Vol XII, No. 2 - Winter 2004
Contents |
In Focus |
Mapmaking |
In Memoriam |
Geography |
Awards |
Profile
Today it is common knowledge that in any industry a company needs to be aggressive and open to seeking new markets or ways to utilize their employee's skills. Whether it is in the production of nuts and bolts or in the creation of maps this rule holds true. Recently Mapping Specialists was presented with an opportunity that illustrates this point.
The Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has a reservation in the Wisconsin Northwoods. The tribe is a client of MSL and has been a partner in developing 3-D Lake Maps® for some lakes on their reservation. Now, there is nothing out of the ordinary so far, but when our contact called and asked if we knew how to set up a kiosk, things changed.
The tribe had budgeted for and purchased a hard drive, touch screen monitor, and various pieces of software. The only problem was that no one on the tribal staff had the knowledge to program and develop the site. Enter Mapping Specialists. Having developed and maintained our own Web site, the technology of putting together the kiosk was familiar, but what did the tribe have in mind and more importantly, what was in the boxes they purchased?
The first step was to sit down with the person assigned to have the kiosk created. During this meeting the "wish list" for the kiosk was discussed and a plan was developed for its creation. Everything went well in the meeting until it was conveyed that the project had to be part of that year's fiscal budget. No problem, right? Wrong. The budget ended three weeks from the meeting date and in order for the project to be paid, the tribe needed the working kiosk in their visitor center by the end of their fiscal year. It still wasn't known what type of hardware and software was available, and while the overall design of the kiosk was known, where the individual elements of the design were to originate weren't.
The first order of business at MSL was to get the hardware/software on site. Within two days of our meeting these arrived and to everyone's delight all were in working order. Task one done! Next was to develop the elements needed to make the kiosk a functioning display. The program was to be divided into two parts, water management and lakes. Mapping Specialists undertook the task of creating 3-D images for the 15 lakes needed, while the water resources arm of the tribe scanned the legal documents and water management materials for the textual display. While our cartographers were busy creating the maps, our programmers were working with the hardware and software. The software was loaded and everything was prepared for the importation of the graphics. As the graphics were finished and digital documents received, each was imported into the program. Two weeks to the day the program began, we finished with a working kiosk. Two days later the system was installed and running at the Lac du Flambeau Water Resources offices, much to everyone's surprise and delight - with one day to spare!
Main screen of kiosk developed by Mapping Specialists for Lac du Flambeau Chippewa
The speed in which the project was completed isn't the point of this article. The fact that we were able to do this project at all is the point. As most of you know, Mapping Specialists is a work for hire contract cartography company. Maps were a part of this program, but they were a small part. By thinking outside the box and utilizing our employee's skills in extraordinary ways, we were able to meet a client's needs and as well as expand our services. Are there opportunities you or your company may be missing out on?
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