I love GPS. I have the technology in my phone (like most people these days), my camera, and even a dog collar. It’s great to know exactly where you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going–especially if you spend a lot of time in the wilderness like I do. Some people are even more enamored with GPS than I am. Those are the people who participate in communities run by Groundspeak, a Seattle, WA based company that aims “to make everyone an explorer and to put an adventure in every location.” It all started in 2000 when the U.S. government flipped a switch and made the signal from publicly available GPS satellites far more accurate.
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I tolerate living in Chicago because my wife is from here, the summers are awesome, and the food is exceptional. Unfortunately, it’s not the best place for someone like me who loves spending time in the wilderness. That means I spend a lot of time in Northern Michigan, which is five hours away. It would be nice if I could discover some recreation options that are a little closer. That’s exactly what AllTrails offers. They’re a San Francisco, CA based startup that has built “the leading digital network focused on outdoor enthusiasts, providing 1 million people monthly with the information and tools to discover top destinations near them.”
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Garçon went on his first hunt yesterday (he still needs to grow into his tracking collar). A friend of mine took us along with his well-experienced dog to try to find some grouse and woodcock. The search was unsuccessful, but Garçon loved running through the woods and learning to use his nose. He’s more of an upland dog, but I hope at some point we’ll be able to hunt ducks together too–because I love ducks. Many of you are probably asking, “If you love ducks so much, why would you want to shoot them?” The simple answer is because they’re delicious, but the more complicated answer is that the people who utilize a resource are often the ones who care for it the most. Without an organization like Ducks Unlimited, our waterfowl population wouldn’t be close to what they are today. The Memphis, TN based non-profit has become “the world’s leader in wetlands and waterfowl conservation” because a small group of hunters were worried about the loss of wetlands habitat and what it would do to the ducks.
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When I was in elementary school, Christopher Columbus was a hero. Today people don’t even complain about going to work on a holiday named after him. That tells you just how ugly the true story is. Still, you have to give Columbus credit for sailing across the Atlantic with no idea where he was going (and making it back, and then doing it again three more times). Today we have technology that enables us to always know where we are. Rand McNally is a Skokie, IL based company that played a big part in getting us to this point. They were founded in 1856, and since then they’ve been specializing “in maps, navigation, road travel, and trip planning.”
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If you want to change something, you need to be able to measure it. Whether you’re talking about weight, revenue, or toxic emissions, establishing a yardstick for success is the first step in accomplishing a goal. The problem is that some of the most important things that we want to change are the hardest to measure. The environment is a perfect example, and that’s exactly what Global Footprint Network is focused on. They are an Oakland, CA based non-profit that was “established to enable a sustainable future where all people have the opportunity to live satisfying lives within the means of one planet.” As a result, Global Footprint Network is focused on “measuring human impact on the Earth so we can make more informed choices.”
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My goal is to help you with career exploration–to introduce you to career opportunities that you didn’t know existed. We’re nearly 2,000 employers in, and we’ve already helped a lot of people land amazing jobs and internships. But in the grand scheme of exploration, finding cool companies to work for just isn’t that impressive. There’s no danger, and there’s almost no chance of finding something truly new. Real explorers are in The Explorers Club, a New York, NY based “international multidisciplinary professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research and the ideal that it is vital to preserve the instinct to explore.” It’s a non-profit that was founded in 1904 and exists to promote “the scientific exploration of land, sea, air, and space by supporting research and education in the physical, natural and biological sciences.”
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Columbus Day isn’t much of a holiday anymore–it’s become yet another regular work and school day for many. It makes sense considering Christopher Columbus wasn’t really the guy that my 1st grade teacher taught me that he was. Still, I’m amazed by the feats of guys like Columbus (which is why I’ve written about Garmin and Facet Technology on past Columbus Days). Getting in a boat with an uncertain route to a far away destination still seems crazy to me, and these guys did it in a time when navigation equipment was quite basic. Their minds would be blown if they knew what kind of information the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (formerly the National Imagery and Mapping Agency) has. The agency is headquartered in Springfield, VA and has major facilities in St. Louis, MO (I learned about them from one of my awesome interns whose boyfriend works for the NGA). They are part of the Department of Defense, and they are tasked with providing “timely, relevant, and accurate geospatial intelligence in support of national security.”
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One of the most underrated trends in today’s wave of technology is the GPS-enabling of everything. I recently bought a waterproof digital camera with a GPS chip in it, and it has completely changed my perspective on taking photographs. I think that it’s so cool that I can visualize all of my photos across a map. As GPS shows up in more and more devices (it’s in pretty much every smartphone now), we’re going to see all kinds of cool applications come to fruition. Urban Mapping is a San Francisco, CA based company that plays a behind the scenes role in pushing forward mapping technology. As they put it, they provide “geographic data and services to businesses for bigger insights and better decisions.” Put more simply, Urban Mapping organizes all kinds of data around geography in a way that makes it easy to visualize and manipulate the data.
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3D has been around a long time, but it hasn’t been very good until recently. I remember getting 3D glasses for movies as a kid, and it was kind of cool, but the novelty wears off pretty quickly. The real future of 3D is in renderings and modeling. And that’s what El Segundo, CA based CyberCity 3D is doing. They are a “3D geospatial modeling company specializing in the generation, distribution, analysis and visualization of reality-based 3D city, facility and infrastructure models.” That may sound kind of techie, and it is, but this stuff isn’t just for architects and engineers. CyberCity 3D is putting their venture capital funding to use by taking a “a special focus on 3D web publishing and advertising for residential and commercial real estate, apartment rentals, travel destinations, government agencies, and geographic information systems (GIS).”
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Every 10 years our country does a census to collect demographic data about our populous to drive public policy decisions. It’s an extremely big deal, and it temporarily creates 1.4 million jobs (according to government figures). Sometimes temporary jobs like these can be an alternative to an internship, but we want you to get more meaningful work experience if possible. Luckily, the U.S. Census Bureau does a lot more than its once every ten years nationwide census. They are “the leading source of quality data about the nation’s people and economy,” so you’d be amazed by all of the things that they track. For instance, much of the economic data that you have been hearing about in the news lately – as in “Stocks plunge on weakened Monthly Retail Sales” – comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. If you’re fascinated by data or just love counting things, there aren’t many places that offer a more interesting work experience that the Census Bureau.
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