I think what caught my attention the most while looking through the articles and website is how many aspects cityworks can be involved with at the city government level. It almost reminds me of vertical integration, where all assets and everything a city would need to be managed is all in one place whether it be pavement analysis, bills, permits, response and so much more. This is extremely important in marketing to new clients because they won’t have to worry about other external programs. Cityworks is truly convenient in the fact that everything can be managed on one site and cuts down on excess time for government employees.

Another thing that I enjoyed was the approach of going paperless with reports and work orders. I watched the video on Augusta, Georgia and it was clear that going paperless and integrating cityworks increases efficiency and productivity while also benefiting the environment. Lastly, I picked up that while cityworks serves many communities and has multiple aspects to its service, they never fail to help find what works for each individual city or airport. While cityworks has set services, they work with communities to find what works best for each client. It’s clear that cityworks can work for any city or airport in finding the right solutions to build a more efficient community.

When asked to find what industries that use Cityworks that utilize asset management, I think the more pertinent question to ask is “What industry doesn’t utilize asset management?” I’m being 100% legit, is there no industry here that looks at asset management and goes “Meh I’m good?” Nah. They all want a bit of that asset management pie, and to be quite frank, who can blame em? Just from looking over the power of the tools, from things like easy mapping tools to risk assessment, Cityworks provides many a service for those who need to streamline and modernize their work. I do have to say I am quite interested in the Transportation aspect of all this. One of the biggest complaints about public transport is that it’s not well maintained, so to be able to use Cityworks asset management to restore faith in public transit, that’s a win in my book.

With all the tools utilized by Cityworks, I do have to say I am impressed with how much of it was able accessed via cell phone. Normally one would have to lug around a laptop everywhere they go in order to make inputs into the system, but by being able to use a smart device not only do you not have to worry about that, it also makes the tools much more accessible to the average person, and it can be done quickly. Good thing too, my laptop is heavy. Although if I were to take full advantage of Cityworks and GIS via phone I may need a better SD card. Thing is constantly filling up for some reason, even though I barely have anything downloaded. That being said I do wonder how much space it does take up on a phone? If it turns out to be quite the space taker perhaps a new project could be to make a light version. How that would work, I do not know, I am not an app designer. Food for thought though.

What caught my attention most in the required videos and texts is how much work GIS can do to build a better community and help others. Being from St. Louis, whenever I hear or read about GIS it’s usually in the context of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency and defense mapping so hearing about the positive side of helping people and communities is very assuring. Especially in the stories of Hurricane Irma and Harvey, it’s great to learn how planning and mapping resources can help mitigate and alleviate the pressures of natural disasters. Cities like Houston, Texas, and Miami Beach, Florida were allowed the upper hand in conducting relief responses with Cityworks software on their side. This shows how much of a positive impact GIS and Cityworks can have on populations. 

Another subject I found interesting was how GIS trickles down and affects everyone, as seen in the story of the Chicago Rockford Airport in Illinois. There, a transfer took place from paper to Cityworks regarding airport maintenance logs and FAA safety logs. The airport significantly cut back on delays and approved its overall efficiency, which impacted the travelers at the airport positively. In so many cases like this, the customer receives the positive result but does not always realize the effect GIS systems and Cityworks had on that positive result. GIS is connected to our everyday lives as society becomes more technologically advanced and it’s important to realize that impact as it will make us more efficient and cost-effective.

My perusal through the given material on Cityworks, ESRI, and ArcGIS has been insightful to say the least. First and foremost: Jack Dangermond. That’s just a sick name. If I had to write an action movie and had to come up with a moniker for the main character, Dangermond would very much be at the top of my list. On a more serious note, Dangermond made some very good points in his speech, the most noticeable being that all of these seemingly disparate areas and problems can benefit from proper geographic insights and planning. Not only that, but how more interconnected these many different fields are through smart planning and cloud computing so that all data can be taken into account when making important decisions, all with the intent of trying to improve society and tackle the problems that it faces.

On another note, I do like that one of the highlighted points made throughout the videos and articles was the inter-connectivity between professionals who use these tools and the general populace. It’s important to me, personally, that there is a layer of transparency and translatability between those two groups. It’s akin to scientific writing: while it is easy to read for those in the field, others might have a hard time understanding the content, making it seemingly unrelatable to them. It is on the role of the professional to make it so their work can be understood by the vast majority of people, so that input can be received on such studies. I am happy that ESRI and Cityworks seem to be on the same page as I when it comes to this, and look forward to seeing where this internship goes.

[pdf-embedder url=”https://sites.owu.edu/esgginternships/wp-content/uploads/sites/147/2020/09/fall_2020_cityworks_internship.pdf”]