FME User Spotlight: Brendan Cunningham, GIS Project Leader
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Kilkenny County Council, Ireland, FME User for 7 Years
What is your role at Kilkenny County Council?
As the sole member of our GIS department, I do a bit of everything: from development to tech support. I work with ArcGIS and MapInfo® and regularly handle data from MicroStation® and AutoCAD®. Needless to say, FME plays a big role in all of this work.
How is Kilkenny dealing with INSPIRE requirements?
In order to meet Annex I, we built a metadata publisher that lets people input text into an easy-to-use web form. Using FME, their input is then automatically transformed into INSPIRE-compliant XML. For Annex II and III, we plan to use FME Server.
We hear you use FME outside of work as well?
You bet. I’m using FME to process football statistics and select likely outcomes for upcoming matches. You can see how I’m doing at www.brendancunningham.com.
Any suggestions for other FME users?
Take an FME training course, even if you have taken one before. After attending a second course to refresh my skills, I discovered so many new best practices that I’ve reduced duplication in my workspaces by tenfold.
How do you spend your free time?
I love football, hiking and cinema. When travelling, I tend to be a bit more adventurous, having bungee jumped in South Africa, sky dived in Argentina, and zip-trekked in Canada. I’m also the former world champion of Goldeneye on the N64… at least that’s what I tell my friends.