This 45-minute introductory presentation is the second in a two-part
series on free and open source GIS. It will cover the new and broad
ecosystem of GIS and geospatial tools (e.g. viewers, scripting tools and
desktop applications), explain how to choose the right tools for your
set of uses cases, access public data, and how to conduct simple spatial
analyses with QGIS. Attendees will learn about free geospatial software
and GIS tools which are widely available, reliable, and powerful. Many
have the capabilities of expensive commercial products from the industry
leaders. Free tools such as these provide substantial analytic and
visualization capabilities to organizations needing location data and
visualization solutions such as non-profits, small businesses,
land-trusts, and local governments. These tools can be used in
conjunction with a variety of public data sets including elevation and
parcel data from Connecticut, the federal government, and other
entities. We will demonstrate a few of the most relevant capabilities
such as analysis, big data visualization, and basic map-making.