26/11/2011

MyGOSCCON 2011: Update 1


MyGOSCCON 2011: Terkini 1

Alamak! Saya telah dijemput memberi taklimat pada Sesi Plenary 2. Memandangkan saya melihat diri  sebagai Mr. Nobody antara pakar Open Source Creme de la Creme, pasti ianya satu penghargaan kerana diberi peluang tersebut, tak tahu lah saya yang mereka nampak pada diri ku. Ini adalah satu cabaran besar  bagi saya tetapi akan saya cuba.

MyGOSCCON 2011: Update 1

Omigosh! I am invited to give a talk at the 2nd. Plenary Session. Since I really consider myself Mr. Nobody among the Creme de la Creme of Open Source experts, it is of course a big honour to be given that chance, I do not know what they see in me. This of course makes it a bigger challenge for me but I'm going to try.


22/11/2011

Training: Quantum GIS Course Bil.3/2011


Latihan: Kursus Quantum GIS Bil.3/2011

Satu kursus Quantum GIS diadakan sekali lagi di Jabatan kami. Kali ini, kami ingin mencuba mengadakannya di bawah pada Makmal IT tetapi ruang tersebut sedang diguna buat sementara oleh pelayan-pelayan sehingga hujung tahun. Kali ini, seramai 6 peserta menghadiri kursus tetapi 4 yang telah mendaftar tidak dapat hadir atas sebab masing-masing :

En. Khairul Azlan Ramli - Bhg. Perundangan & Kawal Selia Perancangan
Pn. Norhayati Abu Bakar -  Bhg. Penyelidekan & Pembangunan
Pn. Che Zaulina Hj. Che Lan -  Bhg. Penyelidekan & Pembangunan
En. Nor Hadzmi Mohd. Nor - Unit Penyelaras Projek
En. Mohd. Yusof Ruslan - Bhg. Perancangan Wilayah
Pn. Natasha Shafiee - Pejabat Projek Zon Utara

Pandangan setelah menghadiri kursus:

Norhayati:

QGIS memudahkan kerja-kerja dalam penyediaan Ran. Pemajuan. Ia sangat mesra pengguna dan menjimatkan masa dan kos dalam pencapaian data raster.


Natasha:
  1. Percuma
  2. Memudahkan ketika peringkat analisis
  3. Mesra pengguna - pengguna akon yang senang/mudah
  4. Jimat masa bekerja
  5. Sumber data seperti  atau dalam Google Earth mudah/senang dicapai
Nor Hadzmi

Mesra pengguna

Yusuf:

Sesiapa sahaja boleh menggunakan QGIS - lebih mudah dari MapInfo dan ArcGIS, mesra pengguna dan percuma

Khairul Azlan:
  1. Mudah berbanding penggunaan Mapinfo walaupun hasil yang sama
  2. Banyak modul Open Source yang memudahkan untuk mendapatkan maklumat
Zauliha:
  1. Senang/Mudah
  2. Interesting - banyak maklumat boleh dapat
  3. Banyak menjimatkan masa
  4. Paling penting percuma, tidak terikat pada lesen
Training: Quantum GIS Course Bil.3/2011

Another course on Quantum GIS was held again at our department. We wanted to give it a try downstairs at the IT lab but it was taken up by the temporary relocation of servers until the end of the year. This time, 6 people attended but 4 whom registered could not make it :

En. Khairul Azlan Ramli - Legal and Planning Monitoring Division
Pn. Norhayati Abu Bakar -  Research & Development Division
Pn. Che Zaulina Hj. Che Lan -  Research & Development Division
En. Nor Hadzmi Mohd. Nor - Project Coordination Unit
En. Mohd. Yusof Ruslan - Regional Planning Division
Pn. Natasha Shafiee - Northern Project Office

Opinion after attending course:

Norhayati:

QGIS make the preparation of Local Plans easy. It is very user-friendly, saves time and cost in the preparation of raster data.


Natasha:
  1. Free
  2. Easy at the analysis stage
  3. User-friendly - icons are use to use
  4. Saves time
  5. Data source such as from Google Earth is easy to retrieve
Nor Hadzmi

User-friendly

Yusuf:

Anyone can use QGIS - much easier than MapInfo dan ArcGIS, user-friendly and free

Khairul Azlan:
  1. Easier compared to Mapinfo eventhough both outputs are the same
  2. Many Open Source modules make it easy to retrieve information
Zauliha:
  1. Easy to use
  2. Interesting - much information can be obtained
  3. Save much time
  4. Most importantly free, not tied to licence

19/11/2011

QGIS Mobile


Mobil QGIS

Pengurusan Tertinggi di jabatan saya, terharu bahawa Google Maps boleh dicapai dalam telefon bimbit telah meminta bahagian saya memastikan supaya portal gunatanah kami boleh dicapai melalui telefon bimbit. Sebenarnya perkara ini sudah boleh dicapai cuma saya berpendapat ianya masih perlu dimantapkan lagi supaya lebih berkesan. Satu hari saya percaya akan ada permintaan supaya GIS berfungsi dalam telefon bimbit. Sekali lagi, ini kerap berlaku apabila orang kurang fahman mengenai tekonologi terkini, mereka anggap semuanya mudah seperti ABC. Saya masih belum memaklumkan mereka bahawa pelbagai isu terkait dan pokoknya apakah sistem operasi yang digunakan oleh telefon bimbit mereka...BlackBerry, Android, Symbian? I telah buat carian QGIS Mobile pada Internet dan projek tersebut baru dimulakan oleh Marco Bernasocchi, salah seorang pakar dibelakang QGIS. QGIS Android telah dimaklumkan pada Forum QGIS disini. Projek tersebut boleh dirujuk disini.


QGIS Mobile

The top management at my department, impressed that Google Maps can function in a mobile phone has asked my division to expedite so that our landuse portal is viewable in a mobile phone. Actually it can already be viewed but I feel there is still much more to be done to make it effective. One day, I forsee a demand that GIS works in the mobile phone. Again, this is what happens when people are ignorant of current technology, they assume it can be done as easy as ABC. I have yet to inform them that there are many issues to this but it mainly boils down what operating system their mobile phone uses...BlackBerry, Android, Symbian? I searched for QGIS Mobile (but of course) on the Internet and the project appears to have just started by Marco Bernasocchi, one of the brains behind QGIS. QGIS Android was mentioned at the QGIS Forum here. The project can be viewed here.

14/11/2011

Potential uses of QGIS-GRASS in town and country planning


Kegunaan berpotensi QGIS-GRASS dalam perancangan bandar dan desa

Fadzlan ingatkan saya mengenai kertas yang telah lama saya sediakan dan beliau berpendapat adalah baik yang mana dah terlupa dan disimpan baik-baik dalam folder PDF dalam komputer saya. Berminat? Fail PDF boleh dimyat turun disini.

Potential uses of QGIS-GRASS in town and country planning

Fadzlan reminded me of this paper I long wrote and he considers a good write-up which I forgot about and was kept quietly in the PDF folder of my computer. Interested? The PDF file can be downloaded here.

12/11/2011

MALAYSIA CIO CONFERENCE & MYGOSSCON 2011


MALAYSIA CIO CONFERENCE & MYGOSSCON 2011

MyGOSSCON, dimana saya, 2 tahun lalu telah memperkenalkan QGIS kepada komuniti IT Malaysia hampir tiba kat tempat yang sama: Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). Kali ini, the Malaysian CIO Conference juga di adakan bersama. Ia akan diadakan pada hujung bulan ini. Saya akan ke sana. Anda?

MALAYSIA CIO CONFERENCE & MYGOSSCON 2011

MyGOSSCON, where it all started 2 years ago when I first introduced QGIS to the Malaysian IT community is back again at the same good old place: Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). This time they've added the Malaysian CIO Conference together with it. It's round the corner at the end of the month. I will be there. Will you?

08/11/2011

Introduction to Quantum GIS talk at UTM, Johor...soon


Taklimat memperkenalkan Quantum GIS di UTM, Johor...tidak lama lagi

Bulan lepas, saya cuba try emelkan Dr Ahmad Nazri Muhamad Ludin, Dean/Assoc. Prof. Fakulti Alam Bina, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia yang tak pernah saya jumpa terus bertanya sama ada beliau berminat mendengar taklimat saya memperkenalkan Quantum GIS. Selepas terjumpa emel saya dalam junk mail (nasib le!) awal bulan ni, beliau menjawab berminat dan tarikh tentatif ditetapkan pada Jumaat Disember 9th 2011 bulan depan. Jika semua berjalan lancar, saya akan ke Johor selama sehari mempopet-popet mengenai sesuatu yang percuma...QGIS! Apa terjadi selepas tu adalah disini.

Introduction to Quantum GIS talk at UTM, Johor...soon

Last month, I tried and emailed Dr Ahmad Nazri Muhamad Ludin, Dean/Assoc. Prof. Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia whom we have never met and enquired whether he was interested in hearing me give a talk introducing Quantum GIS. He replied early this month after he found my email in the junk mail (what luck!) that he was and set a tentative date for Friday December 9th 2011 next month! If everything goes as planned, I should be there for a day's visit to blabber about something free...QGIS. What happened next came here.



07/11/2011

Lesson 5 : Create a GRASS mapset


Pewujudan GRASS mapset

Saya sangka modul GRASS dapat terus digunakan untuk analysis GIS tetapi salah. Pertama, GRASS perlu  impor fail sedia ada untuk mewujudkan fail GRASS baru. Dalam masa itu, ianya membangunkan topologi baru dan membetulkan fitur-fitur sedia ada (tetapi tak jamin) serta katalognya dengan mewujudkan field baru bernama "cat". Perbandingan antara bilangan fitur-fitur sedia ada dan baru akan menjelaskan betapa sempurnanya fail sedia ada. Fail baru ini adalah lebih efisen dan cepat untuk memproses pertanyaan analysis. Fail PDF boleh dimuat turun disini. Artikel ini telah dikemaskini disini.

Create a GRASS mapset

I thought I could immediately use GRASS modules for GIS analysis but I was wrong. Firstly, GRASS must import an existing file to become a new GRASS file. During that time, it builds a new topology and cleans all original features (though not guaranteed) and catalogues them by creating a new field called "cat". Comparison between the number of features in the original and new file will show how perfect the original file was. This new file now makes it more efficient and faster to process analytical queries. The PDF file can be downloaded here. This article has been updated here.

06/11/2011

Lesson 4 : Create a polygon layer


Pewujudan lapisan polygon

Prosedur untuk mewujudkan point atau line adalah sama seperti polygon dimana polygon berbanding dengan lain, adalah paling sukar untuk disediakan. Maka, saya telah menyediakan slideshow step-by-step mengambarkan langkah-langkah untuk mewujudkan lapisan polygon termasuk menetapkan map projection dan mengemaskini attribute table. Fail PDF boleh dimuat turun disini.

Create a polygon layer

The procedure to create a point or line is the same as a polygon in which the polygon is comparatively the most difficult of the three. So I have taken the task of preparing a step-by-step slideshow illustrating how to create a polygon layer inclusive of setting the map projection and updating its attribute table. The PDF file can be downloaded here.










05/11/2011

Lesson 4 : GIS basics

Electric cables> line; District> polygon; Police and electric power stations> points
Lesson 4 : GIS basics

Having given tips how to install QGIS in my earlier blogs, I now get feedbacks probably from students asking how to use QGIS. In any course, there are 3 levels: basic, intermediate and advance. I think it is inappropriate to train intermediate and advance levels over the blog because it is difficult to put some explanation into words so I will limit it to GIS basic. My way of teaching may be a bit strange compared to a formal structured way at universities ( I was never good at that). I explain how to avoid getting lost in GIS as I did in the first place. In GIS basics, firstly know there are two GIS format ie. vector, raster then there is map projection. If you are into vector GIS features just know there are 3 i.e. point, line & polygon. We begin ironically by forgetting about GIS for a while to get a better understanding of what's it all about:


Firstly, we must realize the real world is 3 dimensional (3D). This means there are elements of length x breadth x height to consider when wanting to digitize a spatial form. Current GIS technology is way behind real 3D digital technology (to me, like a 3D movie) and can at best only translate the real world into 2D. I think if current GIS could really translate the real world situation which is 3D, the moment you want to create a GIS layer that GIS software it will force you into a cube-like dimension imposing on you to add x & y & z factor and even if the z factor was not available the view should be in a cube-like dimension if zoomed out. For now, the height factor in some "3D" applications is captured to produce an image that somewhat try to portray the real world but this is not really 3D in the true sense of the word. Don't let people fool you otherwise. Every point on this earth is translated by a coordinate reference point.


I explained how things get mapped in GIS well under the FAQs so I don't want to repeat them here. Look for this illustration below in the FAQs.

I have to do another drawing here because that flat plane is really a big vertical cylinder
the same circumference of the world and I am thinking how to best draw this without
giving the wrong impression... Mmm, still thinking here.
Simply put, if something physical has a geographical context then a minimum of 2 coordinate reference points are needed to illustrate that line. If height factor comes into play, current GIS technology not does not recognize it as a feature but as an attribute of that feature. Just remember the 3 GIS vector elements: point, line and polygon. To illustrate, a point can represent a lamp post or tree, a line can represent a road or rail line and a polygon can represent a plot of land. The physical entity will be a spatial drawing saved in the representative feature layer and they point, line and polygon maps do not mix so to see them all at once, the technique of sieving or overlaying is required. The attributes for that physical entity are kept in a corresponding attribute table kept hidden unless activated or vice versa.

Secondly, once a physical feature has been properly mapped onto a layer or what I would term as a digital paper, it is vital to set the proper map projection for that layer and if not precisely overlaid for the same locality, you can forget about doing GIS analysis. A layer without a map projection is a map floating somewhere in mid-air (don't ask me how high) yet precisely over a certain locality, it is not firmly set on the ground. They call this on-the-fly projection. To get the height element into proper perspective, that layer must come to the ground making height measurement taken from the ground. A map layer not properly projected then set to off-the-fly projection will immediately fly way off course from its original position almost half away round the world.


It is also important to realize in GIS, the round (more or else) world has been cleverly  flatten out by Mr. Mercator so unlike the real world where the North point is a point on top of the world, on a flat drawing, the North pole is a line somewhere "up North" so whether in America or in Malaysia yet on a flat drawing it is always perpendicularly up.


Thirdly, without getting too technical, GIS format can take the form of vector or raster format. Just know that a vector map is based on the creation of lines as illustrated in a cadastral map or landuse map. A raster map is made up of pixels like in a TV. Raster images are all solid/opaque just like a photography, aerial photo or satellite image.

Lastly before I forget, in computer aided designed (CAD) drawings, the space in a polygon drawing means nothing just like a rubber-band but in GIS that space has a spatial context and can be translated to mean a spatial feature e.g. landuse and because it has an area, it is possible to calculate the size of that space.

The translation of real world by raster format transforms images into a grid of cells or grid of pixels like we see in a TV, the more pixels in an image, the sharper the image becomes. To not get the image distorted, pixels are in square shape. Satellite images are translated onto a grid of pixels in different bands of light and because light reflects differently on objects and plants, different shade of light are achieved. Remote sensing agencies have graded and catalogue the different shades and can intrepret well the type of geographical features. Different types of crop cover show up well but different type of landuse activities do not though can be grouped as built environment.

Different specialization require different approach to meet their needs and in the field of town planning and land administration, vector gis is more preferred. Traditionally, people were use to the ESRI Simple feature vector model that separates the 3 basic vector feature point, line and polygon on separate layers.  When polygons shared the same boundary, it actually meant 2 separate boundaries. This meant the spatial area in the polygon could be recognized as the area. However, as GIS ideology and GIS programming developed, the GRASS vector model took a different approach. It is arguably closer to the real world situation where the 3 vector features of point, line and polygon are placed on a single layer (Don't ask me how they do it) just like every geographical object can be found on a flat piece or rolling land. Secondly, when polygons share the same boundary,the polygons do not need to close because the separate boundaries merge as one. This means that the area cannot be a close polygon because in certain situation, it does not occur. Thus to overcome this, the centroid of each polygon is created and there lies the data on the area of the polygon. GRASS vector  model thus stores attribute data in a slighty different way than the ESRI simple vector model. I don't want to go further at this point of time because I'm afraid, I will confuse you more so I'm leaving it up to here.

Well, that's so much about GIS basic. Did I get you all confused? :-D

03/11/2011

Lesson 2 : Ubuntu QGIS installation slideshow


Slideshow pemasangan Ubuntu QGIS

Peminat Open Source, saya tidak abaikan kamu. Hari ini, saya telah pun siapkan slideshow pemasangan Ubuntu QGIS Ver 1.8. Fail PDF boleh dimuat turun disini. Bagi peminat sudo su yang diambil dari sini:

apt-get install python-software-properties 
add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable 
apt-get update 
apt-get install qgis python-qgis

Ubuntu QGIS installation slideshow

Open Source fans, I have not deserted you. Today, I have completed the Ubuntu QGIS Ver 1.8 installation slideshow. The PDF file can be downloaded here. For the sudo su fans taken from here:

apt-get install python-software-properties 
add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntugis/ubuntugis-unstable 
apt-get update 
apt-get install qgis python-qgis

02/11/2011

Lesson 1: Windows QGIS installation slideshow


Slideshow pemasangan Windows QGIS

Saya tahu antara newbies termasuk saya seperti dahulu, pemasangan apa jua perisian amat sukar dan memandangkan terdapat sesi latihan tak lama lagi, saya telah wujudkan slideshow ini. Oleh kerana ianya   step-by-step show, saya tidak akan cakap banyak dan biarkan slideshow do the talking, kenyataan adalah hanya pengenalan, isu dan kesimpulan. Fail PDF boleh dimuat turun disini.

Windows QGIS installation slideshow

I know among newbies as I was before, installing any software can be mind-blogging and since I have a training session round the corner, I created this slideshow. Since it's a step-by-step show, I'm let the slideshow do the talking, hardly any words except for introduction, issue and conclusion. The PDF file can be downloaded here