[Aust-NZ] Introduction: Simon Cropper (Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd)

[Simon Cropper]

Hi,

This is a quick introduction. My name is Simon Cropper and I run a small 
ecological consultancy in Victoria (see webpage if interested).

I conduct flora and fauna surveys and do vegetation mapping within south-east 
Australia. Nearly every job I conduct I use GIS to help collect, synchronise, 
analyse and present spatial data. I have used GIS in over 100 projects. 

Over the last 15 years I have used ArcView but recently replaced this with 
gvSIG Desktop. I use this GIS on Vista (on a tablet PC) and on my Ubuntu 
Desktop.

Since adopting gvSIG, following an extensive review of FOSS GIS Desktop 
systems, I have been actively involved in this community (creating tutorials, 
helping with translations, reporting bugs, helping on the mail list, etc). I 
am preparing some Australian tutorials for this ostensibly Spanish system. 
This and other technological publications are being released on my website 
(see webpage if interested under the Technology Section).

I also dabble in the use of QGIS, OpenJUMP, SAGA, Sextante, GDAL, Kosmo, GRASS 
and FWTools/OpenEV.

I have submitted a paper to the next issue of OSGeo Journal (in draft) and 
another paper to the Conference Newsletter for the gvSIG 2010 Conference later 
this year (also in draft) on the topic "gvSIG a robust and reliable 
alternative to ArcView". The first paper is essentially an outline of my 
typical workflow and whether a particular package can do that task. The second 
paper is a list of the last 5-6 projects (big and small), what I need a GIS to 
do and how gvSIG performed doing it. My comments are predominantly positive 
although I don't shirk at telling it as it is when a problem is identified.  

So, that's me...    well the short version anyway. 

I look forward to participating in this local chapter of OSGeo and getting to 
know others on the list a bit better. 

-- 
Cheers Simon

	Simon Cropper
	Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
	PO Box 160 Sunshine 3020
	P: 03 9311 5822. M: 041 830 3437
	W: http://www.botanicusaustralia.com.au