FME User Spotlight: Lou Manglass, GISP

Athens-Clarke County Police Department, Systems Analyst II, FME User for 6 months

What are you working on right now?
Lots of things! My main focus is on keeping our 911 maps and location information up to date in our Intergraph® dispatch system. Lately, we've been using FME to bridge the gap between the County's Esri system and ours.

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What challenges do you see coming for Law Enforcement?
Acquiring trained geospatial analysts is becoming critical. It's comparable to officers. They need to have training and equipment to do their job properly, continually practice their skills, adapt to the changing landscape of law enforcement, and keep the best gear they can acquire in full working order. That's an analogy any Police Department can understand.

What's your favorite FME Transformer?
I'm a big fan of the testers, keepers and filters, because I have been moving my QA to FME. Since we do a lot of processing, the ability to perform and capture QA information has helped us streamline our process, be more accurate, and log our results.

Do you have any tips for other FME Users?
Get creative. FME can make the impossible possible, with ease. FME doesn't take much training to get started, and it rewards the user for exploring the transformers.

What are you doing when you're not working?
I used to be an avid backpacker, but it's hard to make time for a good trip. For efficiency, I've moved on to hobbies I can do in shorter bursts, closer to home. My electronics workbench keeps growing as I keep acquiring new chips and test equipment, and I've been drawing a comic on and off for the past five years. http://www.yawcomic.com/