More interest!
One of my clients has encouraged me to investigate how I can increase my surveying capacity on his project for a short period, in order to try to align my spend with his budget for the year.
Another strong prospect seems to be emerging as a real opportunity, and so I might be in the market for another MobileMapper CX loaded with DigiTerra Explorer software early in the new year. A second prospect, for a large-scale inventory survey, that I have been nurturing for some time may begin to see the light of day before Christmas . . . Both will depend upon our ability to produce client ready data in the field and so reduce our post-processing costs to a minimum.
Research projects
As I have written before, I am interested in research projects where I might be able to address the question in my own right, or act as the “glue” to hold together and manage a team of experienced, niche, specialists in order to draw out the required response to the client’s brief.
There are a number of projects in the offing at the moment; I have considered one of those projects more fully since my last blog and have decided not to proceed. I did not feel that I had enough time to locate the experienced professionals that I needed, for example experts in researching historic landscapes, archivists, archaeologists and so on, and to get them on-side in time to meet the client’s deadline.
In passing I suspect that the pool of recognised (and so acceptable and credible) experts is quite shallow and so in order to form a wining project team one has to be quick off the mark!
Showing posts with label research projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research projects. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Thursday, 3 December 2009
A wet Thursday
Oxford City Council
Today I’ll be catching up with Henry in Oxford, dodging the rain in a café in Marston or Headington.
We’ve been instructed to record data about all the trees on housing land, communal trees (which is quite a common request) and those trees in tenants’ gardens. Oxford Homes have taken the view that they want to know what is where so that they can, if necessary, take preventative action to stop the risk of a tree damaging property. Damage might be caused by branches hitting the housing stock or by expanding roots lifting paths or patios or damaging drains.
We have yet to move on to the greater part of the project, which is to be to capture data about all the trees in the parks and open spaces of the city.
To help us we are using a MobileMapper CX – a hand-held data logger that is GPS enabled, so it knows where it is – and DigiTerra Explorer software – a simple package that allows us to record all sorts of attributes, pick lists that have been designed to suit our client’s needs.
By capturing the records electronically we can upload client ready data straight to the client’s server and into their database so that their records are as contemporary as possible.
Expressions of Interest
I have submitted an Expression of Interest for a number of interesting sounding research projects, a new area of activity for me, and I wait anxiously to see if I will be invited to the next stage of the process. Quite reasonably clients are looking for suitable experience, but without the first instruction I will not be able to gain that experience, and so it really is chicken and egg situation for me.
One particular project, which will result in best practice for the retention of green infrastructure in towns, is of particularly special interest to me because of the decade that I spent in Milton Keynes, from 1985 to 1996, helping to manage the landscape of the newly emerging city. The team was lead by Rai Darke, a far-sighted and driven man (who hates the limelight!), and who has helped to shape my thinking. We all assumed that the work we did everyday was common place, it’s only years later that I now realise how far-sighted Rai was.
Another project seems to refer to a literature review of the documented history of a particular landscape, which will inform the implementation of a new landscape plan for the area. Again, historic landscapes is not “my bag” but I know people who would be interested – if I can secure a place on the tender list when others can’t then perhaps the client will be able to get the body of work they need through the procurement exercise.
The third project will require me to act as a focal point, bringing together the demand and supply sides in a local woodland economy. The measures that will be used to determine the success of the project are hard-nosed commercial – how many start-up businesses have been created and so on, so it’s a really good pragmatic approach to what is essentially an economic project.
So, all these seem to presume an ability to communicate, not necessarily an ability as an arboriculturist” – sounds OK to me!
Today I’ll be catching up with Henry in Oxford, dodging the rain in a café in Marston or Headington.
We’ve been instructed to record data about all the trees on housing land, communal trees (which is quite a common request) and those trees in tenants’ gardens. Oxford Homes have taken the view that they want to know what is where so that they can, if necessary, take preventative action to stop the risk of a tree damaging property. Damage might be caused by branches hitting the housing stock or by expanding roots lifting paths or patios or damaging drains.
We have yet to move on to the greater part of the project, which is to be to capture data about all the trees in the parks and open spaces of the city.
To help us we are using a MobileMapper CX – a hand-held data logger that is GPS enabled, so it knows where it is – and DigiTerra Explorer software – a simple package that allows us to record all sorts of attributes, pick lists that have been designed to suit our client’s needs.
By capturing the records electronically we can upload client ready data straight to the client’s server and into their database so that their records are as contemporary as possible.
Expressions of Interest
I have submitted an Expression of Interest for a number of interesting sounding research projects, a new area of activity for me, and I wait anxiously to see if I will be invited to the next stage of the process. Quite reasonably clients are looking for suitable experience, but without the first instruction I will not be able to gain that experience, and so it really is chicken and egg situation for me.
One particular project, which will result in best practice for the retention of green infrastructure in towns, is of particularly special interest to me because of the decade that I spent in Milton Keynes, from 1985 to 1996, helping to manage the landscape of the newly emerging city. The team was lead by Rai Darke, a far-sighted and driven man (who hates the limelight!), and who has helped to shape my thinking. We all assumed that the work we did everyday was common place, it’s only years later that I now realise how far-sighted Rai was.
Another project seems to refer to a literature review of the documented history of a particular landscape, which will inform the implementation of a new landscape plan for the area. Again, historic landscapes is not “my bag” but I know people who would be interested – if I can secure a place on the tender list when others can’t then perhaps the client will be able to get the body of work they need through the procurement exercise.
The third project will require me to act as a focal point, bringing together the demand and supply sides in a local woodland economy. The measures that will be used to determine the success of the project are hard-nosed commercial – how many start-up businesses have been created and so on, so it’s a really good pragmatic approach to what is essentially an economic project.
So, all these seem to presume an ability to communicate, not necessarily an ability as an arboriculturist” – sounds OK to me!
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