My New Gig

I've been saving this news for my 200th post. My new position is the software developer for UNC-CH's Ancient World Mapping Center, and I'll be working on the AWMC's Pleiades project. Pleiades (the daughters of Atlas) continues the work of the Classical Atlas Project. I'll be building a system -- and helping to build a community -- to update the Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World.

Pleiades will be built using PostGIS, Python, and Plone. Our software will be open source, and developed for reuse by similar future projects in the Digital Humanities. I'll be using many of my favorite tools, and applying them to a completely new domain. Pleiades will be a driver of new developments in the Python Cartographic Library and PrimaGIS, and help steer the Plone community in the right geospatial directions. On top of all of this goodness, I'm going to get to learn a ton about Greek and Roman history, epigraphy, and Unicode. Members of the steering committee are keen to see Pleiades data in Google Earth or World Wind, and this will be a new and interesting direction for me as well. It's a dream job, and I'm still pinching myself.

Comments

Re: My New Gig

Author: James Fee

Wow sounds like a blast. Best of luck Sean!

Re: My New Gig

Author: Brian Timoney

Sean: As a proud holder of a liberal arts degree, I envy your chance to combine the humanities with mapping technology. On a semi-related note, at a demo this week a potential client held up a large, heavy Geology atlas and asked (rhetorically?) "Why can't I see this overlaid in Google Earth?" Being the ever-vigilant consultant, we'll have a WMS service prototype (powered by Mapserver) ready next week. Good luck and keep us in the loop. Will you be based in CO or in Chapel Hill? BT

Re: My New Gig

Author: Sean

Thanks, guys! I'll be blogging more about Pleiades and less about MapServer. Hopefully, somebody will step up to fill that niche. Brian, I'm going to remain here in Fort Fun. One thing I'd like to do this summer is try to revive the Front Range MapServer Users Group that Donnie Marino (formerly at DigitalGlobe) launched in 2005. I'll definitely send you a note about it.

Re: My New Gig

Author: Brian Flood

congrats Sean!

Re: My New Gig

Author: Donald Marino

Congrats, Sean! Sounds like a great new gig. Let me know when and where the Mapserver Users' Group meets! Thanks, Donnie donaldmarino@mac.om