GIS: From Tool to Technology

Why India lags behind China in R&D

2012-01-07T03:37:00.000-08:00

In the year 2000 the then PM, Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, observed at the Annual Science Congress that the R&D expenditure was 0.9% of GDP and would be increased to 2% in the next five years.

In the year 2012, the present PM, Dr. Manmohan Singh, observed, also at that the Annual Science Congress that the R&D expenditure is a meager 0.9% of GDP and it will be increased to 2% in the next five years.

Were the two Prime Ministers reading the same speech?

Promises are meant to be kept and not to be repeated !!

P.S. The above information was brought to my attention by none other than Dr. R A Mashelkar, who was the Scientist President of the 2000 Science Congress session.

GIS and Web 2.0/ 3.0

2011-10-27T04:33:00.000-07:00

It is new generation of internet with focus on people and social networking.

Web 3.0 - Mobile Websites, Text Campaigns and Smartphone Applications

Web 3.0 is all of the above with web experience that is no longer limited to desktop and laptop computers. It’s the Internet on the go fueled by mobile phones and tablets. Websites must be designed to be easily read on mobile devices. Group text campaigns function like e-mail newsletters in Web 1.0 which will drive traffic to your mobile website. Smartphone Applications enable content to be published and shared easily while on the go.

GeoWeb 2.0 – Consumer Mapping, Blogs, Wikis, and Social Networking sites

"If an essential part of Web 2.0 is harnessing collective intelligence, turning the web into a kind of global brain, the blogosphere is the equivalent of constant mental chatter in the forebrain, the voice we hear in all of our heads. It may not reflect the deep structure of the brain, which is often unconscious, but is instead the equivalent of conscious thought." —Tim O'Reilly

At its core, Web 2.0 is the beginning of two-way communication in Web Applications. Web 2.0 sites invite participation and that might be voting, rating, commenting and submitting new posts. So Web 2.0 sites are collaborative. For example in Social networking sites like Google, Google Maps, Earth, Bing Maps, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Youtube can have friends, fans, followers, connections etc. So Web 2.0 category sites contains following features.

Web 1.0 sites are Two-way.
Web 1.0 sites are Active.
Web 1.0 sites are Dynamic.
Web 1.0 sites are Collaborative.

The ArcGIS Online initiative is all about the Web 2.0 style of services, sharing, and mashups. It provides many mapping resources as well as a framework for sharing data and services. All of this has been implemented using open standards and open Web protocol.

Limitations

Limit to the number of points of interest or shapes
Tile overlays can be slow when rendered dynamically
Interacting with vector based shapes when represented on tiles for overlay

Web 1.0 - Websites, E-mail Newsletters

It's hard to define Web 1.0 for several reasons. So I will put it this way. What Web 1.0 really is, it's everything in between from the day World Wide Web has introduced and the day Web 2.0 has introduced. So keeping that in mind, Web 1.0 category web applications contains following features.

Web 1.0 sites are Static.
Web 1.0 sites aren't Interactive.
Web 1.0 applications are Proprietary.
Web 1.0 sites are One-way.
Web 1.0 sites are Passive.
Web 1.0 sites are Closed.

Web 1.0 category sites basically contain information that user's might find useful, but there's no reason for a visitor to return to the site later. An example might be a personal Web page that gives information about the site's owner, but never changes. And visitors can only visit these sites, they can't contribute to these sites. Because of this, these kind of sites are Static and they are not Interactive to the visitor which will make the site Passive, One-way and a Closed site.

Bailout or Blackout: Commercial losses set to double in SEBs

2011-10-10T04:20:00.000-07:00

A report titled 'Bailout or Blackout: SEBs on borrowed time' by IIFL's Institutional Equities says that the aggregate net worth of state electricity boards (SEBs) has been wiped out. An excerpt is shared here.

The aggregate net worth of state electricity boards (SEBs) has been wiped out and there is little political appetite to defray cost inflation through tariff increases. Worryingly, the states seem to be working on the assumption of a bail-out package similar to the one in 2001. Utilities, especially private utilities with short-term power sales, would be severely tested in the interim. Longer delays may adversely affect loan book quality of institutions such as Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) and Power Finance Corporation (PFC) that have large exposures to SEBs. A ~40 per cent increase in the financial sector's SEB exposure (Rs 2 trillion or $44 billion as at end-FY09), given the estimated losses of Rs 1.08 trillion over FY10-11 is estimated. But is there a way out? A forced consensus would emerge for reforms, but a bail-out might still be needed in the interim, as reforms take time.

The Shunglu Committee on SEBs estimates that losses have more than doubled to Rs 680 billion in FY11. Blended tariffs will have to increase by ~25 per cent if SEBs are to break-even. If Coal India (CIL) increases coal prices for utilities by ~20 per cent, a further ~5 per cent increase in overall tariffs will be required to break-even.

Losses mount as tariffs lag cost increases

With the average blended tariff increasing by only 6.5 per cent over FY07-09 versus the 16.5 per cent increase in the average cost of supply, aggregate cash losses have jumped 4x to Rs 284 billion over FY07- 09. The Shunglu Committee on SEBs estimates that losses have more than doubled to Rs 680 billion in FY11. Cost increases have been driven by the jump in cost of power purchased, which is up 16 per cent over FY07-09.

Sharp rise in power purchase cost the key culprit

Consolidated average cost of supply (ACS) for Indian distribution utilities stood at Rs 2.58/unit, up 16.5 per cent over FY07-09. Power purchase forms the largest proportion of ACS at 62 per cent. This is followed by employee cost (12 per cent) and fuel costs (10 per cent). For distribution utilities, the average power purchase cost increased 17 per cent over FY07-09. The majority of the increase happened in FY09. The adverse demand-supply situation was exacerbated by political compulsions to reduce load-shedding in the run-up to the general elections in the summer of 2009.

Insignificant benefits from slightly lower AT&C losses

An insignificant correction in AT&C losses has not benefited the utilities. These losses remain high, owing to multiple issues such as power theft and collection inefficiencies and most importantly, from a lack of political will to direct the utilities to curb power theft. Internationally, AT&C losses stand at 4-8 per cent in the developed world. Adjusting for inferior T&D infrastructure as compared to developed countries, actual T&D losses in developing countries can be pegged at ~10 per cent. This means that ~18 per cent of the power produced is simply stolen. The cost of stolen power is either borne by the paying consumers or the discoms. The additional cost due to stolen power is partially passed on. Hence, any increase in sourcing cost of power results in larger losses for the discoms.

Tariff increase has not kept pace with cost increases

Tariffs, on the other hand, have largely remained stable over FY07-09. Blended tariff increased by just 6.5 per cent over FY07-09. Average tariff for agricultural consumers has increased from Rs 0.74/unit in FY07 to Rs 0.86/unit in FY09 - a 15.6 per cent increase over the two years. The increase might look high in percentage terms but the pace of increase is woefully slow when compared to the absolute increase in cost of supply. The fact that tariffs are significantly below the cost of supply results in a sharp jump in losses as the cost of supply increases.

SEBs are eschewing expensive power to contain losses

Industry participants and regulators given the poor financial condition of discoms have little inclination to buy expensive power, hence reducing off-take from stations based on expensive fuel sources. For imported coal/gas-fired capacities, there would be brief periods of respite during state/national elections when political compulsions would translate into SEBs being forced to buy even expensive power.

Most states in India heavily subsidise the power for agricultural use by charging higher rates to industrial users. For large states, 31 per cent of the energy sold is used for agriculture. However, revenue from agricultural customers forms only 8 per cent of the total revenue. Industrial customers contribute 46 per cent of total revenues against their share of 34 per cent of total energy sold.

APDRP - useful but not having a significant enough impact

Aiming for a financial turnaround of the distribution sector, the central government had launched the Accelerated Power Development and Reform Programme (APDRP). Under this scheme, central plan assistance was made available to states undertaking distribution reforms in a time bound manner. An incentive scheme was introduced to incentivise utilities achieving cash loss reduction.

The R-APDRP was launched in July 2008 to establish reliable and verifiable baseline data and further reduce the AT&C losses. R-APDRP is focusing on strengthening T&D systems to reduce AT&C losses on a sustainable basis. Overall, Rs 400 bn has been allocated as loans for R-APDRP of which Rs 200 billion will be converted to a grant depending on the extent to which utilities reduce losses.

Overall, the APDRP and R-APDRP programme has resulted in AT&C losses decreasing from 38.9 per cent in FY02 to 28.4 per cent in FY09. While the first few years did see an improvement, the pace of improvement has slowed down significantly. In fact, the Western region witnessed a worsening of AT&C losses in FY09.

So R-APDRP cannot make a significant contribution to improving the financials of distribution utilities. In the absence of sufficient tariff hikes, gains on APDRP would provide little help to distribution utilities. For instance, the Southern region, which has the lowest AT&C losses, is the largest contributor to the increase in book losses as tariffs have remained stable over many years, while power purchase cost keeps increasing.

The slow pace of privatization of distribution is not helping. A key component of the distribution reforms has been the privatization of power distribution. Privatization is being attempted broadly in two ways, sale of a government-owned utility to private enterprise and through appointment of a private distribution enterprise, particularly for a loss-making circle.

Distribution franchising differs from privatization

Distribution reforms are inevitable, owing to mounting AT&C losses and deteriorating health of state-owned distribution entities. However, despite this dire situation, states are reluctant to implement tough reforms. Privatizing distribution is one of the simplest forms of reforms, but it involves transfer of assets and manpower to private entities. Such changes in ownership are often not received positively by the masses, especially employees of distribution firms, who are directly affected by any changes in ownership. Hence, states are reluctant to implement privatization.

Government could finally resort to a bailout (similar to the one in 2001) for SEBs

Apart from subsidized funds for SEBs, the central and state governments could resort to a one-time settlement similar to the one adopted in 2001. The health of state finances is much better than that in 2001. Hence, it would easier for the states to contribute to the funds required for the one-time settlement. In 2001, the accumulated dues of Rs 414 billion had arisen due to the continued non-viability of the current operations of the SEBs. The commission recognized that settlement of past dues alone would not solve the basic problem facing the SEBs. Unless the problem of current unviability is speedily addressed, overdues would mount again.

Issues in the Electric Network Mapping & GIS Implementation

2011-01-22T08:28:00.000-08:00

Recently I attended Geospatial MapWorld Forum in Hyderabad, India. It was a good opportunity to share experience with various GIS volunteers working on Electric GIS. I also presented a paper on the issues critical to the successful implemetation of GIS in Electric utilities.All the people I met and discussed agreed with my view that we need to be more practical in such projects.

Status of GIS Implementation in Utilities

I used GIS "data quality" as an indicator of knowing the status of GIS implementation and its utilization within the utility. Now days completeness and currency of data is considered most important in any GIS database of utilities who maintain a dynamic network that changes rapidly in the field. No one will use an outdated data if its not updated regularly and do not reflect the ground reality. I based my conclusions on a published survey to assess the status of GIS in the utilities in USA.

2009 Smart Grid Readiness Survey Findings are summarized here–

· 70% Utilities have a data backlog of 90 days or more

· 25 % reported backlog of more than 6 M or year(s)

· Larger utilities have longer lag times in data updation

· Data model still not stabilized

· Integration with non-GIS database and applications is not as per business needs and utilities work flow

· Lack of commitment by domain people

It is very clear that something is wrong with the utilities own approach to GIS implementation. Most of the utilities are vendor driven and not business focused. Based on this I identified some common issues and also suggest the solution to make things simple and projects feasible.

Technical Issues

End users want a view of the data that is in line with the as-built used by them. Survey output is not generally accepted because it cant be easily interpreted by the engineers and field technicians who are used to dealing with as-builts and SLDs. Make work flow simple and in line with the engineering guidelines and standards.
Maintain a good customer address information
Link customer premises with the Electric network

Pole/Transformers/Substation
Feeder/Circuit
Supply Phase

Reflect customers in GIS as soon they are connected in the field

Operational Issues

Follow the international practices for Utilities Mapping & Facilities Management

Do not rely too much on advanced surveying techniques like DGPS and Geophysical methods- cable tracing & GPR.
Project becomes FEASIBLE & in-line with STANDARD international practices

Reduce backlog in the data updation
DGPS coordinates can not be used in case of multiple overlapping cables and lines due to requirements of offsets to represent network in a 2D dataset

Use As-built drawing as base and Validate features in the field using limited survey

Use the survey control points to realign the features in the As-built drawing
Use an acceptable amount of offset from a reference line feature if there are valid junction features. For ex., bundle of cables in a trench etc
Use digital data for mobile field operations on GPS enabled PDAs with a backdrop of landbase showing work area

Improve Data Editing operations

Standardization of geo-referencing and data updation procedure
Spatial realignment of network features using Survey points during as-built updation
Rectified GIS data should be uploaded regularly on daily /weekly basis

Project Management Issues

Understanding of the SoW and Objectives

Work to set goals all can share

Just because we can do something does not imply that we should.
High accuracy is too costly to achieve and even more to utilize it later

Don’t rush

Understanding project priorities help you develop sensible timelines

Don’t throw people at problem solving

Continuously train people and then deploy

Quality issues upstream cause problems in downstream
Re-engineering must with new technologies

Don’t let yourself hostage of IT
Embrace technology to be efficient and more productive

Don’t forget the fundamentals

Follow the engineering standards for record preparation and keeping

Fix responsibilities and accountability

Sponsors and vendors both are equally responsible for project success

Remember the past

Improve your approach based on the lessons learned
Do not justify a failed pilot because of its cost

Lessons to Remember

Implement GIS in a phased manner
Backlog in the data updation should be reduced to avoid confusion in the field
Survey control points should be used to compliment for the deficiencies in the landbase and as-built drawings.
Comprehensive survey requirements making a lot of projects uneconomical & technically not feasible also
GIS database cannot replace any engineering document like as-built drawings which is supposed to be the single independent document describing as laid details of utilities and technical characteristic of the network.
"DISTRIBUTION AUTOMATION" is crucial for the continued development of Generation, Transmission and Distribution. By attaching an “electronic meter” + CT/PT in the "beginning and end" of each Feeder and also put an ‘electronic meter’ + TC output of each Distribution Transformer we can monitor these Feeders along its entire length and to establish accurate levels of "Technical Losses" of these Feeders.

Standardisation of Data and Technology for Smart Grid

2010-04-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks in part to the government stimulus money with mandated time limits, and other "green" incentives, the implementations of facility BMS, EMS, GIS, DGPS Survey for data and smart meter projects are proceeding full speed ahead and damn any standards that get in the way.

There are many diverse aspects to the smart grid but one of the most intriguing is the application of intelligence to the transmission and distribution grid itself, all the way from the long distance transmission lines, to the local substations, distribution lines and ultimately the (smart) meters. The upgrade of the grid is not so much in the transmission and distribution equipment itself which but rather in the overlaying of an intelligent network that aggregates data from across the grid to enable the utilities to better manage the transmission and distribution functions, localize and isolate faults and integrate renewable power sources while preserving the stability and reliability of the grid.

Data is another area of serious concern.Utilities have either not maintained this data and/ or were not following standards for the maintenance of engineering records. They now look at field surveyors to provide the accurate engg. records (in fact better than elec. engg could do). Surveyors have their own concepts of accuracy and correctness. GIS and GPS technology is applied in a very fashionable /casual way without understanding the business requirements and processes. Most of these initiatives are tailormade to consume a particular product and heavily influenced by the vendors. Once initiated in one country these projects are replicated blindly elsewhere and spread like a disease. Ex. a classic case of vendor agent driven misguided utilities in some Gulf countries: few utilities started countrywide geophysical survey (GPR and cable tracing) of buried utilities to map their electrical network for GIS database updation and pilot failed. No lessons learned. Then they went ahead with another project for DGPS survey (20 cm accuracy) of utilities in open trench condition to create the GIS database of utility network. An exercise that guarantees CM level accuracy. How will you accommodate this level of accuracy in a complex network of cables in an urban environment? What is the use of such a high accuracy where everyone feels the existing procedure of as-built preparation is more than enough, if followed properly ? Practice of precision surveys is neither required nor sustainable for any utility where hundreds of changes occur on daily basis. An standardized work flow for the creation of as-built, its submission and entry into GIS would be enough to maintain the sanctity of the engineering records and serve the purpose of O&M staff.

This same issue of interoperability will be critical to the smart grid as it moves out of the realm of isolated pilot programs and demonstration projects to a more ubiquitous presence. As in the case of cellular networks (or any networks), there are going to be a wide variety of equipment providers involved in the smart grid. Within an individual service area, the utility may choose to work with multiple vendors in order to mitigate both technical and commercial risk. In order to maximize the value of the smart grid, it will be necessary to enable the utilities to have a homogeneous view of this heterogeneous network.

Standardization of business processes is more important than the technology implementation to justify the RoI. Vendors should never dictate the way things should move. Now we see a lot of RFPs and projects where you can easily see that "Failure " is in-built in the form of vague SoW, no standards for data and technology and irrational timelines. Technology should be used to facilitate the implementation in a phased manner and thus the standards will be defined by the experts and not by the agents of vendors who are interested only in selling their products.

R-APDRP: GIS & Utilities Business Process Re-engineering

2010-04-04T06:11:00.000-07:00

Massive Aggregate Transmission and Commercial (AT&C) losses have long crippled the financial viability of State Distribution Companies. To address this problem a targeted funding mechanism was introduced for the first time in 2003 in the form of the Accelerated Power Development Reforms Programme (APDRP). Its key objectives were to reduce AT&C losses, improve customer satisfaction as well as financial viability of the SDCs, adopt a systems approach and introduce greater transparency.Unfortunately, the benefits under the first APDRP were not linked to well defined objecives, Quality checks, demonstrable performance and it failed glaringly to achieve its goals. In several cases, funds under the first APDRP were utilised without taking cognisance of the need to reduce AT&C losses. To illustrate, in the state of Bihar, significant amounts of money received under the first APDRP were spent on sophisticated equipment for substations, while very little money was spent on procuring meters to measure actual consumption of electricity. In fact, AT&C losses increased in Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh under the first APDRP. It was in this backdrop that the Restructured APDRP (R-APDRP) was conceived in September 2008.

R-APDRP seeks to commence with tackling the problem of un-metered supply and lack of proper data acquisition systems, followed by system up-gradation and modernisation of equipment. Proposals under R-APDRP will be considered in two phases. In the first phase, proposals for establishing reliable and automated systems for the sustained collection of accurate baseline data and IT applications for energy accounting/auditing and IT-based consumer service centres will be considered for funding. In the second phase, proposals for strengthening/upgradation of power distribution will be considered.
Nowdays, We face obvious questions. For ex. how GIS is going to help in solving the problems of "Utilities" which are facing the challenges of reducing the AT&C losses and incresing the profits? How R-APDRP is different from APDRP in terms of implementation? It seems that just changing the funding mechanism and implementing a GIS will not result in any reengineering and improvement in the performance and profit. Not implementing a GIS will not preclude effective reengineering either. What the GIS can do are:

Help identify critical information needed for the business process and decision making (turning data into information)
Help to rethink organizational issues by bringing to light low value organizational boundary interfaces
Facilitate process improvement steps by organizing all geographic and facility information in one common data source
Enable new creative thinking which could lead to dramatic improvements in the policy implmentations and monitoring the performance of the network and utilty staff as well

Assuming that the GIS is open and accessible to all users within the business unit, the GIS will link the customer directly to the product delivery system. In the past, the billing and customer systems probably have not been integrated into the delivery system data. With the GIS, this is changed. Thus rather than looking at process reengineering of a billing or customer system or an engineering system, it becomes possible to look at reengineering a retail electric business system (the broader view). As stated before, nearly all aspects of the retail electric business, from marketing to sales to collection of bad revenue involve a customer base that is spatial. The benefit of reengineering is to dramatically improve several dimensions in the business process, namely:

Reduction of gaps in the consumer billing data & the revenue realisation
Cycle Time - the life cycle measured in elapsed time from the beginning of the process to the end.
Cost - the total cost to maintain the system
Service - the value of the relationship of the customer to the provider of the product or service.

Cost will be a major factor after the project completion for maintaining the currency of the data and maintenance. The biggest obstacle to reengineering may be in the attitude that improvement in the cycle time dimension involves a degradation in one of the other dimensions.

Boss-Subordinate relationship

2010-01-10T00:45:00.000-08:00

In one of the forum discussion I came up with a topic that I think is relevant to one and all. Its a story which talks about inter-personal relationship between the senior and junior members of any organization.

A meeting was going on in some organization. There suddenly out of blue the senior officer asked one of the junior officers, in a rather offended tone- “How have you done this to me?” The subordinate officer got completely surprised by this statement as he could not think of one single thing he had done that might have been taken adversely by the Boss. So he asked his superior officer- “Sir, I can’t really understand what you are saying?” Immediately came the curt, this time loaded with visible annoyance- “My wife could not understand me in the 42 years of my married life. How dare you even think of trying to understand me?” The subordinate understood that the boss was unfathomable and in the course of his service, he also came to understand that bosses have to be unfathomable.

The Professor followed up this incidence with another hilarious but thoughtful story. This was about a boy and his uncle. The boy was a sharp and intelligent one and was also confident of his abilities. One summer his uncle came to his house. During the course of their interaction, the uncle asked the boy how his studies were going on. The boy said that they were going on fine. To this the uncle said if he could ask a question to cross-check his level of studies. The boy replied in the affirmative. The uncle’s question was- “You go to your school every day. Now tell me how many pillars are there in your school building?” The boy was completely dumb-found. He had read so many things and felt that he kept himself quite abreast through TV and newspapers even about the latest happenings. But he had never even thought about the number of pillars in the school. When the boy kept mum, the uncle said rather coldly and sarcastically- “So, you don’t know even such a simple thing. Very bad.” The boy felt really bad. He got humiliated. But he kept his confidence. The very next day when he went to the school, he counted all the pillars. He also did very good in the subsequent exams. When his uncle came the next year, the boy was eagerly waiting for interaction so that he could answer his question. The time came. This time again, the uncle asked the same question. And the boy replied with great enthusiasm- “Sixty seven”. This time the uncle’s response was no less noteworthy- “So, you go to school not for studying but for counting pillars. Very bad.” This uncle, the Professor said, was a representative of a typical boss.

With the above two examples, the Professor extended his thoughts by saying that many of the bosses believe in playing the game of “hide and seek”. They don’t want to let the subordinate understand what exactly they want. Thus most of the time and energy of the subordinates gets wasted only in trying to find out- “What exactly does the Boss want?”

It can be easily concluded that such tendencies and such styles of functioning are surely detrimental for the proper functioning of any organization. He was of the view that there shall be frankness in the relationship between the boss and the subordinates. If the boss, instead of playing the game of “hide and seek” comes to properly reveal himself, his objectives and priorities, then things would start running in a much smoother way. Just assuming that boss is always right will only create confusion and disasters, if time is not on our side.

Education & System of Education

2010-01-02T04:03:00.000-08:00

Nowadays everyone is talking about the biggest bollywood blockbuster movie of this season. Its a basically satire on our education system. Some people relate it with the higher education system in India with IITs at the summit.

Purpose of Education

Before education one is ignorant, after the education one is supposed to be wise, responsible, high self-esteem and mature. If you have used the word education thinking its is same as literacy, then the above statement will be no more valid. Before literacy one is an ignorant, after that one is a literate ignorant who cant think beyond money.

If we look into the education system, its almost near perfect. But the purpose of this system is not being solved because it is unknown to all, teachers parents and students alike. Subjects are mere chapters to be mugged up to crack the exams just to show the superiority over other students. And everyone feels happy and proud about it.

What I can't understand is that is the Education system is a failure or are the students and parents at fault for not making the use of the system in a proper manner?

Pre-Schools/Schools:

To learn basic knowledge about language, scinece and culture
To becomes responsible citizen to the Nation and to the World at Large.
To become a good human being and serve the soceity to the best of his/her abilities.
To respect and love others and your environment and live in Harmony.

Colleges:

To use the knowledge gained in a innovative and productive way so as to alleviate all or at least most of the problems that mankind is facing.

Professional Institutes/Research Institute:

To be innovative, create new knowledge...have new vision and mission which will enhance the quality of Life of Mankind in general.
To search and make an attempt to know more about the Universe at large, who we are ..our latent potentials..and what are our objective..or purpose in Life. Using Science to the extent possible.....No Religion of any kind.. Spiritualism devoid of any Religion is OK.

Some Facts:

Even after the 2008 addition of numerous IITs, we still have only 15,500 seats for undergrad studies in IITs. Compare that with just one state in South India, AP. AP has nearly 600 private engineering colleges today. I had done some back of envelope calculations sometimes back adding up private engineering seats of KA, AP, TN and MH, the four top states producing engineering graduates in India. It was a whopping 600,000 undergrad Engineering seats just from these four states. If you add up other states, like TN, I am fairly certain that India has a million engineering undergrad seats today. Majority of these are producing substandard graduates who are not readily 'employable'. I know the pain as I have done plenty of interviews over the years.

Elitism is good, it sets standards and it allows others to emulate.

India still has a long way to go to even get 100 colleges at world class level. Everything that counts can not be counted and reflected in the reports. IITs are the only brand presentable and recognised outside India and envied most back home. IT boom happened in India because of these so-called unpatriotic IITians. At present whatever little respect India has in the western world is mainly due to its contributions and achievements in the fields related to IT sector. We have to improve the infrastructure, including the quality of faculties and even that of Heads and Vice-Chancellors. Most of the money being spent for establishing new Institutions should actually go to existing Institutions to improve the working conditions and quality of the teachers and Scientists. Other wise, the country would drag on in a similar way as it did on the past boasting about numbers.

I am happy to know that atleast some portion of my Tax money is being utilised to nurture such intellectuals otherwise that would also have been utilised to fund some politicians' foreign account . And I believe most of the Tax-payers are ready to get their funds utilised the former way. I must not forget to tell that most of the IITans and IIMites are not so called book-warmish otherwise they would not have survived the heat (Please Note : Most of the great business leaders are from IIT and IIM which cannot be denied).

Read more on higher education:
http://www.deeshaa.org/2007/04/30/the-indian-education-system-part-1/
Read all the 10 parts
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/07/04/policy-brief-on-higher-education-in-india/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/06/09/mr-kapil-sibal-abolish-the-human-resources-development-ministry/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/06/05/education-and-corruption/
http://www.deeshaa.org/2009/05/31/lynching-is-too-good-for-them/

Facts About PMP

2009-12-26T12:33:00.000-08:00

Any qualification, let it be MS, MBA, CFA, PMP, PRINCE-2 or MCTS provides the individual an opportunity to "know" the sum of all knowledge in the respective line of business. Expertise and real-world competence comes through experience and applied learning of the same skills. The certifications give you a global view of the relevant knowledge areas and helpful to those who are not in good position to claim anything about their usefulness to any organisation. Someone without the global view and domain knowledge will have less options to think about. Doing certifications/training is like reading the user manual before operating the tool. Reading the user manual doesn't make an expert, but experience operating the tool does to any technician. Most of these (like PMI) provide a good reference but it is AVERAGE global practice and not best practice. It is limited in so many aspects and hardly add any real value to your project because they are so generic and may hinder the project also if used blindly by some non-technical PM. To make a project success, you need to adopt "BEST PRACTICES" suitable to your project. That is the difference between failure & success apart from the basic assumptions made at the beginning and the scoping.

I, and most others, do not ignore the value of PMI, PMBOK or PMP or something else. The issue is that PMP was marketed as best practice where it is not and PMI management has become too focused on the numbers rather than value. By being too commercial PMI is losing many of its volunteers, members, and even PMP. Just look at the statistics PMI publishes numbers of members and PMP are starting to drop and this is a fact and not a opinion. This is also due to the fact that many PMPs are not able to perform at the level "they are marketed and sold" - sorry for these terms but this is the reality everywhere. There are many lawsuites going against PMI as those who are preaching PM have nothing to do with projects and they are too beaurecratic and theoretical (Oliver F. Lehmann, PMP case). In fact, they create lots of confusion by giving unwanted attention to not so important matters and promoting mediocrity, gossiping (they call it communication), mis-communication thru emails/ tables and graphs along with politics and corruption too to cover up their failures.

I have never attacked the accomplishments of anyone who has taken the PMP exam. I have always attacked the claims of people who want to make that accomplishment into something more than it is. When people suggest, imply, or state that the PMP provides assurance of skill and experience as a project manager ... that is just so totally wrong. Finally, if you feel devalued by the facts that are presented here. Reality is a tough mistress. Here are just a few of those facts:

The PMP was DESIGNED as an entry level certification.
The PMP uses multiple choice questions exclusively in its examination, and it does not deduct for wrong answers.
The passing grade for the PMP started out as 70%, was lowered to 68.5% in the late 1990s, and then lowered again to 61% around 2005 where it stayed until recently when PMI stopped publishing the passing grade.
The number of questions on the exam started at 320, was reduced to 200 in the late 1990s, and then reduced again to 175 around 2005.
From the start of the PMP until a few months ago, there was no requirement for experience as a project manager.
From the start of the PMP until about 2005, there was no experience requirement that even implied the need for experience as a project manager.
PMI verifies the experience of less than 10% of applicants, and when it verifies experience, it does not assess the quality of that experience. In other words, there is no assurance that any PMP has ever managed a project successfully.
The first time pass rate for native English speakers who take an exam prep course is around 95%. The first time pass rate for non-native English speakers is substantially lower and is about 65%.
PMI does not publish statistics on pass rates.
Some candidates lie on their applications because some organizations require the PMP for them to get an interview.

Are some PMPs competent project managers? Absolutely. Are all PMPs competent project managers? No. Are some PMPs worthy of respect? Absolutely Yes. Are all PMPs worthy of respect? Not a chance.

Then, what is so alarming? Is anyone employable and worthy of respect solely by virtue of holding a PMP? NO. There are reasons. My experience is that these PMPs are contributing more to project failures than success beacuse their lack of real/domain knowledge, basic understanding and inability to appreciate the figures in the PM tempelates and decisions in critical matters.

What I recommend: Develop a set of criteria that are appropriate to your specific project needs. There is no such thing as a general competence or competency in project management. So make sure that the person's traits match your project's requirements.

A person who may be patient, may be the needed manager for one project, but slow down another one too much. A great group leader may be bad in documentation, a person who is nitpicking on forms and templates may de-motivate a team. Make sure the person has a sound level of knowledge. There are various certifications that test that, but you can also develop your own tests, of course.

I am in the favor of a domain specific project management - I wonder how a "generic" PM who does not have any domain experience would understand and manage any project on the basis of some PM tempelates. I also think that a PM with no domain knowledge might do well if you use an automated process that can provide him the necessary metrics - s/he wouldn't have to worry about collecting build times, number of errors, number of failed tests, the most problematic component - component taking the most time, etc. - s/he will get all that automatically through the automated process. So, in my opinion, you should look for a candidate who has the necessary technical experience as well - in addition to project management experience.

No certification guarantees leadership and project success. And no certification exam can test discipline and stamina, two major traits of very good project managers. And be prepared to find in the end that there are no guarantees in project management. Those who promise that probably have their own "Agendas" and they definately dont know what is your project.

Fall of Dubai World - Who Next?

2009-11-27T02:15:00.000-08:00

Dubai is famous for its over ambitious builders & their projects. Everyone in middle east still consider Dubai as model and racing with others to overtake Dubai. Dubai is the most vain and resource wasting places ever built by man. More incredibly we are being asked to believe this place built on sand is not the result of wasting oil money. Lots of big housing/commercial projects in Bahrain & Abu Dhabi etc are still under development to emulate Palm Jumairah in their own way which has already become epitome of Dubai crisis.

Dubai crisis started from 'Realty' bubble which started to bust after unrealistic prices across the board and without thinking about the sustainability of prices, demand and supply. Every Tom, Harry and Dick (btw gulf has in abundance) was trying to become another Donald Trump and people got sucked in the name of owning a house. $40K worth of house was sold around a $200 K and people went on to buy despite beyond their reach. Their logic- Today’s $200 K house would get a value of $1200 K within 5 years. People started to think an asset would always appreciate than thinking about the real value. Realtors spent a lot of money in unproductive things to justify the prices.

Banks started to give loans to real estate companies without assessing the real value. Their aim is to mint millions in interests. But these banks have forgotten to assess real value of realtors. Banks started to concentrate on variety of activities other than banking. They ventured in Forex, and derivatives which no one understands in the world. People went on buying homes with multiple EMIs without thinking about their financial stability & sustainability of the plan.

Greed is the only reason for this crisis. Every product and service was priced artificially and companies have been started overnight and it looted money from public. “Overnight millionaire” was the motto for most of the entrepreneur.

Companies went on to stretch beyond their capabilities and core competencies. They took too much leverage. If you don’t think big, you’re dumb. Every company becomes dumb by over expanding in new businesses that are not their core competence. They employed thousands of people and borrowed through various innovative instruments which would be subscribed by a genius called private equity.

Take ex. of India. Whole India ran at leverage and domestic growth story. If Pantaloon enters in retail business (Big Bazar), why we should wait was the question asked by Birla group and they acquired some retail companies and started MORE which is now creating more problems for Birla group. Stock broking is another business in which everyone from Kashmir to Kanyakumari started to capture their share in India. Insurance is another. Likewise everyone started everything and they went on to demolish brands and made every service as a commodity.

Everything has been created based on domestic growth theory which has been misunderstood by corporate managers who work in air-conditioned room with their tailor made PowerPoint presentations as designed in their PMBOK which they never understood. They went on to give amazing numbers to their bosses and as a result everyone went on to venture in a crowded business and made it un-viable for everyone who has started it without knowing ground reality about the business.Whole mess has been started by marketing managers who doesn’t know any ground reality about business but who play efficiently with numbers, statistics, case studies and PowerPoint presentations.

Now these folks are calling this crisis as a event that occur once in a lifetime and it was beyond imagination of everyone. Mess that has been created by managers without understanding of real condition. Mess that has been created in the name of expansion and diversification. Mess that has been created by leverage. Mess that has been created by greed of creditors. Mess that has been created by fictitious value creation by banks. Its all the creditors of Dubai who should be blamed rather than its vain leader for providing it money in bucket loads.

Analysts expect Dubai to receive financial support from Abu Dhabi - a fellow member of the UAE and home to most of its oil - though it may have to abandon an economic model focused on developing swathes of desert with foreign money and labors resulting in huge no. of job losses as cost cutting & restructuring efforts in the next few months.

Project Risk Management

2009-11-13T11:58:00.000-08:00

We often execute the risk identification process many times within an iteration's life cycle or project life cycle. I prefer to execute it at regular intervals, during the monitoring and control phase, down till the closure phase. Many would do it even during the planning phase.

Planning is a optimistic exercise, Risk Management is pessimistic. When planning, we are optimistic about what should get done, by whom, in what sequence and when it should get done. After its planned, if we run through the plan with a pessimistic mind asking many 'what if' questions, particularly with those tasks for which we are not completely confident, I think many risks will be unearthed.

That means, even before the plan is put to execution, we should execute the same in our mind -pessimistically.

Another activity which can generate value is in the way the mitigation for the risks are managed. Mitigations are action items. These action items (i.e., the risk mitigation), most could be within the direct authority and control of the Project Manager. Those which are not should be highlighted in the reviews as items for management attention and their ownership should be assigned and tracked.

To summarize ...

Execute the Plan even before executing it
Execute Risk Management processes (identification, prioritization, mitigation etc.) periodically
Maintain a centralized Action Items log and add the mitigation to this log
Highlight risk mitigation items that need management attention during Project Reviews
Assign ownership to each Action Item and track them to closure

GIS Data Quality & Concept of Six Sigma

2009-11-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

A lot of different procedures for identification and improving business processes have been developed and tried by businesses with varying degrees of success. Some of the most notable earlier procedures include Value Chain and Total Quality Management (TQM), Business Process Re-engineering, Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP), and Six Sigma methodology etc.

If we go as per the definition, to achieve Six Sigma, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything outside of customer specifications. A Six Sigma opportunity is then the total quantity of chances for a defect.

Why is Six Sigma so important in the improvement process? We talk of Six Sigma level implementations having an accuracy of 99.99966 percent. Well, after reading the following statistics compiled by the American Society for Quality, you will agree that it definitely is not!
Being 99 percent accurate means that:

There is no electric power for nearly 7 hours every month in USA cities.
Every hour, at least 20,000 letters are lost in the mail.
Over 200,000 errors are made in medical prescriptions on an annual basis.
Every week, doctors botch up 5,000 surgeries.
Major airports report 2 incorrect landings every day.

Six Sigma is completely different from the traditional quality model of process capability. Traditional quality model was applied only to manufacturing processes, while Six Sigma is applied to all important business processes. Traditional quality model was known as Three Sigma.Three Sigma had a process standard deviation of less than one-sixth of the total allowable spread. Six Sigma requires the process standard deviation at less than one-twelfth of the total allowable spread.

There are several steps for the implementation of Six Sigma in an organization. These steps include:

• Understanding the commitment of top leadership

• Access to current information on customer requirements

• A process management system to measure current performance and identify where you need to make improvements

• Employing Black Belts and Green Belts to design and improve processes and to assist process owners

• Allowing management involvement and review to reinforce process management, improvement and design

• Adopting effective communication strategy to ensure that Six Sigma methods are implemented throughout the organization. Some famous organizations who have implemented the highest level of quality control are NASA, Boeing, AirBus etc.

Why not in GIS?

Lack of defined accuracy standards, data acceptance criteria and standardization of data preparation processes make it difficult to implement any uniform quality standards in GIS projects. GIS data is not a finished product in true sense as its currency & completeness is dependent on type of uses and many external ever changing factors that may affect data quality during the QC stage itself. Multiple stake holders of different skills and requirements also hamper standardization. There is not a single GIS co. in the world that has implemented six sigma maturity model for data quality control. That means either concept of 99.999966 % accuracy is not applicable to GIS or its not worth consideration because of its huge implications on cost and operations.

For promoting quality culture in the organization, one must first have quality people. People who understand the importance of Quality. The very first thing to have is quality leaders. If the organization can boost of quality leaders, they can easily achieve the quality service, quality product. It's not a one time affair or one persons job so in ever changing scenario one must always look into the opportunity to surpass there earlier best enabling them to produce quality products on constant basis. Three factors are important, quality resources, recognizing the importance of quality in work, investment with encouragement on continuous basis.

So, what to say to those naive people who demand 100% quality of data every time without having quality people. Either they don't know the basics of GIS or just use quality issues as staletactic to delay the vendor payments and misguide the stake holders on their own side. Quality is everyone's responsibility at all level no matter you are on vendor side or client.

Talking - A poem by Khalil Gibran

2009-11-02T09:10:00.000-08:00

And then a scholar said, "Speak of Talking."
And he answered, saying:
You talk when you cease to be at peace with your thoughts;
And when you can no longer dwell in the solitude of your heart you live in your lips, and sound is a diversion and a pastime.
And in much of your talking, thinking is half murdered.
For thought is a bird of space, that in a cage of words many indeed unfold its wings but cannot fly.
There are those among you who seek the talkative through fear of being alone.
The silence of aloneness reveals to their eyes their naked selves and they would escape.
And there are those who talk, and without knowledge or forethought reveal a truth which they themselves do not understand.
And there are those who have the truth within them, but they tell it not in words.
In the bosom of such as these the spirit dwells in rhythmic silence.
When you meet your friend on the roadside or in the market place, let the spirit in you move your lips and direct your tongue.
Let the voice within your voice speak to the ear of his ear;
For his soul will keep the truth of your heart as the taste of the wine is remembered
When the color is forgotten and the vessel is no more............

Dealing with less than effective managers

2009-10-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

I found this article very interesting. Follow the link below for complete discussion and comments.

Working for an Idiot Boss: How to Handle a Lousy Boss?
http://www.resumark.com/blog/author/katia/

Main points are given here. ------------------------

If you’ve never had an idiot boss, consider yourself very lucky.

The rest of us sometimes have to deal with bosses who are control-freaks, intrusive, micro-managing, rude, and even obnoxious.

So what makes a lousy boss?
A lousy boss loves to take credit for your work and never gives you praise or positive feedback for any of your achievements. A lousy boss fails to support you in accomplishing your work, unnecessary interfere due to his lack of understanding and insecurities and leaves you hanging when you actually need their help. He likes recruiting cheap resources but demands best quality and quick delivery (off course with invoice) within deadlines- any PMs worst nightmare. He is usually very poor in cash management which is his main job and to hide that he wants to put blame on others. His obsession with "client is god" assumption also makes him paranoid and anti to his own employees. All the “support” that you get is annoying and results in counter-productive micro-management when you actually don’t need any help and they are just interfering in your and your teams work.

Lousy bosses think their subordinates have no feelings, interests or personal lives outside work and only he cares about the organizations welfare. Fact is he is the biggest threat to the co.s future. They take their employees for granted and think they'll do anything for the salary and contract extension esp he happens to be an expat. They think employees are robots designed for carrying out their orders. They make employees stay late after work for no reasons, attend stupid meetings and perform tasks that make no sense or have little purpose. He has no faith on anyone except few slave types, non-performing psycophants because he lacks self esteem and faith in himself.

The worst type of a boss gives you way too many tasks to handle, with unclear directions, wrong type of untrained resources, and impossible deadlines, while constantly changing their mind and directions, and having no clue about what they want or how they want it done. At the end, when you are late or the work is not done to their satisfaction – it becomes your fault with all the resulting consequences.

Boss's energies are directed towards a whole day drama where he wants to show others that he is the best man for his job. Fact is that he is there because of someone's mistake not due to his capabilities and he is the biggest threat to the co.. He is poor in cash management due to overemphasis on cost cutting to maximize his bonus & commission.

Any of this sounds familiar? Try these four ways to deal with an idiot boss before deciding to quit your job.

So how do you deal with a lousy boss?

Be smart and adapt to their style of work. Find the buttons to press. Dealing with less than effective managers (let’s just call them idiot bosses), is a challenge that too many employees don’t know how to approach correctly. One way to prevent problems is to study and understand your boss’s personality, their style of work and their expectations regarding your work. You can then adjust your approach and your style to please your boss, while guarantying yourself peace of mind. For example, if your boss is an annoying micro-manager, ask them about their preferred ways of you reporting to them, and report back on a regular basis and make sure ask for feedback every time. Chances are you boss will love this and will soon leave you alone after seeing that things are done “their way” and that they are “in control”. They may also get tired of “too much control” having to give you feedback all the time and will eventually give you more freedom (as some bosses will put it – “because they trust you will do a good job”. The bottom line – you will make your boss happy and will earn your freedom while keeping your boss off your back.
Manage your boss. If it is at all possible, try resolving problems by talking to your boss – it is the quickest and the least painful way. If something concerns you, makes you uncomfortable or offends you – tell them about it right away. For example, if a boss is constantly yelling at you, simply tell them that you understand their frustration but them raising their voice makes you uncomfortable or even threatened. This especially works well if you are a female and you boss is a male – mostly will back down right away.If that doesn’t work, document the facts of all incidents and how that impacted your performance – as well as other employees in the company. This process may be enough to relieve you of the stress so that you can cope. If everything fails – ignore him and take your case to the senior management.
Do not take things personally. Try focusing on work. Try to perform well, while ignoring all these distractions and focus on your work to see if that changes anything. Let your boss know that you are doing job to the best of your abilities.
Find a mentor or a mediator in the office. If you and your boss don’t connect well, you should consider finding someone else in the office who may be able to help you. A more experienced, seasoned or an elder employee may be more respected by the boss and may have already found “a recipe” to handling them. They can put in a word for you as well as provide you with valuable support and advice in coping with the boss. However, be very careful about your choice of words when talking to other employees – you never know who else they might tell. Tell them you have a problem – don’t bad mouth your boss.
Don't be part of money-laundering project – If you are in this situation then you have no escape because you have been hired as per a plan where you have to take blame for all the misdeeds and inefficiency of the people who are sharing the booty. There are few countries where 90% projects are of this type and everyone in client is interested in making a project fail so they can float a new tender for another similar project with new vendor.
Don’t sacrifice your nerves or self-esteem – it is not worth it! Doing nothing and hoping that the problems will resolve themselves is the worst idea. No one (especially your idiot boss) is worth impacting your mental and physical health, self respect, self-esteem or sanity over them. If there is no way to resolve these issues you should start looking for another job. If you want to stay in your company, a good mentor can help you transfer to a different department provided co. is big enough and he is not the only boss around. If you do decide to quit – do it wisely: don’t burn bridges and have a backup plan if anything changes.

Remember nothing will work (among 4 ways suggested above) with a persons who is trying too hard to masquerade as an effective manager. He is trying to keep an eye on everything though he is blind like a bat. He is a control freak but no control on himself. He doesnt respect his employees and vendors except his own reporting manager. Then its sure, you boarded a sinking ship with too many holes where you have been hired as a scapegoat from the day you signed the contract.

BHUVAN: Indian Earth Observation Visualization

2009-08-15T10:45:00.000-07:00

With Best Wishes to you all on our 63rd Independence day, I am putting this information to celebrate the success of Indian Space Programme in last 4 decades.

Bhuvan is a geoportal that provides medium to high resolution satellite imagery of virtually the entire India over the internet. You can "fly" around using mouse and keyboard on a simple desktop computer with virtual globe in front draped with IRS images over Indian region. Many other features are built in, including 3D terrain and information on many thematic data.

Bhuvan is an initiative to showcase this distinctiveness of Indian imaging capabilities including the thematic information derived from such imagery which could be of vital importance to common man with a focus on Indian region. Bhuvan, an ambitious project of ISRO to take Indian images and thematic information in multiple spatial resolutions to people through a web portal through easy access to information on basic natural resources in the geospatial domain. Bhuvan showcases Indian images by the superimposition of these IRS satellite imageries on 3D globe. It displays satellite images of varying resolution of India's surface, allowing users to visually see things like cities and important places of interest looking perpendicularly down or at an oblique angle, with different perspectives and can navigate through 3D viewing environment. The degree of resolution showcased is based on the points of interest and popularity, but most of the Indian terrain is covered upto at least 5.8 meters of resolution with the least spatial resolution being 55 meters from AWifs Sensor. With such rich content, Bhuvan opens the door to graphic visualisation of digital geospatial India allowing individuals to experience the fully interactive terrain viewing capabilities.

Multi-resolution images from multi-sensor IRS satellites of India is seamlessly depicted through the Bhuvan web portal by enabling a common man to zoom into specific area of interest at high resolution. Bhuvan brings a whole lot of uniqueness in understanding our own natural resources whilst presenting beautiful images and thematic vectors generated from varieties of geospatial information. Bhuvan will also attempt to bring out the importance of multi-temporal data and to highlight the changes taking place to our natural resources, which will serve as a general awareness on our changing planet. There are lot more special value added services which will be enabled onto the web portal in due course of time and each one of those services are going to be unique to preserving and conserving our precious natural resources through public participation. We are sure the common man will get rich benefits from these Indian geospatial data services in days to come.

Basic features of Bhuvan:

Access, explore and visualise 2D and 3D image data along with rich thematic information on Soil, wasteland, water resources etc.

Visualise multi-resolution, multi-sensor, multi-temporal image data
Superpose administrative boundaries of choice on images as required

Visualisation of AWS ( Automatic Weather Stations) data/information in a graphic view and use tabular weather data of user choice
Fly to locations ( Flies from the current location directly to the selected location)
Heads-Up Display ( HUD) navigation controls ( Tilt slider, north indicator, opacity, compass ring, zoom slider)
Navigation using the 3D view Pop-up menu (Fly-in, Fly out, jump in, jump around, view point)
3D Fly through (3D view to fly to locations, objects in the terrain, and navigate freely using the mouse or keyboard)
Drawing 2D objects (Text labels, polylines, polygons, rectangles, 2D arrows, circles, ellipse)
Drawing 3D Objects (placing of expressive 3D models, 3D polygons, boxes)
Snapshot creation (copies the 3D view to a floating window and allows to save to a external file)
Measurement tools (Horizontal distance, aerial distance, vertical distance, measure area)
Shadow Analysis (it sets the sun position based on the given time creating shadows and effects the lighting on the terrain)

Particular interest of ISRO/DOS would be to provide such functionalities to common man so that he/she adopts participatory approach with scientists to solve simple problems easily and interactively.

Advanced functionalities to be provided in future versions
Urban Design Tools (to build roads, junctions and traffic lights in an urban setting)
Contour map ( Displays a colorized terrain map and contour lines)
Terrain profile ( Displays the terrain elevation profile along a path)
Draw tools (Creates simples markers, free hand lines, urban designs)
Navigation map (to jump to and view locations in the 3D India)

You will be able to see the following data on Bhuvan

Satellite imagery (LISS III , LISS IV along with metadata and Multi- temporal Data from OCM & AWiFS)
Value added information (NADAMS “ National Agricultural Drought Monitoring System), Output of flood studies for certain areas,
Thematic information (Wastelands, Soils, watershed,water resources related maps)
Base layers ( administrative boundaries, transport layers, water bodies, etc)
Census information
Metadata

For more details visit: http://bhuvan. nrsc.gov. in/index. html

Do you Enjoy Being A PM?

2009-07-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

One of the things that makes me wonder is when people introduce themselves as a project manager and you start talking to them about project management and then you realise they are not real project managers.

In fact the title of PM is very clearly defined.

1. The project must be controlled using a recognised project management methodology which varies by nature of Project, Country & Industry.

2. A PM does not define a project, only controls it. The PM controls only three aspects, time, cost & quality. The project is defined by the project board or consultant. If your project has no board, you are not a PM in the industry definition of the term. You are just a care taker.

For those that mange projects, it has to be one of the best jobs; every day is different, the achievement when a project goes well is fantastic (if not rare) and the way you have to deal with so many different people with different agenda makes it one of the most challenging. Change is a VERY difficult thing to accomplish - particularly on large organizations. Sometimes these projects don't go the way the owners wanted and get negative feedback. Thus PM become the scapegoats, though its not his creation and the (wrong) RFP was written by a "so-called" expert. However this is part of risk management and should be used accordingly. It is one of the few jobs that if done well goes unnoticed; the project was delivered on time and within budget that is expected and its not due to him. Projects get noticed when they go wrong and PM gets the credit for the failure. As non-technical (MBA) lobby is tirelessly trying to establish the notion - The secret to success is knowing who to blame. They are still not ready to take any lessons from this recession which happend because of this ostrich like approach of managers and decision makers.

I have also found Project manager to be a abused and misused term. I’ve been a project manager, technical specialist, QA/QC expert. I found that 90% of people don’t want change in their workplace, usually because it will adversely affect them. Situation becomes very alarming if there are people on client side who themselves don't want project to succeed as it may make them redundant (common in gov. projects). Contrary to that a failed/delayed project is good for their blame game approach. A project always creates change and rarely for the good for the people who are having it done to them by changing the status quo and throwing new challenges.

The term “project manager” is deliberately misconstrued by people who overestimate the earning potential of project managers. They wish to have associated with the term & include it on their CV as they think that this will a. get them a better paid job & b. give them some kudos by telling others they are a PM. I personally know many persons who following a project management awareness course or certificate course (few classes of powerpoint “this is a project” etc and online tests) added PM to their CV and started applying for PM jobs.

A project manager needs to be very good at pleasing everyone; they are blamed from all sides ehen the project is late/ over budget. Most of the times scope of work (SoW), time frames and budgets are unrealistic. Then there is the SoW and methods that the resources ( just hired in hurry) don’t understand and the sponsor (guy with the money) keeps changing because he started to understand SoW only when first delivery was made and invoice sent. You as the project manager have to deliver it to the same time frames and budget. Now who wants to be a Project Manager? Answer is obvious and thats the reason we see so many troubled projects and consequently co.s also?

ArcFM Developers Required

2009-06-17T03:03:00.000-07:00

The candidate(s) should be able to work on the following activities:

Proposed responsibilities include:

Gather requirement and Preparing functional specifications document including;
UML based specifications, Logical Data Model, Preparing Design Documents, Physical Data Model Classes, Carrying out Application Development Work, Deliver new functionalities to existing GIS applications, Develop new functionalities to core software (ArcGIS / ArcFM)
Develop new GIS Applications, Emergency maintenance of existing GIS applications
Testing Application, Prepare Test Plans, Conduct Unit Testing, Conduct Functional Testing
Conduct Final Application Testing, Prepare User Manuals

The candidate is required to work in Bahrain at the end-client location.

B. Candidate Profile

The candidate(s) should have the following credentials

1. Graduate or Post Graduate in Computer Science or any related discipline
2. Familiarity with thin client tools such as Citrix and Windows Remote Terminal Services
3. Fluent with computer languages required for GIS development using ESRI and Telvent- Miner and Miner Tools
4. Familiarity with Oracle 10g and Access database
5. Fluent in English (written & spoken)

C. Experience

The candidate(s) should have at least three years of proven experience in:
1. Using ESRI and Microsoft Development Tools.
2. Data Modeling
3. Using SQL queries for Oracle 10g
4. VB6 and VB.NET for desktop applications
5. ASP.NET & VB.NET for web applications
6. ESRI ArcGIS 9.x (ArcObjects) / M&M AcrFM 9.x object library for desktop development
7. ESRI ArcGIS Server 9.2 / 9.3 for web development
8. Developing tools for Electricity and Water Utility networks

D. Contract Period

The candidate(s) would be required for a minimum of five months during the yearly contract. The minimum duration of a given assignment (could be one or multiple tasks) would be for two weeks per developer.
The duration required for a particular job would be mutually decided and accordingly the candidate would be deployed on site.
Within two weeks from a request the developer should be made available for working on site.

Send your resume to ajaysrivast@gmail.com

Habits of a good manager

2009-06-05T01:24:00.000-07:00

Read the full article 1st: The Seven habits of a typical bad manager

http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit%2Ely%2F7HabitsBadManager&urlhash=ulwE&_t=disc_detail_link

I would like to add few more comments from readers across the world that you would also like to hear and may help 'some of us' in becoming a 'good manager' also.

Always insecure and relying on shouting (lung power instead of brain power) to understand in attempt to fix any problem.
Concentrates more on discussing things that are low on priority or any past mistake by others.
Managers who doesn't believe what their Project leads says and make everything an open issue for brain storming. They take every issue with suspicion and wanted to clarify the same issue with some one whom they trust but has lesser knowledge. Suggestion- If you are unable to comprehend an issue related to technology, pls trust the people who are experts in that particular area and have the issue escalated for appropriate support instead of doing R&D to justify his ignorance by saying "its not rocket science".
Constantly demanding your employees work faster, even when there's no pressing deadline and no road map.
Trying to guilt-trip or bully your employees into doing what you want to make stories to save his skin than solving the problem.
Takes two weeks to make a decision on even the most menial topics.
People who worked would never be promoted because then there would be no one to do the actual work.
Stealing the show from their subordinates - Often it happens that when the focus is on the success and easy bonus, these bad managers will depict them as the real achievers without any shame.
Not owning the failure - This is again similar but reverse to above point, in case of failure, they dont own it, but scold the subordinates in front of everybody.
Unwanted advise to peers - These bad managers will always poke nose in to others work and try to prove that their peers are less competent than themselves. They always give advise to others just to prove that they know better..
Enough already with a spreadsheet that tracks everything from deliverables to the color socks you wore at the launch meeting. You gotta be engrossed in it 6 hours a day to understand how it can help you.
They have no clear definition of direction where the organization is supposed to move to.
Bad Managers treat people like equipment.
The manager is always busy creating reports of work to be accomplished, but nothing ever gets accomplished because he is busy having his staff create pretty reports.
The lack of common sense is the worst "habbit" could happen to a someone.
There are managers who have bad sense of humor. They're always angry because they think it's going to get the team more productive.
Acceptable sub-ordinates are those who dress like them, talks like them, and always agree with them.
I see more managers who are good dressers than good planners. Seriously. I previously did audits for a very respected multinational company.
A lot of folks want to be "managers" for the pay and power and career progress NOT because its their forte. In my last job, one chap was an engineer and he was promoted to manager the next day with zero training. You would not promote an air steward to pilot just because s/he has put in the time would you ?. s/he will be a really bad Pilot because he will be pretending whole day to be a genuine pilot. Long story short, often its not a person's fault when they are "Bad". Its fault of the person who hired him. He is doing the best he can do (ie pretensions).

Now My Comments:

1. I don't trash everything mentioned in the articles or the comments in the name of optimism and positively. You can always take lessons from such debates. Many so-called senior people may not agree with most of the things but these may help us in understanding the reasons for the last few failed projects in your co.. If you also don't agree then you are also among those bad managers who are misfits in the co. and thus screwing it everyday. Again, its not always persons fault when they are bad. Someone in the co. is responsible for breeding that culture of incompetence. Incompetence is a contagious disease that's is usually spread by few persons at the top. I have no doubts about it.

“Surround yourself with great people. Where you have intellect and brains, you’ll find the right answers.” Bad Managers can be changed into Good Managers, if they realise their weaknesses and improve themselves to have more confidence and less pretensions to survive in the business. Its a task that only they can do it for themselves. Buying degrees and certificates will not help much. Most of these bad traits have been noticed in the managers who lack subject knowledge and understanding of business and rely too much on commercially off-the shelf degrees and certificates to stay in the market. Its one who is suspicious about everything he listens from his own experts/staff and then relies on things from people who are not equipped to tell him the complete thing.

Many thinkers have taken different stances on describing this common crisis affecting the corporate world, but one thing is for sure, that one reason remains the same for all, and that there is a bad managers hidden somewhere within all of us and these things are helping in the rise of "Rajus"( small or big) in every organization.

And the one solution - The world needs to go back to the mantra of atleast some minimum level of honesty, work ethics and lesser drama to prove that "I got it coz I Deserve' it in the work place.

2. There should not be any PM who doesn't understand the domain and visualize the ultimate business needs of clients beyond the SRS document. A minimum level of first hand knowledge is required if not the expertise. 'General knowledge' is not usable knowledge because most of the time it is acquired by PMs during crisis when the problem is full blown. Its good for time pass only. They do a lot of miss-communication also and then create additional problems for the team. Domain knowledge helps a lot in the early stage of project when most of the challenges are identified and a lot depends on the PM to choose the right options and share the knowledge of his team members as well as the client. Usual manager who entered riding on degrees like MBA and certificates like PMSs etc alone will have no oversight and long term perspective and at the end totally fail in understanding these aspects and give undue importance to usual planning stuff like cost etc to show he is doing his best and only he can understand these things. Fact of the matter is that it doesn't help any way without the understanding of real issues affecting the project success. An ill conceived project will cost you many times more than initially planned no matter how many hours PM (with domain weaknesses) spends on planning and discussions.

Leader, Fake Leaders & their Managers

2009-06-02T05:25:00.000-07:00

Lets discuss a real case study to understand the importance of this issue. General Motors and the MASSIVE failure on so many levels by that once mighty company. After all what went wrong. Can we blame only rising oil prices in 2008 for its failure? NO. Its all a leadership failure. Many people saw the crisis coming but there was also a lot of "whistling past the grave yard," as people hoped that this would not turn into a crisis. There was no real leader who had the guts to address these issues in GM and other co.s following the "American model." of management and marketing. That is the problem with this easy bonus culture. Everything is fine till you are getting more than what you deserve. Tomorrow is just another day of month in that organization. Is there anyone in America that want to argue against the fact that for 30+ years GM had fairly good management but NO LEADERSHIP? Who was looking at the foreign car manufacturers and doing some basic math and bench marking. The over riding reason for the failure of these companies is the failure at ALL LEVELS of management to have focus on the future and the will to do what was necessary.I am sure they have best of the managers (with degrees from best instt. & certificates like PMPs etc) and some "Leaders" too. Managers who refuse to take ownership and accountability both. They are just 'game players' who are more concerned about keeping the ball in other court and few reports on their laptop monitor. They could have done better. It is not rocket science but it does take commitment to a better way of doing things, a commitment to curing the common workplace. There are Leaders who pretend to understand everything, are great orators but lacked FOCUS, because they are not genuine stuff. Result is the poorly defined business needs and failed projects. There are many parts to that word "FOCUS" as it applies to business. One of the keys is that an organization has balance between the tactical world of what do we need to get done and what to we have to start working towards, strategically, so we will be ready to get it done in few years from now today.

http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2009/06/the-buck-stops-and-starts-at-business-school/ar/1

Developers, GIS Technicians & Surveyors Required

2009-05-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Our Utilities & Survey Div. in Bahrain has multiple openings for qualified Developers, GIS/ CAD Technicians & Surveyors to perform intermediate technical work generating and maintaining engineering (electric and water network) data and drawings. Must be able to work in field and office environment. Candidate must be able to generate engineering drawings related to system mapping, construction standards, or others as needed. Must be able to convert geographic information to digital data to prepare maps and integrate related engineering information. Knowledge of surveying, mapping techniques and principles, tabular and graphic data display, and computers a must. Education and experience equivalent to Degree/Diploma in EE, CE and/or related sciences with CAD or GIS experience. Experience with ArcGIS, AutoCad, GPS, TS equipments, and electric utility operations preferred. Possession of valid driver’s license required.

1. Electric GIS/ CAD Technicians

responsible for transferring feeder information(cable type and size, feeder connectivity information, phasing, device placement, line and substation layout) and design from survey inputs to GIS.
responsible for reading wire information (voltage, phasing, primary lines and secondary lines, types of wire used) from planning drawings and transferring it to digital format

2. Water Network GIS/ CAD Technicians

responsible for transferring mains, valves, service pipes, customer information etc from survey inputs to GIS.

3. ArcFM Developer (Experience on .Net, Oracle, ArcGIS Server & ArcFM)

Apply: ajaysrivast@gmail.com

OpenSource & Geospatial Intelligence System (GIS)

2009-04-02T02:54:00.000-07:00

GIS is not just maps and visulaization. It has left the geography train much before. Lets not dilute it by using its old definiation which centred around it and kept it at the periphery of overall IT infrastructure. Lets call it "Geospatial Intelligence System" (GIS).

Geospatial Intelligence System (GIS) is now at the core of many consumer applications. We all know it is more about the integration of locational intelligence with the existing IT setup so users can take the advantage of this powerful tool. With the addition of an integration platform, which may include an enterprise service bus, GIS services can be fused with the other shared services of complementary enterprise systems (CRM, ERP, CIS, etc.) to provide a more complete business picture. Along with the proliferation of consumer mapping and Free and Open Source (FOS) platforms, GIS integration has grown over the past five years, so has the overall interest of developers and new breed of GISers. Use of Open Source technology enriches service offerings and provides value in overall efficiency, accuracy, and accessibility to organizational business processes with lesser limitations due to sw specific requirements and architecture. For example, compare Microsft MSN with Google products. All google products are open source, youtube, orkut, g-maps, g-earth ocean etc. You can't fix many problems in the popular GIS softwares. You are always limited with ArcGIS, Mapinfo or Autocad or any other, but with open source there is no such limitations. In most of the audio video web applications, open source has given a new concept for web that is known as web 2.0 technology where these sites Google, eBay etc are launched. Very soon web 3.0 technology is about to come.

Scapability, Customisation, Compatibility and even performance is beyond desire in open source eg like WMS, WFS, Open Jump, GRASS, Postgre SQL, Web 2.0 etc. The core programming is back with bang and now even microsfot is afraid after the recent success of Google products. All the big co. have setup R&D div. for this and even smaller enterpreneur are happy as all they need now is buch of capable and motivated people only. EU has already taken the lead and soon when Indian and Chinese talent pool will also become familliar with this advantage then Microsoft and ESRI, MapInfo, AutocAD etc will face a tough challenge in market

Tool to Technology: Time to move From CAD++ to GIS

2009-03-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

GIS is a wonderful tool, the problem is that it is used for cartographic reasons mainly. After seeing the growth of GIS and its utilization It looks like GIS itself is in crisis. There are many issues with GIS. Biggest problem is too much technology and not enough thinking about what it should be used for.

It seems engineer’s dont want to use GIS and the obvious reason is that GIS is not an engineering tool. It lacks many basic requirements of their engineering operations that these enggs tackle using their own methods in traditional ways. There are activities centered on viewing the territory, and generally speaking a huge percentage of these teams do not have access to GIS tools. I'm thinking of utilities/environmental studies/planning/assessment/monitoring as an example. Engineers in this area keep working in a manual fashion - they would benefit enormously just by having a simple and accessible spatial view of their object of study. Also, difficulties inherent to GIS should be ironed out - data and analysis tools should be streamlined to be effectively used on a daily basis. Once you give tools like these to a team, you'll see a huge gain in productiveness. That's what GIS should be selling today. In fact GIS should be sold as component of overall "IT infrastructure" with proper integration tools. Alone it becomes CAD++ (GIS used for the tasks that can be done with any CAD) and people usually use it to take colorful printouts and slides for presentations.

I think real profitability of GIS comes after integrating it with other real-time analysis software. Though, in itself, GIS softwares are a huge advantage for any utility company but that basically involves data processing capabilities, reports and some advanced analysis. Unless we will be able to let GIS softwares seamlessley talk with other softwares, its capabilities would be limited. Apart from ESRI, Intergaraph GE Smallworld provides wonderful solutions for Utility companies. But real challenge is to make it talk with other analysis s/ws or ERP s/ws with which can provide real-time Fault management system, Load analysis, Designing capabilities and so many other exciting features.

The real power of GIS is as a tool to increase operational efficiencies. I come at it from a more engineering-centric view and therefore not one of absolutes. When an engineer is looking to design a network, dam, or building for that matter, it is important that they know what the conditions are at the site. GIS allows them to understand a number of conditional attributes and onsite conditions (to a number of things). At this scoping or pre-feasibility phase, the level of accuracy required is really quite small. That is the reason utility co.s and engg. applcations dont require precision of coordinates. Engineers typically go through a series of phases (scoping, pre-feasibility, feasibility and design) which allow them to start at a very small scale and narrow the choices for the ultimate purpose. The power of GIS for these engineers is in avoiding costly and time consuming field visits and some level of simulation in the office.

So what does all this have to do with increased profitability for the typical business? I believe that, just as with engineering where you have to align the use of GIS with your objectives, in business you must also keep clearly defined 'business goals' in mind. Before diving into GIS analysis ask the question, how will GIS help this process and will it make it more efficient. In most cases the answers you get from using GIS are not as accurate as physical field work; however, using GIS to narrow the choices for fieldwork can be a very efficient and cost effective solution? In some cases GIS can also accomplish certain tasks in a fraction of the time it would take to accomplish using more traditional methods.

Anyway, GIS is a tool like any other IT application. It relies on skilled use to create a desired result by manipulating your database. The skill not only comes from knowing what buttons to push but also knowing what the appropriate processes as well as understanding the desired result. For ex. many orhanisations have realised now that GIS is a wasteful expenditure with no justification for RoI. Its time to correct the expectations and contain the hype created by sales and marketing persons that "GIS is the answer to their all kinds of problems" if you buy their boxes. GIS is nothing more than a location based "Asset Management System" that can be integrated with some other non-GIS applications. Most of the co.s fail to do that and they end up with CAD++ with all the expensive sw's instead of a real enterprise GIS due to lack of vision and expertise at right level. Use it as an enabling technology to improve your efficiency and not as a tool to print drawings, reports and posters.

As Joel Barker says;

Vision without Action is just a dream.
Action without Vision just passes the time.
Vision with Action can change the world.

Utility GIS: Are you Running with Horse on your Back?

2009-02-28T01:32:00.000-08:00

GIS is a mature technology that is well understood by GIS practitioners, but, paradoxically, many utilities struggle to implement an enterprise-wide GIS. Instead, they rely on workflow and build applications with little regard for data-sharing among users and standardization.

Through the appropriate use of geospatial or related technologies, a utility can build an end-to-end, return-on-investment (ROI) driven enterprise GIS strategy that improves operational effectiveness, safety, and environmental and financial performance across a number of business processes.

Traditionally, utilities have engaged GIS vendors or consultants to undertake “needs analysis” that were meant to identify opportunities within the business where GIS technology could help drive down cost, as well as improve efficiencies. In many cases, however, these studies were carried out using a bottom-up approach that focused on the technology (features, functionality) rather than on the business outcome. They resulted in application focused approaches that neither broke down organizational barriers nor bought any tangible benefits in their work flow. Unfortunately, they often hampered the operations that utilities practiced for years without improving the bottom line. Result was that these utility co.s were disappointed after some time without any ROI justification. Most of the utility co.s have realised by now that GIS is a wasteful expenditure with no justification for RoI. Its time to correct the client expectations and contain the hype created by sales and marketing persons that GIS is the answer to their all kinds of problems. GIS is nothing more than a location based "Asset Management System" that can be integrated with some other non-GIS applications. Most of the co.s fail to do that and they end up with CAD++ with all the expensive sw's instead of a real enterprise GIS due to lack of vision and expertise at right level.

A common misconception exists about business case development being a means to an end (to obtain budget). However, developing a business case in isolation of the business is a recipe for disaster and that is the reason for many co. feeling the burden of carrying GIS. Without a proper road map sometimes they move in the wrong direction without prioritizing their needs and thus waste of time, effort and money. Although funding could be obtained by building a business case with assumptions and unchecked facts, the subsequent delivery of the expected benefit almost always fails to meet expectations. As a result, subsequent results for funding may be met with skepticism, delay and a lack of commitment or buy-in. If GIS is not improving the efficiency of your orgnisation then you are running with horse on your back and definately you can not go long like this. Need is to have relook at your plans and also at those who are responsible for execution as they may not be knowing what they are doing due to lack of clarity about the technology and the business needs.

A better approach exists, an approach that must be business-led (not technology-led); benefits-focused (not functionality or application focused); highly-participative (top-down) backed by a strong technical team; and must use proven ROI methods for quantifying and proving the value of the investment. On the spot brain storming sessions should not be used to resolve the important issues and fix the business needs due to the obvious differences in the understanding of GIS, perceptions of problems resulting in impractical expectations from these projects. The outcome of the approach that follows these principles should provide a powerful and robust business case that is supported by senior stakeholders, quantifies the required investment (human, capital and operational), defines the benefits delivery roadmap and delivers realistic ROI justification.

Global Economic Crisis: It’s a Leadership Crisis

2009-02-21T12:20:00.000-08:00

In 340 B.C. Aristotle began describing a series of principles that have been embraced in both western and eastern cultures. A thorough understanding of these ideas enables a leader to think and act with greater clarity and effectiveness causing people to voluntarily follow the leader’s direction and example. Basics never change and they are same across all the business & co.s. A leader can never achieve greatness and success on the outside unless he or she has developed fundamental qualities on the inside and he has followers who also understand and follow his way. Behavior decisions and choices are all a reflection of our inner world and the way you chosse to live & survive here. Unfortunately managers can unintentionally get caught in the competitive "win at any cost” mentality or the greedy "more for me” line of thinking. This can derail the careers of most intelligent people. We read all about it every day, manager who abused their trust of the community, customers, regulators or employees. It happens in the sales, research, or in operations from the executive suites to the front lines. Successful business thrives on sound character, values, and principles more than laws, regulations and fines.

There are basically three kinds of leaders in organizations today: unsuccessful ones, those who are occasionally successful, and those who consistently maintain the commitment of followers on a long term basis. No need to waste time on the first two categories. The third type requires an understanding of the finer qualities of leadership, character, intellect, and values. Character based leadership cannot be achieved by arrogant or power-hungry managers who choose to intimidate others. Sometimes those in authority feel driven to be overly aggressive, take short cuts, and do what is expedient versus doing what is right. They failed to realize the long-term impact of these practices and depend too much on no. & statistics (which are mainly used to mislead management & people both. Ex. failed big banks did in US & EU) without understanding the sustainability of the plan.

I have long felt that decision makers now give too much emphasis to numbers because of wrong type of education (courses for degrees and certificates). I dont want to name but you know the trend for getting some management related certificates because co.s give weightage to it. These are acquired by usually bogus candidates to pad up their week CVs. Management education is veering more and more towards becoming quantitative-oriented. This is emanating from a belief that whatever one can measure (& plot in xls for reports & presentations) one can manage. The irony is that human nature ( and so market) is highly complex and the complexity of the human personality and its interaction with others is only glimpsed at through a habit of observation and learning and this has been proved by many business leaders of past & present. One can only vitiate the understanding of human nature by trying to reduce it singularly to something which can be measured or captured in various metrics.

A true leader makes plans to benefit everyone and not just for his salary & commission. They don't rely on no.s alone to take decisions and plan strategies. Sensex is not the only driving force behind them. Wall street is not the only road to walk. They don't make plans that can not be converted to reality (profit). Knowledge base and understanding is must for anyone who is taking decisions that can make or break any organization. Second hand knowledge increases dependability on others ( usually a coterie with third hand ie GK type unusable knowledge) and risk of failures in an environment of aggressive marketing. Most leaders would never plunder their company, misguide the management & board members, rip off investors, cook the books, or ride on the safety of others by taking short cuts. They dont indulge in activities or initiatives that don't ultimately dont add value to clients bottom line.

Leaders who earn the respect and commitment of their followers demonstrate qualities and characteristics that run deeper than leadership skills, techniques, and knowledge alone. Effective leaders lead by example and exhibit their true character consistently. This in turn causes people to voluntarily support an organization’s mission and purpose. They know that leadership is a privilege. It means you have to consistently do the right thing for the right reasons. Good leadership is an inner choice. It is character based. Good leaders will give your organization a competitive edge; bogus leadership, on the other hand, will cost you in critical times when you need the support of followers the most.

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss. . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." - Theodore Roosevelt

10 people most responsible for the recession http://www.webinfoathome.com/articles/read.php?article_id=145

http://kafila.org/2009/02/13/the-caste-of-a-scam-a-thousand-satyams-in-the-making/#comment-4830

Governance of Indian Universities: Deemed to Decay

2009-01-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

India with a current student population of around 4 million in its universities and colleges is the third largest system in the world after USA and USSR. The unprecedented expansion of higher education in India, which took place in the last four decades, has, however, been extremely uneven and resulted in the neglect of quality, research and management aspects. The universities and colleges function much below their optimal levels and fail even to fulfill their minimum and basic tasks such as making admissions, completing teaching, conducting examinations, declaring results and awarding degrees on time. The very credibility of the higher education system stands eroded.

Warning Bells

Departments have faculty members that do not hold advanced degrees and very few hold doctorates from reputed institutions. Those who hold Ph.Ds have no publications as first author in reputed International Journals. Too may non-serious actors have intruded into academics. Who will expose them. Almost 70 % of the faculties in every department in Universities (including the Cental Univ.) have never published papers in Int Journals or presented papers since last decade. This is the group that becomes biggest hindrance to growth of the department & spoils the environment in the department by creating obstacles to their colleagues who can produce good work and make them irrelevant. Such unwanted persons in acadmeics have made a nexus to manipulate things to their advantage.

Promotions of faculties should be on the basis of publications and research only. Requirement of recommendations and refernaces is the biggest catalyst in the decay and destruction of higher educationa d research in India. More than 70 % Ph.Ds and promotions in universities are bogus due to this loophole and no one is talking about this menace as all the unwanted ones are breathing through this hole only.

A survey of employers shows that only a handful of the 1400 engineering schools in India are recognized as providing world-class education with graduates worthy of consideration for employment (Globalization of Engineering Services, 2006). AICTE and UGC have failed beyond doubt in controlling the quality of staff and institutes. Grants are given to private institutions on the basis of their political affiliations who in turn encourage internal groupings within the department in promotions etc. Situation is going to become worse after the implementation of 6th pay commission as everyone wants to be promoted to the highest pay scale by manipulating the system.

Many Engineering colleges do not appear to meet the NBA standards, and yet they are NBA accredited, it does not appear that the NBA criterion on faculty and staff for accreditation is being applied in any meaningful manner, suggesting another level of institutional failure.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/asianuniversityrankings/asian_university_rankings_top_200_universities/

Time to expose the Rajus in Universities and Higher Education

The National Policy on Education-1986 was introduced to reorganize and strengthen the higher education through multi-pronged strategies and programmes and structural reforms. Policy interventions have, however, failed to create much impact. There is a need to revamp the governance framework of the universities and bring in place a rigorous system of performance audit to stem the rot into the system.

Institutions are not serious about maintaining the standards and quality of teaching and research. Thats is the reasons for finding so many manipulators we see everywhere eincluding your dept to the corridors of UGC and AICTE. You can get any accrdiation if you can manage a few babus there. Univ. cant attract talented persons because they are not interested and dont want them. It has become the fiedom of "Idalist and Incomptents". Even senior professors are afraid of any bright knowledgable person around. Its not going to happen even after the 10th Pay revision if we dont the impression that teaching is not for idalists and incompetents. Lot of people are responsible for this and its not due to few black sheeps as talked by many whenever any scam is exposed. We have to admit theat there are many black sheeps in the education sector also. In fact there are 'very few white sheeps and too many white collar bandits' n the education sector throughout the world like U.K. and Aussies Univ..

There is a need for an independent evaluating agency like USA and many other countries to check the bogus rating bodies working under the control of UGC and AICTE. It should be made mandatory to all Univ. to have a sepaarte section on their websites where professors, departments and institutions can be rated and evalauated by the students after they pass out only. This can be done by a separate national level site also to avoid any disagrremenet about the artings. These ratings should be given a good weightage during the promotions, evaluations and ratings by the authorised gov. agencies as interview and inspections have been proved ineffective and helping only in promoting the incompetencies. This will definately help in checking the groupings and manipullations happening in education.

How many of our respected professors and institutions will agree to this kind of evaluation by their ex-students? Hmmmmmmmmm.

I posted this suggestion in one of the yahoo groups who talk too much about higher education and morality but my comments were never posted.

http://www.careers360.in/cover-story/iipm---best-only-in-claims.php

Satyam Fiasco and Corporate Culture: Tip of the Iceberg

2009-01-09T03:28:00.000-08:00

'The scintillating performance of white collars are now showing up patches of darkness in the private sector also. The hollowness of money spinning generation has been opening up. The charisma of Business school theories and their products are now no more a spell bounding. The fort of globalsiation has been collapsing. The series of "economic and systematic scam" is gruelling the murkier scenario of "Global depression". The Satyam episode is not a earthquake. The epicentre of the Satyam (and many more to come in future) shake is well known , but we all had closed our eyes (and ears) when many among us were feelings the tremors in the past. We have never released ourselves from the lust of money and machoism. This global economic crisis is the result of misplaced priporities and short sighted business plans. (Dont blame oil prices alone.) Unlimited greed to capture the global market ( without any long term vision and ethics) made way for unsustainable and impractical plans (expansion, over-production resulting in over-employment with high bonus for sales persons & managers for showing projected profit with wrong assumptions) that were not feasible in any sense. Everything was justified in the name of aggressive marketing. (Remember those lectures from your colleagues for raising these ethical issues during lunch break discussions. "In fact there is nothing that can be called right or wrong in this world. It’s all a matter of our perception and personal preferences". You were told). These are the only two unsocial product of Global economy that was in hands of over ambitious marketing persons who believed that anything is good that helps in getting the business. There was no difference between temporary and long term goals due to lack of vision. The illusion (Professionalism & Cheating as two sides of a coin) is created by these so-called elite managers and we are mortgaging the existence of reality. Profit projection is the only way to justify their positions (and year end appraisals), though most of them have brilliant CV but usually without basic understanding of that field. The unsocial marriage of profit making plans and market opportunities has given the birth of unsocial child of "Unfaithful" corporate culture and capital. Who will cherish this unsocial child? The egoistic rhythm of big B - Schools (and E-Schools also) is now jarring the world civilization. Let us hold them now and teach them to respect the basic ethos of society where at present honesty and transparency are noticed as sign of unprofessionalism.

In fact the way to deter others from such manipulations, and even to get at others is to expeditiosly put Raju and his Accountants/ Auditors/ Directors behind bars. This may give those who know about misdeeds of others to come forward and expose them. Also an enquiry should be set up to know the utilization of all the top B- school products hired on multi-million packages by these co.s. Were they just used to mainly mislead clients, balance sheet manipulations and shield the manipulators at higher management level? I am sure that these B-school products contributed enough to the downfall of the USA financial sector also. All the co.s that gone bust (or got bail out) are those who were too generous in recruiting from top B-Schools and giving commission based bonus to their managers. A make-believe fantasy world was created by these people where they tried to hijack the basics theories of good business practices, sustainable growth, parameters of professionalism & socio-economic realities.

The fantasy created for the elite service providers has been evaporated in the heat of Global Depression, Ethical Terrorism and Global Machosim. The hammer of TIME has been bolting on the face of these hollow technocrats and managers. The sin of indecent sleepless nights in front of workstations are now coming to reality. We need to say no to this brutal community of so-called professionals. Let us bridge the respectful and dignified economy and work culture where the breads and pride of 70% marginalised population will be weaving the theory of Management and Policies. This is the basic ethics of Social Capitalism. Otherwise there are numerous balance sheets are ready to mortgage the dignity of humanity on this Globe.

Kosi River Shifting: Sediments or Tectonics or Both

2008-09-07T04:20:00.000-07:00

Recent abnormal tectonic acitity and subsequent earthquakes (12 May'08, 26 Aug'08) in China, Nepal & Tibet support my hypothesis that ongoing tectonic activities influenced the path of Kosi and its divergence point near supoil. River is under the influence of Malda Kishenganj fault on the eastern margin of Monghyr-sharasa ridge. It seems this fault is influenced by the recent China and Tibet earthquakes.

Although water level in the barrgae and rainfall is the cause for floods but rivers tendency yo erode its embankments has been influenced by other factors also. The reason for the sudden changes may be related to the the recent increased tectonic activities in Nepal & China Himalays. Frequency of earthauakes (more than 5 intensity) is observed highest in the last few dwcades.
In that paper i had identified the zones showing diffrent levels of tectonic influence on kosi River shifting. Geophysical data and GIS modeling using and RS images of different years proved that it is shifting its path under the influence of tectonic movements in its catchment area in Himalayas twoards China and Nepal side.

Kosi River changed its path in three main phases due to changes in the spatial position and orientation of its diversion points ( meeting point of three main basement faults). This is the fourth such phase and river will keep on gradually changing its position after that also. The diversion point of Kosi near Birpur has shifted north-eastward and it caused breaches in the East Kosi river south east of Chtara.

There are many ways to control the situation for temporary respite but the fact is that it is a problem that needs long term carefull micro level study study of the factors causing this shift since thousnad of years and then remedial planning by the India and Nepal. Its not that if you can fill the breach in the dam and the problem will be solved forever. The barrage's estimated lifespan of 30 years expired in 1986 but the river's morphology — it was showing a reverse tendency to shift eastward — began changing even earlier. Read the paper for more details.

http://www.gisdevelopment.net/application/geology/geomorphology/geom0002b.htm
In this paper i had identified the zones showing diffrent levels of tectonic influence on kosi River shifting. Geophysical data and GIS modeling using and RS images of different years proved that it is shifting its path under the influence of tectonic movements in its catchment area in Himalayas twoards China and Nepal side.

Chasing a Mirage: Accuracy improvement of Utility network

2008-07-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

For any utility co. most critical requirement is a complete updated inventory of its assets. Any attempt to correct the network data at a later stage cannot result the desired sub-foot accuracy due to ever changing network and ongoing maintenance activities. The main aim should be to find a permanent sustainable solution to the problem of data updation and control of errors at the source to improve the accuracy. A sub-meter (50 cm) accuracy of GIS databbase is more than enough required for use with any OTDR and fault locator.

GIS database is an important Asset Management/Accounting tool and means of visualizing the location of the network assets quickly and presenting it in meaningful ways to assist network planning and maintenance activities. Though everyone wants highest accuracy possible but spatial accuracy of utility networks is not as important as emphasized by many GIS data users due to the following reasons:

1. GIS database cannot replace any engineering document like as-built drawing which is supposed to be the single independent document describing layout and technical characteristics of the network.

2. GIS database is best suited for tracking asset inventory, engineering analysis and customer support type activities. An updated database can be used for network planning (desired scale of 1:1000 or accuracy 1 M), fault locating, demand calculation, load change, load estimation type engineering analysis also. Again its currency and completeness are much more importnt than a pinpoint accuracy.

3. Accuracy of the top of line fault locators and OTDR available in the market are in the sub-meter range. There are no information available about their performance and accuracy and none of these claim sub-foot accuracy. So, a 50 cm accuracy map (as maintained by a carefully drawn 1: 500 scale as-built drawing) is better than what is required by any O&M staff.

4. Most of the maintenance problems and accidents during trenching occur due to human errors in cable/feeder identification, outdated as-builts and not due to its wrong location in GIS. This happens due to the use of old data/drawings that do not show current as-is situation in the ground than the issues related with the data accuracy.

Use of geophysical methods like cable tracing and Ground Penetrating Radadr (GPR) for locating underground utilities which are meant for knowing the approximate/supposed location of the objects are highly prone to errors with additional operational limitations of the equipment and ground conditions for any large project.

Ref.: www.esri.com/events/egug/sessions/tues_sessions.html

“If We’re so Good, Why Aren’t We Better?”

2008-01-24T02:25:00.000-08:00

A progressive organization thinks: “If we’re so Good, Why Aren’t We Better?”

An organization stuck in the past thinks: “If there were a better way, we would have found it, and we’d be doing it।”

Projects are about technical management of delivery so all Quality aspects should be fixed by technical persons with exposure to different technology and organizations. Often this aspect is ignored when matters reach to decision-makers who can be easily influenced by the non-technical sales persons types.

Project management model for outsourced GIS services and IT/GIS consultancy projects can never be same. Identify the key factors, resourcing systems and role definitions. Consultancy projects demand expertise while data conversion projects require man management only.

Develop a capable team. Team members need a good understanding of the project’s fundamental components-goals, objectives, scope, problem statement, constraints and vision. This is the team that keeps a company ahead of other competitors.

Identify key sort-term goals. Form an Action Plan. Focus on long run perspective. Develop expertise and strategies.

Find a Business Strategist with a thorough understanding of Technology and GIS market to help the decision-makers by giving unbiased, for-sighted views on various business opportunities, pilots and other initiatives. This person should drive BD and Sales team because these teams usually focus on sort-term gains due to the pressure of their monthly review meetings and targets..

Control the practices and views that hide the underlying problems.

Useful Links

2007-12-28T04:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some links on Geomatics. These are mostly for tutorials, notes, and help with different aspects of RS & GIS.

Watch out, more to come!
http://webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=welcome
http://iris.usc.edu/Vision-Notes/bibliography/contents.html
http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/MODIS/02_Atmosphere/index.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/services/support_center/faqs/focus_v10.html#tiff_arc
http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/tg/resources.jsp?rd=rs&ds=3
http://www.daac.ornl.gov/cgi-bin/catalog.pl?s
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/chapter11/chapter11.html
http://www.storm.uni.edu/rs/2001/
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/751/
http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/IAS/handbook/handbook_htmls/appendices/references.html
http://geography.laurentian.ca/resources/idrisi/tutindex.htm
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/index_e.php
http://www.landmap.ac.uk/ipc/ccrs/fundam_e.html
http://earth.esa.int/pub/ESA_DOC/landsat_FAQ/#_Toc69120405
http://www.resmap.com/imgsearch2.asp
http://www.cas.sc.edu/geog/rslab/Rscc/rscc-no-frames.html
http://web.pdx.edu/~emch/ip2/ip2.html
http://gis.unbc.ca/index.php
http://www.ace.net.nz/tech/TechFileFormat.html
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/facilities/gis/index.php?Page=338#soft
http://www.pcigeomatics.com/cgi-bin/pcihlp/CDSPOT
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/e_tutor.htm
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/env_tutorial.htm
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/tutorials/
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/education/links/onlinecourse.html
http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/hipr/html/hipr_top.html
http://aria.arizona.edu/courses/tutorials/welcome.html
http://ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/chapter4/07_e.php
http://www.ltid.inpe.br/tutorial/tut_i.htm
http://www.geog.umd.edu/homepage/courses/472/
http://geo.arc.nasa.gov/sge/landsat/daccess.html
http://cbc.rs-gis.amnh.org/remote_sensing/index.html
http://geog.hkbu.edu.hk/virtuallabs/rs/rs.htm
http://www.fas.org/irp/imint/docs/rst/Front/tofc.html
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/mbinford/RS_Web_Sites.html
http://www.utexas.edu/its/rc/tutorials/matlab/
http://chesapeake.towson.edu/data/principles.asp
http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/
http://sal.ocean.washington.edu/tutorials/erdas/index.html
http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/tutorials/tutorials_main.html
http://www.union.edu/PUBLIC/GEODEPT/COURSES/remote_sensing/rslinks.html
http://www.photogrammetry.ethz.ch/general/persons/jana/isprs/ed_material.html
Other interesting links:
www.soople.com (effective Google searching simplified)
www.wallpaperstock.com (cool wallpapers for the PC)
www.pixelgirlpresents.com/desktops.php
www.wikipedia.org (online open source encylopedia)

Educate Yourself !

2007-12-19T01:19:00.000-08:00

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." -Albert Einstein
Dr B.R. Ambedakar (1891-1956), who was the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly to draft the constitution of India had once made this call ("Educate Yourself") to a particular section of our society who were considered illiterate and uneducated. I feel this slogan is still very relevant to all sections of society as even today we see a lack of proper education, patriotism, self respect and civic sense among many so-called modern and literates. I want Dr Ambedakar to comeback and pressurize the parliament to include this in our constitution as a punishable offense for everyone who do not take this call seriously. The one thing I want to encourage you to do above all else is to continue to educate yourself. If you aren't of this mindset, you will never be able to be successful in long-term. To succeed in a real sense you've got to acquire an insatiable appetite for anything and everything having to do with your work, leadership, marketing and business skills.

What's more, the educational process never stops. It doesn't end after a certain job or achievement. Successful people NEVER stop learning. They are always on a quest to grow and develop themselves. This is something that can only come from within. No one can force feed it to you, neither you can buy, borrow or steal it from others. As Jim Rohn said "Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune."

There is a persisan proverb;
He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not is simple. Teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise. Follow him.

http://www.pagalguy.com/forum/cat-and-related-discussion/295-speech-narayana-murthy-infosys-lbsim.html

ArcGIS Server & ArcSDE

2007-12-17T21:20:00.000-08:00

ArcSDE finally rides into the sunset। Even though technically ArcSDE has been replaced at 9.2, it was still a separate product. Now at 9.3 it will become fully integrated into ArcGIS Server. ArcGIS Server Enterprise will be the “traditional” ArcSDE level where ArcGIS Server supports an unlimited number of users via either direct connect or connection to an application server. It offers DBMS support for IBM DB2, IBM Informix, all editions of Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and PostgreSQL. It has no data or memory limits. The Workgroup level of ArcGIS Server supports a maximum of 10 direct connect users. It includes an embedded DBMS (Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial). It has a data limit of 4 GB and a memory limit of 1 GB.

Out of the box ArcGIS application will be able to connect to Microsoft SQL Server Express Spatial, but if you want unlimited users, you’ll need to purchase ArcGIS Server Enterprise.

ArcGIS supports older versions of the Geodatabase. At 9.3, ArcGIS can connect and create geodatabases (personal, file) back to 9.0. This means you won’t need to keep older versions of the geodatabase around to share with others. You also won’t have to upgrade your geodatabases just because ArcGIS went to a new release. If you wish, you can keep your older geodatabases running at whatever release you wish.

ArcGIS Engine will allow developing with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express so you can scale down your enterprise applications to the workgroup level. You’ll no longer be limited to working with personal for file geodatabases.

ArcGIS Server Enterprise will support 64bit processors. This is only the spatial database application server and not the AGS Basic, Standard and Advanced product.

India should be a Knowledge Superpower!

2007-12-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

"Knowledge is Power"- Francis Bacon

Leaders of one technology firm in Massachusetts anticipated that 90 percent of its skilled labor would be in Asia in 10 years. He also pointed to statistics that show the United States graduating only 4,400 mathematics and science Ph.Ds each year compared with 24,900 math and science PhDs for greater Asia.

'China and India have a population a multiple of ours. They have natural resources. There is no reason they can't emerge as the superpower. The only way we can preserve that role for ourselves is through innovation. It's erroneous that we do high-level work here and send low-level work abroad. When our market is no longer the largest market in the world, the idea that we're going to be innovating and they're going to be copying is erroneous,' Massachusetts ex-Governor Romney said.

From CIA World Factbook:
US: ~300 million
India: ~1,100 million
China: ~1,300 million
2,400/300 = 8.

Hence, China and India have a population roughly 8 times that of the US. Assuming a normal distribution of science and math talent across all populations, China and India will have a much greater talent pool than the US. This is already being born out in the comparative number of science and engineering grads these cultures produce, and as Romney mentioned, the number of PhD's granted. Statistically, for every 1 Einstein in 100 years in the US, China and India will have 8. Of course, other factors such as political oppression, intellectual openess, and educational methods (rote learning vs. synthesizing/creating) play a role here, but the sheer numbers put US behind.

Further, most East Asian cultures see science and math accomplishment as the result of skills developed through hard work, whereas the general population in the US sees such accomplishment as the result of innate talent alone, unobtainable if you're not born with it. This discourages many from even trying, whereas the opposite effect occurs in Asia.

So the discrepancy in numbers and the discrepancy in attitude combine to put the US at a serious fundamental disadvantage in the technological and economic competition.

05 June 2009: A year after this blog economic crisis happened and everyone agreed with this. Read more: http://www.zeenews.com/news536580.html

on June 12 2009: Barak Obama admits http://in.news.yahoo.com/20/20090612/1422/twl-buckle-up-indians-and-chinese-are-co.html

CAD & GIS: How much mixing & unmixing is desirable?

2007-11-18T22:49:00.000-08:00

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all. "- Peter F. Drucker

At present it is accepted that usefulness of GIS has increased and thus dependence on GIS that has gone hand in hand with the rise of information technology. That dependence and the need for research and innovations on internet GIS, 3D visualization, location-based, time-specific acquisition, management, storage, and visualization of data is likely to increase as GIS, along with cell phones, laptop computers, and global positioning systems, goes wireless. Data from maps and hard copy records have transformed into information on the web.

Organizations involved in 2D data conversion/cleaning activities are finding it extremely difficult to position themselves as per the new GIS market dynamics mainly due to their existing expertise and their level of knowledge base. There is need to develop a confidence level among the CAD/GIS co.s to face a well informed client and adopt the new technology. Quality and quantity seldom go together in a industry where ever changing client requirements and strict delivery schedules interfere with the process automation that is very common in any production environment. Business process re-engineering now demands 5D solutions that can utilize GIS data to take care of their time and cost to justify the ROI on these projects.

Message: "Time to accept the grim Reality and raise the bar. The first step is to stop advertising 'outsourced data conversion jobs' as 'GIS Projects' to improve the manpower quality and overall standard of the GIS industry in India."

GIS in Real Estate

2007-11-18T22:29:00.000-08:00

Cadastral GIS databases are key sources of information in many areas. Using geospatial solutions, data on land parcels, buildings and apartments concerning location, shape, ownership, value, legal regimes, land use and history of changes become valuable information for numerous categories of users. That information is vital for a society that strives for:

1. Municipal management services and good governance,
2. high quality planning and rapid economic development,
3. fair taxation,

GIS based solutions for cadastral information management and exchange link technical description of parcels, physical objects and encumbrances with registered legal relationship of properties and owners.

Land registration
Land registration guarantees security of ownership and other rights on land and objects on that land. It is also key mechanism of the society in turning property’s inherent market and usability capital value into money. GIS solutions for land registration support are proven in many countries for their reliability, innovation and integration with GIS technology.

Real estate valuation
Valuation of land has traditionally been understood under cadastral records creation and management in many countries through history. It is used for taxing purposes, but also for mortgages in bank and for asset management in governments and large companies.
Use of GIS solutions in land valuation enables the value assessment function of government to be concurrent with spatial data that is relevant to the valuation model. GIS adds value to land valuation models by placing added value on property that has.

Information sharing
In the value chain of the cadastral information the highest added value comes with distributing the data efficiently and timely to the end users in the form that suits their needs. Obviously it is Internet in these days that GIS solutions use primarily for distribution of the cadastral information.

GIS: From Tool to Technology

2007-11-17T10:44:00.000-08:00

GIS community has seen the evolution of GIS from large databases of mapping information stored on a mainframe, accessible by a few highly trained specialists, to a distributed network of specialized databases tied together and made accessible to unlimited numbers of people via the Internet.

The old GIS term no longer encompasses all of the tools and technologies used in this more modern world. In essence, "geospatial" is "geographic information systems" brought into the new millennium (Daratech Report, 2004). Geospatial technologies capture, store, manage, integrate, displays, analyze and otherwise assist in the interpretation of this data in its entire context for better decision-making. This broader definition recognizes that engineering data from CAD systems, billing information from ERP systems, facilities management and many other types of enterprise content must be brought together with the traditional spatial data from a GIS in order to efficiently make decisions.

In just the past three years the GIS market has changed radically, and a technology that was once considered too specialized to fall within the domain of the IS department has become just another enterprise technology, such as CRM or ERP.

GIS is a relatively mature technology with a knowledgeable and dedicated user community. This sector has generated an extraordinary community of talented and passionate GIS technologists, a dynamic vendor community, a variety of user groups, meaningful standards activities, and informative industry magazines and events. I believe these activities have served our community well and will continue to serve us into the future.

History & Geography of Google Earth

2007-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

In June 2005, Google launched its Google Earth tool, powered by Keyhole Technology from Keyhole, a company that Google acquired last year. Google Earth is a standalone application that's essentially an enhanced and upgraded version of its Keyhole 3D satellite imagery product. The underlying Keyhole technology includes tens of terabytes of aerial images spanning the globe.

Currently, Google Earth has only medium resolution images for most parts of the world। For about 38 US cities, Google Earth has high-resolution images that permit 3-D ‘walkthrough’ capability. Information can be overlaid over ‘layers’ so that themes (hospitals, hot-spots, restaurants and libraries) can be separated into layers and super-imposed only when needed.

DEVELOPMENT

Google has launched an impressive number of geospatial applications since the purchase of Keyhole. Google Earth utilizes broadband streaming technology and 3D graphics on web, much like a videogame, enabling users to interactively explore the world. Important timelines are as:

Google Local – March 2004 beta site released

Keyhole Acquisition – October 28, 2004

Google Maps – February 2005

Google Maps Imagery Layer – April 2005

Mobile Google Local – April 13, 2005

Google Earth – June 27, 2005

PRODUCTS: Google Earth is free for all Google users. There is also a Google Earth Plus that allows GPS devices to be connected and Google Earth Pro for businesses. One of the key features of Google Earth Pro is its GIS import capabilities.
OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS: MSN Virtual Earth, MapQuest, NASA WorldWind, Wikimapia, ESRI ArcGIS Explorer

FEATURES

Key features of Google Earth include:
3D buildings in major cities across the United States
3D terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world
Integrated Google Local search to find local information such as hotels, restaurants, schools, parks, and transportation
Video playback of driving directions
Tilt, rotate, and activate 3D terrain and buildings for a different perspective on a location
Easy creation and sharing of annotations among users

APPLICATIONS

The application is a "console" with controls allowing you manipulate 3D satellite imagery of the Earth in a viewer directly above the controls. Google Earth has three primary search features: Fly To, Local Search and Directions। People are making their own maps, like the OpenStreetMap project, and "mashups" have been born - where maps are customised with data for practical and frivolous purposes.

Accuracy: good if you do not zoom-in too much। Remember the old axiom that says all maps lie because all maps lie flat.

Geoinformatics in India: Lessons from the Past

2007-11-17T10:40:00.000-08:00

Talent Crunch: Is GIS too difficult?

GIS has been traditionally a field where main focus was on data and data related services. GIS is more difficult than IT due to it multi-disciplinary nature and it has become part of packaged IT-centric solutions. Broadly it encompasses the Domain expertise along with knowledge of software, database, surveying and many more to count. Minds of the GIS personals are not programmed to understand the seriousness of terms like “Total Solution Provider”. Academias as well as industry throughout this sub-continent have failed in taking this responsibility. The result is the acute talent crunch in the field of GIS. At present we need to develop a breed of real GIS professionals who can understand the client requirements, visualize the problems and their solutions in advance and thus deliver in time and ensure client satisfaction.

We have very few problem solvers at present. Solving problems is a high-visibility process; preventing problems is low-visibility. This is illustrated by an old parable:
In ancient China there was a family of healers, one of whom was known throughout the land and employed as a physician to a great lord. The physician was asked which of his family was the most skillful healer.
He replied, "I tend to the sick and dying with drastic and dramatic treatments, and on occasion someone is cured and my name gets out among the lords."
"My elder brother cures sickness when it just begins to take root, and his skills are known among the local peasants and neighbors."
"My eldest brother is able to sense the spirit of sickness and eradicate it before it takes form. His name is unknown outside our home."

This is a problem in any business, but it's a particularly difficult problem in the IT & ITES industry. Quality related problems are often not as readily apparent as they might be in the case of an industry with some physical products.

Additionally, many organizations are not able to determine who is skilled at fixing problems, and then reward such people. However, determining who has a talent for preventing problems in the first place, and figuring out how to incentivize such behavior, is a significant challenge esp in the smaller co.s where thrust is on labour intensive activities and most of the persons in the management have grown up with time (experience the name we give to our mistakes) within the organization without any proper background and knowledge. Such persons can never appreciate the views of a person who thinks ahead of them and thus hamper the talent nurturing and fail in creating the pool of good people necessary to produce quality work in any setup.

Effective Knowledge Sharing

2007-11-17T10:39:00.000-08:00

"The greatest secret to winning shared thinking is having the right people around the table."

Research by Wharton management professor Martine Haas and Morten Hansen, professor of entrepreneurship at INSEAD, indicates that knowledge sharing efforts often fail to result in improved task outcomes inside organizations - and may even hurt project performance. In practice, according to Haas, the types of knowledge shared and the design of the organization's project teams are likely to influence the success or failure of a knowledge-sharing effort.

While part of the challenge is to use knowledge appropriate for the task, Haas notes that organizations also face the problem of setting up teams in ways that help them take full advantage of the knowledge they use. As the researchers note in their paper, many project teams in knowledge-intensive organizations operate in environments than can interfere with their ability to perform well because they are characterized by overload, commitment, lack of knowledge at right level leading to ambiguity and politics.

These characteristics create problems when teams attempt to obtain and use knowledge from other parts of their organization. "In overloaded environments, project teams face a multitude of possible issues to address and solutions with which to address them, and as a result of ambiguity, there is little way to know which problems and solutions to select," Haas says. "Beyond these problems, multiple stakeholders may have personal agendas and interests in the team's selections that may actually work at cross-purposes with the team's own efforts."

In ambiguous situations, meanwhile, team members face multiple interpretations of the information, know-how and feedback they obtain, and they must engage in a continuous process of sense making to construct meaning from these inputs. The level of prior work experience possessed by team members may also create absorptive capacity that facilitates the assimilation, interpretation and application of new knowledge. Additionally, prior experience tends to help team members move up their own learning curves, helping them to build on past successes and avoid past mistakes when they interpret and apply external knowledge.

Haas argues that an organization's project teams should be given sufficient autonomy to make their own decisions. "While many outsiders who provide information, know-how and feedback to team members do not attempt to influence the team unduly, others may promote their own agendas and interests through distortion or manipulation," she says. "If a team cannot buffer itself against efforts to excessively influence its decisions, its project may be derailed by these external agendas and interests."

Overall, research by Haas and Hansen suggests that organizations that care about knowledge sharing must look beyond intermediate goals - such as promoting knowledge capture, search and transfer. Haas and Hansen's research has identified three dimensions of task performance - work quality, time savings and signals of competence - that are often critical to the productivity of knowledge work.

The first key implication is that it is unsafe to assume that more knowledge sharing is always better. In fact, using too much of the wrong type of knowledge can harm project performance if the manager or team leader himself is not aware about the intricacies of the project. The design of a project team affects its ability to achieve the desired advantages of knowledge sharing.

Message: Avoid brain storming sessions if there are not enough experts in the team because "If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a manner that maximizes damages." - Second Law of Organizational Communication

Building & Maintaining the LBS Data

2007-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Traditionally, location-based applications have included resource finders, roadside assistance, and asset tracking. Now, personal-locator applications are also gaining popularity. Their success is largely due to the early introduction of pure LBS devices like Global Positioning System (GPS) Locator with PDA, Cell phones and even wristwatches.

The two most prominent position-location technologies are cell-phone triangulation and the use of GPS satellites. Other emerging technologies include digital television (DTV), ultra wideband (UWB), and WLANs.

Spatial and locational intelligence is incorporated through attributes in topologically correct network dataset for LBS. These are;
Ø Basic attributes for GIS applications
Ø Advanced attributes for Routing
Ø Turn-by-turn features for guidance

LBS data is used in three basic types:
Ø National coverage
Ø Street Level data
Ø Demographic data

Pre-requisite:Geometry
Ø Geometry
Ø Features
Ø Basic topology

Pre-requisite:Basic Attributes
Ø Street names
Ø Land cover type
Ø Road classification

This information is sufficient to prepare low-end desktop and Internet GIS applications but not for advanced routing and transportation systems.

Advanced requirements
Advanced Attributes are required by routing applications with advanced speech enables PC and Internet applications. Introduction of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) will create demand for ultra-precise maps with new safety-related features and attributes.

Ø Near-term (2004-2006):
o Speed limit advisor
o Curve speed warning
o Stop sign warning
Ø Mid-term (2007-2011):
o Curve speed control
o Stop sign control
o Forward collision warning
o Lane departure warning
o Traffic signal warning

These features and attributes help in turn-by-turn navigation,
Ø In-car
Ø Though WAP/PDA
Ø Telematic service

The LBS datasets are organised and structured according to ISO TC-204-N-34, which ensures that they can be used with all advanced technology platforms.

LBS and GIS integrate one or more of the following technologies:
Ø Mobile devices
Ø Global Positioning Systems (GPS)
Ø Wireless communications for Internet GIS access

LBS MARKET IN INDIA
The global market for GPS devices is 10,000 crore. The Indian market is now at 50 crore, but it has potential to grow to 2,000 crore in the next three to four years.

Make A Difference: Join the Movement

2007-11-08T02:08:00.000-08:00

"Excellence has always been achieved by those who dared to believe that something inside them is superior to the circumstances."

GIS Champions: Without Champions GIS goes nowhere

Identify a “GIS Champion” by the following qualities and traits :

Inclusive with a varied knowledge base and good Spatial Aptitude (High SQ)
Knowledgeable even then curious to know more about the emerging technologies
Always able to look at the big picture
Looks for consensus but dares to clear ambiguity due to misinterpretations by the team
Involved in projects from the beginning (even doing dirty work)
Confident, unafraid of change; a change-master
Enthusiastic about the challenges
Communicator
Mentor (when required)
Satisfied with knowing that better decisions are being made as the result of GIS
Sees organizational benefits of GIS, not personal
Looks forward to Monday morning.

Strategy to create GIS Champions:

Understand the limitations of CAD and expectations from GIS
Hire qualified staff, provide training to interested staff
Encourage positive organizational changes to accommodate "Real GIS experts"
Look for the people with a winning “GIS Personality”
Trash the decade old assumption that "Anyone can learn GIS (read it CAD)".
Identify the group of pretenders and halt their train of excuses ASAP. Root-cause of most of the project failures and poor performance is lack of learning, underestimation of client expectations and application of second (& third) hand knowledge.
Don’t give up when there are setbacks.