Where the frick have I been

Greetings all 5 of you who are still following me. I got caught up in the “I really need to write this post and it is important so I better put a lot of effort into it but then I never find the time” trap. So here is the best I can with the time I want to devote to this post.

1. I am no longer the developer evangelist for deCarta. Actually I haven’t been since the end of August. I left not because I didn’t believe the company but it was that my old firm Jones & Stokes (now ICF\Jones & Stokes) made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I loved the work I was doing at deCarta and I loved the product. I helped finish up the mobile API and then helped launch it at Navteq Connections but since them I just a cheerleader on the side.  Most of all though, I really loved the people I worked with (I love you man). They have a great team of people and they have a great product and I am still a big fan. They gave me the space to become more of the person I want to be and I am forever thankful to them and especially my boss Marc.

2. As I stated above I now work, again, for ICF/Jones & Stokes. I am now the Applied Technology Practice Leader and Senior Conservation Biologist and I work out of the San Jose office.  In this new role I work on technology projects, help organize the tech savy people at ICF/J&S, and help to set vision for where our practice goes with technology. We have experience in Microsoft technologies, ESRI, Java, Linux, and FOSS4G. I am grooving on the new work I do and my ability to help set vision in the company. I have been traveling to our regional offices and interacting with the Mothership back in Fairfax.

I enjoy doing a lot of things and so I don’t expect work to fulfill all my career desires nor do I want to pigeon myself into one industry or type of position. I love being a tech evangelist, I love working with tech, I love working on ecological issues, and who knows where life will take me. All I know if I like what I do now and I look forward to whatever is around the bend.

3. I have not been writing for basically that last year for several reasons. There have been personal issues I have been struggling through but I think things are definitely on the upturn. I say “I think” because I have learned to live more in the now and because I want to keep working on the relationships which are important to me. Saying things are good gives a sense of being settled and I am not sure life is ever that way (except when you are dead).

I have also not written much because twitter and facebook have sucked up my writing energy. I have found that tweeting definitely decreases my desire to blog. I am really not that interesting and so most of what I need to say can be done in 140 letters or less. Facebook serves as my social networking outlet and so therefore the blog has suffered.

All of this is to say – I am still here, doing fun stuff and really enjoying life in a way I haven’t in a long long time. I would like to tweet less and blog more on some of the cool stuff  I am doing and some of my thoughts in general. No promises but if you stick around I will try to be more of a presence here.

The music quote of the day comes from the Barenaked Ladies CD, “snacktime” ( a must buy, especially if you have kids) – “When I make mistakes I use a lot of salt ’cause salt makes mistakes taste great”

Sad ending and exciting beginnings

As of July 23rd I am no longer gainfully employed by Jones & Stokes. It was a long process that led to this event. The most important driving factor in this chain of events was that my families’ allergies were terrible in the Sacramento valley. Moving from this area couldn’t happen through Jones & Stokes and so I had to look outside.

First question from some people is going to be “How could you leave ecology after all the glowing posts you gave”. I loved the chances I got to do field work and to talk conservation biology shop with my colleagues. The problem was that I was too expensive for my level of expertise in NorCal flora and fauna. While I am good at field work and know a few things about deserts and birds – most of my ecological experience is as a landscape ecologist. My billable rate was too high to really make it feasible for me to get out in the field that often. I would suppose this is actually close to academia, where the higher up the food chain you go the less time you get to spend outside. So in the end I didn’t get to do that much field work.

Some of you may want to know if I left because I didn’t like Jones & Stokes. This is an easy question for me – I can say without hesitation say that I think J&S is one of the best natural resources consulting firms out there. I really liked almost everyone I worked with. They generally treat their employees with respect. The work is, on balance, interesting and ecology in the real world. When I started looking outside J&S I did not even think about working for a different consulting firm.

I think once I realized I couldn’t stay with J&S I started to think what I did and did not like about being in the consulting world. The biggest problem for me was the whole billable hours thang. While my goal was not that high there were several consequences of the system I did not like.

The first problem was that no matter how many hours you worked if you didn’t meet your billable goals it doesn’t matter. So if I was working 60 hours a week trying to roll out a new service or investigating something that had to be done to take our GIS practice to another level, it wouldn’t count. I mean it would count in that my supervisor would note the extra effort, but it was all secondary to making your billable hours goal.

Second, to insure that I had enough billable hours I had to take on more than I could do, thereby insuring that I would have enough hours if a project got halted or changed direction. This was an uncomfortable position for me to be in and I am not sure I could have grown used to it over time. I don’t think any of these things were particular to Jones & Stokes but are more a fact of the consulting business.

The next logical question in the series is – what am I doing now and for that I will tell the name of the company and my position title. I am now the technology evangelist for deCarta in sunny San Jose, CA. There will be a posting in the near future talking about why I chose deCarta, what I will be doing, and my goals. On of the plus side (or the downside for you if you don’t like my writing) is that I will be blogging now as part of my “official” duties. I am really psyched about my new position and I want my next post do it justice. Then again – putting the weight of doing justice on a post is a sure fire way to make it months before it gets written.

I would write more but I am finding it hard to find time to get the thoughts together. We still don’t have a place to live in San Jose or Oakland/Berkley. This lack of a very basic foundation in life – along with trying to get up to speed in a new position, is consuming most of my mental energy. If you know of a nice 3+ bdrm, 2+ bath house that takes dogs in either the willow glen/cambrian area in San Jose or in a nice safe neigborhood in Oakland or Berkely please let me know.

GIS Analyst – come on down!

We have another job opening – contact me at scitronpousty AT gmail dot com if you are interested – and how could you not be? I mean come on – work on spatial problems, hang out with me, live in Sacto, and be easy driving distance to things like this and this.

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Do you love doing GIS? Do you want to work on a wide variety of projects, from cartography, to suitability analysis, to field data collection? Can you manage multiple projects and do you enjoy interacting with project managers and end users? Then come join our expanding team of GIS analysts at Jones & Stokes. We are a natural resources consulting firm with a long history of GIS work. We are looking for a team member to join a group of motivated and interesting GIS professionals. One of the great aspects of Jones & Stokes culture is its highly entrepreneurial spirit. Have a great idea that our clients will love – well then we will help you grow it!

What you will do: You will provide GIS technical services for a wide variety of projects. You will work on cartographic production, developing GIS datasets, maintaining and updating existing datasets, integration of data from multiple sources, and the analysis of GIS data for a variety of environmental, planning, and cultural resource applications. You will own the spatial data responsibilities for several projects and help project managers make better decisions about how to use spatial data in their project.

Requirements: Bachelor’s in environmental science, geography or related field with 4-7 years of experience working in the GIS field. You have to be able to manage data both for large multi-year projects and small 6-hour projects. Must be expert in ESRI ArGIS products, digitizing, cartographics, and spatial analysis. You should understand the value of standardized procedures and tools for getting work done. You must play well with others and be ready to dig in and get the work done. It would be great if you have used GPS units, especially for natural resource surveying. Experience or understanding of biology, natural resource science, cultural resources, or land use planning is preferred, but not required.

Come rock the house with me…

Our firm is looking to hire a new GIS practice leader. There is a lot of potential in this position. You get to manage and interact with a great bunch of people, set vision for GIS at a rather large firm, and be an all around cool cat. Drop me a line if you are interested or want to talk about the positions more (email or gtalk to scitronpousty AT gmail dot com). Full ad listing follows…

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Jones & Stokes, a leading natural resources and environmental planning consulting firm headquartered in Sacramento, California is looking for a strong leader to head our GIS Practice across the company. With 19 offices in eight western states, the firm provides a wide range of environmental analysis, compliance, management, and planning services to public agency and private clients throughout the nation.The GIS Practice Leader will develop a vision and chart a strategy to advance GIS at Jones & Stokes beyond its current capabilities into a state-of-the-art unit within the company that excels technically, is efficiently managed and is well integrated with the other consulting staff within the firm. Our current GIS team is highly skilled and motivated and excited to take our current GIS technology and project approaches to the next level. The GIS Practice Leader will lead that effort. The ideal candidate will have the combination of technical, managerial and marketing experience necessary to identify and meet client needs, manage projects, supervise and mentor staff, and lead the development of the GIS team’s technical capabilities. The candidate will be responsible for pursuing external GIS opportunities in addition to working with multiple internal clients to provide excellent, comprehensive GIS services.

As the GIS Practice Leader, the candidate will work with other GIS staff to continue the development of standard operating procedures and best practice guidelines and manage their implementation across the company. The candidate will also be responsible for managing projects, proposal writing and scoping, scheduling, staffing, and financial review.

The qualified candidate must have proven leadership skills, a minimum of 10 years GIS experience in the environmental or natural resources consulting industry, a B.A. or B.S. (Master’s preferred) in Geography/GIS or related environmental science field, and a proven track record in business development and experience in managing staff. Proficiency with ESRI GIS software is required, and familiarity with an enterprise GIS environment is preferred. We would prefer the position be located in Sacramento but would be open to candidates from other locations.

We are looking for a creative hard-working leader with experience and initiative who is ready to build, develop, and lead. Is that you?

The good Dr Dave on the front of the NYTimes

One of my professors from Grad school, Dave Wagner is one of the videos on the front of the NyTimes (I linked to the version in the media section). He is a really fun guy to talk to and he has some great catepillars in his lab. I still remember the time my friend Manuel’s dog stole Dave’s hamburger by executing a flying leap and grabbing the burger and bun right from Dave’s hands. Dave said with an effort like that Argus deserved to keep the catch.