PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
March 2015
187
PROFESSIONAL
INSIGHT
How did you convince Rand McNally, a company whose
primary business was printing and publishing - not maps
and cartography, to publish the nation’s first zip code
map?
That’s is a very interesting perspective of Rand McNally.
The company was by revenue and total employees a print-
ing publishing company, but was and still is more widely
known for its maps. Even though only 10% of the companies
employees were involved in the map creative processes. The
company actually started as a printing publishing company
with one of its main printing processes devoted to rail road
tickets. This actually led to printing of maps for the railroad
industry, a natural since it was headquarter near the rail
road hub of the country, Chicago, Illinois. Rand McNally
maintained extensive hard copy files as well as computer
data bases which contained a wealth of information about
each place in the US. When zip codes were introduced by
the US Postal service the company added zip codes to those
gazetteers making the data base an extensive research tool
for all past and present places, populated or not. I convinced
the cartographic department, along with the marketing
and sales teams, to publish zip code maps. This was the
first time a geospatial code was mapable and useable by
the public at large. This was locational information that
the public was using on large scale that would support
computer based analysis long before location based systems
became widespread. I produced these maps by adopting
some very early automated cartographic tools from Esri
along with the assistance of Geographic Data Technology
Inc. The end result were both urban and rural 3 digit and
5 digit zip code maps.
How did the zip code map affect car insurance rates?
Rand McNally was routinely contacted by a number of
companies whenever they had mapping related business
ideas. One insurance company had us prepare map overlays
over their area of interest to match customers with accidents
and to analyze insurance rates in areas where accidents
were more prevalent.
What are ANSI FIPS codes and why were they important
to Rand McNally?
FIPS stands for Federal Information Processing Standards.
They were developed by the
for use in uniquely identifying places – ending
confusion in misinterpreting like named places. As I
mentioned. Rand McNally had extensive data bases; I used
to refer to them as annotated gazetteers. When the Federal
Government decided to establish a set of standard codes
for every place in the US, Rand McNally was one of the
companies that helped with the actual assignment of those
codes to states, counties and populated places..
FIPS at one time were part of the
(ANSI). Today these codes ar part of
GNIS,
.
You helped the Census Bureau establish a marketing plan
for the dissemination of their TIGER products by offering
the information to the public either at cost or for free.
What would you say the impact of that has been?
When I look back at the TIGER Marketing plan, I would
like to think that policy as adopted by the Census Bureau
help establish a far more widespread use of spatial data
throughout the US, and I would even go so far as to say it
initially enabled the establishment of numerous local GIS
companies.
During your career, you’ve worked with a publisher, the
military, two geospatial companies, even turned around
an aerial photography department, and now ASPRS.
Which was the most challenging and why?
I would have to say ASPRS by far is the most challenging.
It was certainly fun, challenging and exciting to build a
prototype unmanned aerial mapping system for the ARMY -
to develop an on-board near real time mapping system that
would fit in the palm of your hand
ASPRS will be the most challenging for two reasons.
First, photogrammetry as a discipline has experienced a
decline in interest at the college level. Simultaneously its
principles remain imbedded in and are increasingly found
within components of many of the advances in technology
that are surrounding us. The challenge as I see it is how to
maintain the relevancy of this organization in a changing
global marketplace. Second, I don’t believe ASPRS has
in its over 80 years of existence, faced a more disruptive
technology for its members and member companies than
present day drones or UAS or UAV.
What do you feel is the biggest opportunity for ASPRS at
this time and how should we explore it?
The biggest opportunity I think is presented by drones, but
I certainly would like to see us use UAV’s and UAS instead
of the term drones. The success of UAS Mapping RENO
2014 clearly indicates the interest is real - there were over
500 attendees. I cannot recall another ASPRS exhibit hall
that had at one time over 20+ new aerial companies. A result
from this event, signatures have resulted in the formation
of an Unmanned Autonomous Systems Division (UASD)
within ASPRS.
Why do you own part of a jail?
How did you hear about this?
My proposal to purchase
the former Cambria County
Prison, built in 1872, and
convert it to a microbrew-
ery was selected as the
winning proposal. I have
not finalized the purchase
agreement – the purchase
is the next step.
