department, as a GIS Technician, until about a year ago, when I was promoted to my current role at our central IT department. Since then, I have moved away from data editing and field data collection, and am now working on programming data processing models in python, developing web applications in ArcGIS Online, providing system admin/database support (managing users, roles/groups, etc.) to our end users, and developing open data websites in ArcGIS Hub.
What GIS success have you had this year and what product did you use? (big or small - no win is out of bounds)
My biggest success this year was building an Open Data site for my former department, Transportation & Public Works. The site acts as a comprehensive inventory of our County-maintained road system, a hub for interactive maps related to County roads, as well as proving information about past and future road paving projects. (Check it out here, if you like.) This project turned out to be very well received, we are now creating open data sites for other topics within our organization (emergency management, zoning and permits, etc.)
What is your expertise (GIS related or not), and how can that help the community?
In terms of subject matter, my background is in civil engineering, specifically in the management of roads and highways, road-related structures (bridges, street lights, etc.), road maintenance management/work order systems, and road pavement management. My GIS work experience includes the following, in chronological order: field mapping using GNSS, digitizing and data editing in ArcGIS, data analysis and reporting, database design and architecture, model building and python programming, and GIS-integrated web development.
How can this help the community? I believe what I have seen: that GIS can be used to vastly improve working processes in government, thereby allowing public agencies to better serve the public good.