• Funding Projects - Chatham-Kent, COOL, WEconnect

  BIO: Scott Praill, Chatham-Kent, is the Director, Information Technology Services for the Municipality of Chatham-Kent. He began this role at the inception of the department during the amalgamation of Chatham-Kent in 1998. Mr. Praill is responsible for all automation, computerization, and communication technologies within the Municipality. Prior to this Mr. Praill was employed with the former City of Chatham for 11 years, the last 10 as a Senior Construction Inspector, which allowed him to refine his project management skills. He was responsible for building multi-phase projects for Chatham and also supervised Chatham's Computer Technical staff in this role.

  Mr. Praill is presently working on a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from the University of Windsor. He obtained a Diploma of Public Administration from the University of Western Ontario in 2001. Previously, he obtained a Business Management Studies Certificate from St. Clair College, and a Civil Engineering Technology Degree from Fanshawe College of Applied Arts and Technology in 1986.
  

  BIO: John Moore, County of Oxford On-Line (COOL), is the Manager of Information Access Oxford (IAO), which serves as the Information Technology department of the County of Oxford. IAO staff provide network and computer support for over 400 county employees. IAO manages the County of Oxford Integrated Network (COIN), a wide area network providing network interconnectivity and Internet and e-mail access to those employees and other municipal staff at more than 100 locations in Oxford County. IAO manages the County web team, which has created a multitude of websites for various County departments as well as many of the municipalities within the County. IAO provides computer training for County staff and community groups, manages the Community Access Program (CAP) at 18 sites within the County, and is involved in a number of other technology projects within the community. IAO provides technology support and web development for the County of Oxford On-Line (COOL) project. Prior to joining Oxford County in 1996, Mr.Moore was manager of a large computer VAR, owned and operated his own computer consulting and Bar Code Label printing business, and was a computer educator and librarian.

  BIO: Adrian Smith, COOL, is the Network Administrator responsible for the development of websites for Oxford County and the Oxford County Library. Adrian leads a team of developers which have created a multitude of websites for various County departments as well as many of the municipalities within the County. He also assists in directing the efforts of several Community Access Program (CAP) developers who have created websites (including the award-winning www.services4children.org) for a variety of non-profit/charitable organizations within the County. Mr. Smith has been working with Public Internet Access since 1994 and with computers as both a developer and as a consultant since 1981.

  BIO: Kristina Verner, WEconnect, is presently seconded as the WEconnect Project Officer for the University of Windsor WEDnet Project, overseeing the day-to-day developments of the City of Windsor and County of Essex's smart community initiative. In addition, she coordinates, the local Urban Community Access Program. She serves as the Telecommunications Research and Development Officer within WEDnet™ , and has completed an in-depth study of the telecommunications infrastructure of the region and created an Information and Communication Technology Toolkit to assist individuals, businesses and organizations in the process of becoming more technologically savvy. Mrs. Verner holds a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Education and is a Certified Novell Administrator.

• GIS applications - URISA

  11:00-11:10 - Introduction by Phil Healey
  

  BIO: Phil Healey, City of Kingston, is employed with the City of Kingston Planning & Development Services as a GIS Specialist. Mr. Healey has over 12 years of Urban Planning and GIS experience in the public sector field. He has been involved with a number of municipal projects including developing data and mapping standards for the Kingston Area Mapping Coordination Committee and Project Coordinator responsible for integrating an information management system in the Planning Department. Mr. Healeyl has obtained his background in GIS and Planning from the Municipal Planning and Development Technology program at Mohawk College and Information Management (Programming) at St. Lawrence College. Phil is the Eastern Section Director for URISA Ontario Chapter.

  11:10-11:35 - Ron Nelson, MapEZE
  

BIO: Ron Nelson has held various executive positions with Bell Canada companies, Canada Systems Group and Cognos. He and his wife own a boutique Hotel (Inn on the Lake), a travel agency (East Winds Travel) and two technology companies (NewEdge Technologies and MAOEZE Inc.)

11:35-11:55 - Mike Maclean, City of Peterborough

BIO: Mike McLean is the GIS Co-ordinator for the City of Peterborough's Land Information Services Group. He graduated from the Thematic Cartographic Technology program at Sir Sandford Fleming College in 1978 and has been working in the field of GIS for 24 years. He is on the GIS/Cartography advisory committee and has taught part-time in the GIS/Cartographic program at SSFC.

11:55-12:20 - Arunas Kalinauskasm, R.J. Burnside & Associates Limited

BIO: Arunas Kalinauskasm is an employee of R. J. Burnside & Associates Limited, who have a long history of working with Rural Municipalities. Mr. Kalinauskas has over 20 years of remote sensing and GIS experience. Mr. Kalinauskas has held positions in all working capacities - educator (college and university levels), researcher (both university and industry), project scientist (industry), applications training program instructor (industry), project manager (industry), applications department manager (industry), and most recently as a private consultant (business owner).

Mr. Kalinauskas is focused on industry applications and commercialization of remote sensing and GIS technology. Most recently his attention has been in further development and marketing of Rural Municipal GIS applications modules. As well, he has been working on remote sensing applications for mineral and groundwater exploration. This effort is both hyperspectral sensor design, data processing and multi-source data integration and analysis using a GIS system.

TALK: The talk will provide examples of GIS for Rural Municipalities with less than 3,000 population that are producing large notifications in less then 15 minutes, colour satellite images with many various vector overlays (as lot fabric, roll numbers, rivers, ponds, lakes, roads, etc.) quickly and effectively.

12:20-12:30 - Questions

• Enabling Technologies - Robo-Ontario, Brian Rombough
  

  BIO: Brian Rombough: Technology has been an integral component of student learning throughout his14 years of teaching. As a coach at Loyalist Collegiate & Vocational Institute, Brian Rombough began using video and computer animation as means to evaluate my athletes' biomechanics. With the Limestone District School Board's initiative Project Connect, he was introduced to the Internet and e-learning. GIS software became available as shareware and he began to incorporate its dynamic and hands-on approach to learning in the geography classroom. The next and logical step was to begin posting course related assignments, information, homework, and just trying to keep in step with my students.

  In the fall of 1997, during a sabbatical, Mr. Rombough wrote the School Board's first online course using the WebCT learning platform. As a pilot project, a group of North Addington Education Centre students went online and embraced technology in the classroom as never seen before in the region. Its success, as well as his introduction to Dick Hopkins at Sydenham High School, has fuelled Mr. Rombough’s interest in e-learning. The many projects that matured from Mr. Hopkins’ and Mr. Rombough’s symbiotic relationship, and the ones which are incubating, come from a enduring need to remain learners within their own classrooms. As bandwidth, funding, corporate partnerships and community acceptance increase, so does Mr. Rombough’s momentum. Cultivating awareness to technology's potential in an educational construct is paramount if Canadian students are to be viable members of today's society.