I don’t know how to fully preface this, but to say, a number of major changes are coming to my life over the next few months. These changes are going to affect this newsletter. In short, there will be more content here and I am looking to do some consulting starting in September.
I am moving
In September, I am moving to Copenhagen, Denmark due to my wife’s job. I have left the United States several times to visit other places, but have never lived outside of the country. I am looking forward to exploring a new city, learning Danish, and biking in a top-10 greatest biking city in the world.
I am also extremely stressed for most of the reasons that I am excited. I have spent time in Dubai, France, and Germany where I got by with English and a bit of French. Those were short stays and part of me feels like this is going to be different because I am going to be there for several years.
I will get into it more below, but I am moving to Demark without a formal job. Moving without a traditional job lined up is absolutely frightening. I have not had this much flexibility and free time since August-October 2015. Before that, the last time I was not in education or working for more than two months would have been the summer of 2008. Part of me feels like I am doing something wrong, but I know that this is going to be a chance for me to take on projects that I would never have been able to do while working a nine-to-five job.
Guest posts
Because of my move, I am going to be without my desktop for about a month in September and October. I could write things on my phone or on my wife’s laptop, but I won’t have access to ArcMap and won’t be able to do any data deep dives. To fill the gap, I am going to be having two or three guest posts on this newsletter.
I have already put out the word, but if you are interested in having your writing appear here, please send me an email at tom@geo.fish with a short pitch. Guest posts can be on almost any subject, but I am not interested in overly partisan or news cycle content. They do not need to be exclusive to this platform and will link to your blog, Substack, or outlet.
Substack is going to be part of my job now
Due to my move to Denmark, I had to leave The DHS Program. I am sad that I will not be able to continue the projects that I have worked on for the last four and a half years. My research focus was around utilizing geospatial technology to enhance the data quality of household surveys and extracting values (covariates) from raster and vector sources.
Creating content for my Substack is going to occupy a large portion of my time starting in mid-October. This newsletter is going to switch from being an occasional outlet to publishing bi-weekly on every other Thursday. I will also be turning on paid subscriptions. Paid subscribers will receive:
The data used to create any maps or data visualizations in all posts
Two additional posts per month on the Thursdays skipped in the free edition
With 11 subscribers, my license of ESRI ArcMap is covered for the year. With more subscribers, I am able to purchase data and additional tools to answer questions that I could not otherwise do. More perks will come as more people subscribe.
I am planning on running pieces on these topics over the next few months
The geography of shuttered colleges and universities
How I use Twitter and have a good experience
How much less rain the Western US got in 2020 compared to the 1980s?
Donations to the 2020 Georgia Senate Elections
If you are not interested in becoming a subscriber but still want to support my work, the maps and other graphics that I made for this newsletter can be found on RedBubble.
Looking for consulting gigs
I am looking to do consulting work while I am in Denmark. I have been the utility man on a small team in the past and thrive in that role. If you need someone to make a map for your outlet, perform a one-off geospatial analysis, write a python tool, or be a short-term GIS analyst on your team I might be your person. I have also conducted workshops teaching public health professionals in Sub-Saharan Africa how to use QGIS.
I have extensive experience in the bureaucracy of Wikipedia as an editor, administrator, functionary, and arbitrator. If you would like to conduct a workshop teaching people to edit or bring in an outsider to your technology policy team to talk about governance on the project, I can do it. I am not interested in writing articles for people, but I can advise how your team should interact with Wikipedia.
Here is my resume and CV if you would like to see my work beyond what is here. I would prefer to work remotely, but I am able to fly anywhere in the world to meet you. I can not work on projects related to Danish politics. Email me at tom@geo.fish if you are interested.
Higher Education?
I am interested in going back to grad school for a master's or Ph.D. in the spring or fall of 2022. If you know of a research group that does similar work to me and is okay with having members in non-American time zones, please let me know. I am currently most interested in doing research around accounting for The DHS Program, PHIA, MICS, and World Bank displacement procedure when extracting various types of covariates.