New dates for our Introductory GIS course have been set: 23/24th June and 22/23rd September. Note these courses are certified for AGI CPD points, have maximum six paticipants, and can be customised to trainee interests. See our training pages for more details.

Compass have recently been awarded contracts by national bodies for both tourism and heritage to collate and analyse data to support tourism and heritage planning. These projects will utilise the full data analysis capabilties of GIS tools and include geostatistical analysis and cross-disciplinary tools review - across archaeology, architecture, planning, ecology and geomorphology. Building on internal data management investments, existing Compass mapping systems and toolkits (web and desktop), and data analysis approaches, we will seek to deliver tools that are fully appropriate to the hands-on implementation of planning at corporate and legislative levels.

"Experiences in Developing an INSPIRE Compliance Toolkit - Are Tools Alone Enough?" - That is the title of the presentation that Compass senior staff, Roger Longhorn and Manuel Treiber will present at the Krakow INSPIRE conference in June. See you there or contact us regarding spatial data management, SDIs, INSPIRE...

Building on the success of the 2009 event and positively reflecting on progress in the intervening time, we will again hold an annual conference where workshops, talks and discussions will cover a range of topics - with a focus on 'Gaining Efficiencies and Delivering Value'.

Compass will attend and present at the GeoDATA series of events across Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales through 2010. Our presentations will focus on INSPIRE Clear Steps to Compliance, but we will also demonstrate some of our other solutions including our new spatial video systems for tagging video with location; our bioenergy and land management systems; and our wide range of geomatics services. See our events page for the GeoData dates and read more for the presentation abstract...

At Compass Informatics we have published our INSPIRE/Spatial Data Infrastructures solutions whitepaper to coincide with the opening of our dedicated inspire.compass.ie website. This paper describes how the Compass suite of services and technologies can provide a full compliance solution to meet the requirements of the European Union INSPIRE Directive and assist participation of your organisation in your National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) strategy that must support INSPIRE. The services are also applicable for organisations wishing to create individual SDI components for their own use, based on acknowledged ‘best practice’ in creating SDIs, e.g. conducting information audits, creating and published metadata, mounting effective Geoportals.

Based on feedback from those facing INSPIRE-related tasks in 2010 and beyond, we have designed a seminar that will set out in a straightforward manner the steps required to achieve compliance for the 2010 and 2011 deadlines. We will present a series of open source based technology solutions also.

Compass Informatics will co-sponsor the CEN/TC 287 interoperability workshop to be held on March 1st in Paris. This will be a particularly important meeting as it will bring the key organisations of CEN, ISO, Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), and JRC/INSPIRE together with a view towards agreement. Gearóid Ó Riain, managing director of Compass Informatics, will present at the workshop which will also be attended by other policy and technical Compass staff.