It’s 2017, so let’s talk about 2016.
Back in January of 2016 I wrote a blog post about my goals for the up coming year. I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish during the past 12 months. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn Mandarin Chinese (didn’t even really start), but I did become a better runner (and check out my runBENrun posts!). My main goal for the year was to become better at what I do and what I do is geo.
The first step to achieve my main goal was to reactivate my github account. I started several new repositories including uploading the code from my dissertation, adding a couple projects I reference often for Spatial SQL and PostGIS queries, and runBENrun, a code base where I took my raw Nike+ data and built tools to analyze and visualize my running data.
Posting on GISDoctor.com was more active throughout 2016 with 10 new posts to be exact. Not a lot, but enough to keep me motivated and active. I hope for more posts in 2017! As always, I have plenty of ideas. Finding time to write them up is a totally different challenge.
Being an active OSM contributor was another goal for 2016 and early in the year I craft-mapped a ton. I mapped almost everyday in January, bringing some sweet craft mapping skills to some under-mapped areas. Perhaps I’ll do another OSM-mapathon sometime in early 2017.
Python, PostgreSQL/PostGIS, Node/Javascripting/Leaflet, and QGIS were my tools of choice for 2016 (and probably for most of you as well). I expanded my skills in each, keeping current to new trends and tech. I wanted to get better, and I think by taking the time (a few hours here and there over nights and weekends throughout the entire year) I was able to learn new skills and technologies.
Now, why do I do all this extra work? I do work in a job where I get to do a lot of very technical geospatial work, where I continually get to push my skills. However, due to the nature of the work, I don’t and can’t share it here. It was through these “at home” projects and posts where I pushed myself to continue to learn more, expand my skills, and share them with you.
There was one thing I wanted to do in 2016 that I totally missed out on. I wanted to get more involved in the geo-community. I didn’t. I will try again in 2017. One good thing about our community is that there are always plenty of opportunities to get involved and make a difference.
The stats of 2016
The pageviews from GISDoctor.com were down this year compared to 2015. I think this is mostly due to the fact that in 2015 I had a post get on HackerNews that lead to a ton of traffic.
The top ten viewed pages for the past year are seen below. Many of these posts are actually pretty old, but they all have long comment histories or have been posted in other locations leading readers back to the site.
What’s on tap for 2017? I have a few plans, but that is another post!