Presented by Krischelle Love, San Jose Water Company See more FME World Tour 2014 presentations at www.safe.com/recap2014

1. CONNECT. TRANSFORM. AUTOMATE.
Bridging the Gap Between
Unequal Partners
Krischelle Love, GIS Technician
San Jose Water Company

2. The Bridge
San Jose Water Company
 140-mi2service area
 2774 miles of water main
 230,000 connections
 350 employees
Canyon Lake Water Service Company
 240-mi2 service area
 532 miles of water main
 10,000 connections
 40 employees

3. The Gap

4. Beware the Bridge Troll
He’s demanding!
If you want use of the
bridge, you must have…
 enterprise GIS data
maintained in an Oracle
Spatial DB in California
 a viewing application for
everyone in Texas
 a cloak of invisibility
(a secure internal network
for two-way data transfer)
Photo Credit: "Troll Under the Bridge" by keystricken
http://www.flickr.com/photos/keystricken/183187363/
©Attribution-ShareAlikeLicense

5. Danger: Bridge Out Ahead
Limitations
 $$$
 COTS unaffordable
 computers old & underpowered
 Rural area with slow/limited
internet connectivity
 Security precautions further
hamper our network connection
(invisibility cloaks are heavy!)
You Shall Not Pass Gandalf Vinyl Decal Sticker by Vinyl Decal Stickers
www.amazon.com/Gandalf-Vinyl-Decal-Includes-Squeegee/dp/B00AQL4E7S

6. Bridge Over Troubled Water
Google
Earth
+
FME

7.  Oracle to KML
 KMLStyler
 LabelPointReplacer
 custom attribute display
 Advantages
 Free viewer
 Street View available
 Automated with
FME Server
Building the Bridge

8. Bridge to Nowhere
 Disadvantages
 Flat file  unmet need
 No base map (parcels and subdivisions)
 Secure file transfers failed often  stale data
 Interface less than ideal  frustrating experience
 County GIS was gold standard
 Unable to query our facilities
 Google Earth bulky and unreliable  few users
 Time for a new direction

9. Bridge of the Future
QGIS + PostGIS + FME Server
The future is all about free & open source!
(Plus, nobody needs money in the 24th century.)

10. Making it so
 Add other sources
 Join customer
database
 Add fields
 Hyperlinks
(site specific)
 Symbol rotations
 Beautify line
geometry
 Generalizer
 Appealing look
 Faster loading
Adds value
without clutter in
the enterprise
database!
Still automated
with FME
Server!

11. Engage!
Oracle (enterprise data)
Customized interface
with a single plugin
FME
Server
PostGIS (CA copy)
PostGIS (TX copy)
Free viewer!
AUTOMATED. LOCAL. FAST.

12.  Users get access to…
 Engineering as-builts
 Tax assessor data
 Quick customer info
 Added value for users
without ever leaving the map
All at virtually no cost!
Bridging the Gap

13. We’ll Cross That Bridge When it Comes
 The future is full of possibilities…
 Interface can evolve with users’ needs
 Data from other sources can be added
 Other business needs can be met
 e.g., data entry directly by CLWSC staff to track leak
reports, customer complaints, and more
 Growing staff ≠ growing expense
 Future unknowns are no sweat with FME

14. Water Under the Bridge
 In summary…
 Google Earth was the right solution for a
while, now it’s QGIS/PostGIS
 FOSS is unpredictable
 Business needs maywill change
 FME is the key that unlocks whatever the future
may hold
 FME Server is the caretaker that lets us pay
attention to other things!

15. Thank You!
 Questions or comments?
Requests for more bridge sayings?
Another Star Trek or Tolkien reference?
 For more information:
 Krischelle_Love@sjwater.com
 Quantum GIS: qgis.org
 PostGIS: postgis.net
 Google Earth: earth.google.com