00:00.00 archpodnet Welcome to the archeitech podcast everyone Paul how you doing. 00:04.83 Paul Ah, doing fine. Nothing new to report I've just been ah you know doing little projects here and there I decided to redo my yeah the contour map that I did at the end of 2021 with the drone data that collected lagosh because this last season. 00:17.30 archpodnet Um, ah yeah. 00:20.92 Paul We had an rtk gnss receiver and we placed a whole bunch of benchmarks. So instead of when I did it before I just had to average the elevations 1 flight against the other ah but now I actually have some real on the ground very accurate elevation points. So i. 00:33.25 archpodnet In. 00:40.74 Paul Reprocess the entire thing and I'm just kind of waiting around trying to find out if I'm going to Saudi Arabia or not it keeps on getting kicked down. It's ah it's a rolling one to two week window 00:41.64 archpodnet This I. Oh Wow, that's Crazy. It's crazy to just have to be prepared for such a distant and longterm trip. You know what? I mean it's just yeah, it's tough to prepare for. You can't do anything. So yeah, anyway, that's like a lot of car projects. You know what? I mean. 00:57.91 Paul Easy. 01:06.22 Paul Um, yeah, no yeah I'd be happy if I had an income again. 01:07.53 archpodnet Like oh we're going to start. We're going to start. We're going to start. We're just waiting on a permit. It's like my god I got to do something you know. So yeah, yeah, wouldn't that be nice. So all right? Well we are have another interview today and it's actually somebody that. You guys in our audience here may have heard from before because if you listen to the serm archaeology podcast heather has been on the podcast for a few years now and she has been a really valuable. Source of just wisdom and insight on that podcast because of her position and her experience in archaeology and and what she's done and in in cm in particular and on the business side of Crm and just project management and just all kinds of stuff and it turns out she's got a a real passion as I think well probably. Most people that get to a certain level kind of have to but for Gis and we talked last fall about getting her on to just talk about gis in the context that she works with it at her firm and just her interest in Gis around that stuff. But for whatever reason couldn't get the interview nailed down. So now we're going to do it and. I will formally welcome Heather to the architect podcast. How's it going. 02:17.75 Heather Hi. Thanks Chris what a nice introduction. Thank you. 02:24.27 archpodnet Yeah, no worries. So I mean you're literally at work probably have rgis open on one of your screens right now. So you know that's just the life of that kind of person. Um, but why don't you just let's just kick this off when we first started talking about this and you're like. 02:32.69 Heather Um, be different. 02:39.70 archpodnet You know I could come on and and talk gis stuff like what what were your thoughts around that What what are you? You know? what? what's your what's your passion around this. 02:48.46 Heather Well so um, after I got my graduate degree in in Archeology. Um I was working really I was working regularly but I didn't have like a actual full time job nailed Down. So I I was working for a company. They really didn't hire full time people. It's a very small company that was predominantly paleo and um and so I didn't really see a whole lot of opportunity there and it just you know I was just ah know trying to find my way in in the archeology world. 03:18.14 archpodnet Who have. 03:21.31 Heather Um, Crm world and um I had gotten a ah ah gis certificate while I was going through graduate school for archeology and I thought you know, um at the time the the chair the department for for the. 03:31.74 archpodnet Um, ah. 03:39.57 Heather Um, Gis department had really been trying to push some interdisciplinary graduate students. So people that were from other disciplines coming in to get a graduate degree in yeah gis and at a time I thought you know this might be a really good opportunity for me to increase my skill set. 03:51.58 archpodnet E. 03:58.19 Heather And so I decided you know I was just I was going to try to do that they were making it very um, attractive for me wasn't could it cost much and and they because they were really um, working hard to get some other disciplines in and so and I actually really loved the department. It was. 04:09.70 Paul Um, who. 04:18.20 Heather Such a great um environment altogether the professors are amazing. Um, very invested and so I decided I was gonna I was going to take um my gra my thesis work and then expand it and. 04:23.34 archpodnet Her. 04:36.16 Heather Look at predictive modeling and get a yeah gis masters and so so I went into the master's program for the Gis department after I graduated and I was still working full time but hadn't quite had that full time position yet while I was in graduate school I I nailed down a um. 04:37.43 Paul Who. 04:56.14 Heather Um, a full time job. But the company I'm with now actually and um, they and at the time they sold me because they were going to have me do forty of forty percent yeah Gis and 60% archeology 04:58.51 archpodnet So. 05:12.83 Heather And so it really is what got my foot in the door that along with my skillsets with human osteeology and and final analysis which they did not have at the time and so um, so gis was a great window opener for me. Um, door opener I guess and but as I started. Making my way up the Ladder. Um I hate at actually at some point they took gis away from me. They wouldn't even let me have access to Arcgis because they didn't want me tempted to work with it because I had other stuff I needed to do. 05:39.44 archpodnet Oh gez yeah. 05:51.73 Heather And I do enjoy you know there were sometimes where you know ah Gis they get overloaded and it's just easy enough for me to go in there and make what I need so but we do use gis just to for analysis and just to kind of wrap our head around. Um you know certain tasks and. 05:57.62 archpodnet He. 06:10.86 Heather And so I still do use gis. But I don't um I'm not I'm not fully gis. Really, It's just a tool for me. Yeah yeah I don't like it like that. But yes I mean it is. 06:18.13 Paul Even. 06:20.90 archpodnet Yeah, you've got you've got people for that now. Yeah, ah yeah, yeah. 06:28.74 Heather And too much are my plate for that now. Um I leave it to the people that are keeping up with it. Um, that's the other thing is I do I try to keep up with it. Um, but it is something that you do have to exercise you know it's not something you could just do and then step away and then come back. 06:40.74 archpodnet Hu. 06:47.90 Heather And be able to pick it up like you had no time missed and so um, now I can. It's like riding a bike I go in there and I you know look around and it's intuitive to me but it takes some time for me to get to refamiliarize myself if I've been away from it for a while. Especially. 07:03.61 archpodnet Right. 07:06.11 Heather Things changed right? Things are updated and so um, but I don't get to do the analysis I have done some ah probably the last time I did any kind of predictive modeling was about five years ago um that was serious predictive modeling. So yeah. 07:27.22 archpodnet Um, now your graduate certificate. Let's just go back to the beginning a little bit here. Were you required to do any like a special project for that or was it all coursework or did you. You know if you had to do it. 07:37.35 Heather It was yeah it was ah it was a 3 year program um and it was very similar to the way it was set up for the archeology masters and that was 2 two years of 07:38.87 archpodnet Go ahead. 07:52.75 Heather Of you know, robust classes and then ah which I had already taken quite a few right? Um, so I'd already got my certificate I had done a suite. It was a suite of 5 classes and I had and that's actually what kind of hooked me which was smart on their part and then. 07:55.47 archpodnet Yeah. 07:58.52 Paul He. 08:03.56 archpodnet Her. 08:11.49 Heather And then I um I did a few more classes because I enjoyed it so much so I'd already kind of knocked out quite a few of the classes needed for the masters and then the project was the predictive modeling looking at um, comparing. Um. So I'm in the Santa Barbara area Santa Barbara channel region comparing the channel islands um with ah with the mainland. Yeah, it's fun because you know there's not a lot There's so much work done on the islands and you would think. 08:37.96 archpodnet Okay, that's pretty cool. 08:46.91 archpodnet Her. 08:49.16 Heather The other way around right? Um, but there's a just a ton of work done on the island on the Northern specifically specifically Northern Channel Islands and um, there's you know, comparatively not as much on the Mainland There's you know? ah. 09:07.40 archpodnet Yeah, yeah. 09:08.20 Heather Ah, good amount. But if you were to compare relative. There's more there and the academic the research is predominantly academic on on the islands. So so looking at yeah, go ahead. Sorry. 09:16.13 archpodnet Mother. 09:16.51 Paul Um, so I'm yeah I'm a little curious about the um, the the sense of not being current in it if you're if you're not using it all the time is that I mean. Gis tools are so common now and we use them for so many kinds of visualizations you mean ah with respect to the predictive modeling which is a fairly advanced use of Gis or do you just mean in general that that jumping into any you know dark gis looks different because you haven't used it in a year 09:31.90 Heather Um, in. 09:35.80 Heather Um, yes, right. 09:44.76 Heather Yeah, that's such a great question because I think most people when they're looking at um, getting a gis degree. Um, and they're trying to say or they want to get a certificate like I did or. 09:45.45 Paul And and you'd need to refresh yourself with it. 09:54.16 Paul Who. 10:01.49 Heather A lot of places don't have that or just taking a few classes so they can say they have that skill set the need to understand that there's it's completely different like having the ability to create figures is not the same as gis so gis in its definition is actual. 10:04.38 Paul Nothing. 10:21.60 Heather Analysis. It's a science and it's geographical information science right? And so that if if you really if you have a degree in yeah gis like ah, an actual full degree in Gis not just taking a few classes where you. Have another degree and it especially specifically if you have 1 in a graduate degree. It is focused on how do you analyze with the Data. So the initial classes that you take are really, They're really about which are all important. Um. 10:49.94 archpodnet Her. 10:51.38 Paul Um. 10:59.00 Heather Really about how to create figures how to do initial data mining data analysis. But it's not heavy duty at all and a lot of it is also cartography learning how to communicate data in a figure which is key. 11:05.31 archpodnet No. 11:07.49 Paul Are. 11:17.99 Heather Like you can have. There's so many maps I don't know how much you guys are in at madness. But you know there are really good examples of very poor maps that don't communicate. They may be pretty but they don't make any sense so that that's a big part of GiS too 11:20.90 archpodnet Oh yeah, yeah. 11:25.89 Paul Oh yeah. 11:30.64 archpodnet Yeah. 11:36.96 archpodnet That's such a a good thing to say too right? because it's not just about doing the analysis I actually heard somebody tell me last night. He he's this kind of older guy and he's got all these colloquialisms but he said when I hadn't personally heard before he's like nobody needs a drill. They need a hole. They just need to drill to do the whole right? and so he's trying to say what's the actual problem you're trying to solve here. You don't want to you don't want to buy that So nobody needs Gis they need maps. They need analysis and they need answers but gis happens to be the best tool for that Job. So But so but if you don't give an output that somebody can make sense with then. 11:56.63 Heather Um, me right. 12:02.51 Heather Um, yeah. 12:12.59 archpodnet Just wasted all your time right? because what's the point. So um. 12:13.36 Heather Yes, yes, and I I have another thought a way of looking at that from another perspective but I don't know if you want to take it on the next in the next segment. 12:22.45 archpodnet Um, yeah, let's ah, let's take a break and then we'll we'll open with that on the other side so we'll be back in just a minute.