David is the author of Applied Geospatial Analysis for Data Scientists; we got the chance to sit down and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.
Q: What is the name of your book?
David: Applied Geospatial Analysis for Data Scientists.
Q: What are your specialist tech areas?
David: Geospatial Data Science.
Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?
David: I became a Packt author when a business development representative at Packt reached out to me. He acknowledged my skillsets as well as the gap in the publications and training materials on open source, geospatial data science. I had never considered writing a book before but had always been passionate about sharing my knowledge with the teams I’ve been privileged to lead and have thought about teaching one day. This opportunity seemed right up that alley and was something I wanted to pursue.
Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?
David: I’ve spent years training and applying geospatial data science methods, so a lot of this information is pulled from my experience and my day to day use of the science. I also recall a lot of my own experiences as I developed as a geospatial data scientist in order to ensure others can learn from my experience. For each chapter, I spent several weeks researching potential blind spots and ensuring the best content is provided to readers.
Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?
David: The biggest challenge is balancing my 50-60 hour professional work week with the book writing process. I essentially gave up all my free time to ensure a quality book was produced for readers.
Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?
David: Python is the primary technology that is discussed in this book. We cover a range of python packages as well as computation environments from standard practices to recently developed options.
Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?
David: Readers should choose this book because it is written by someone who is actively working in the field of geospatial data science and generating business value from its application. I’ve built my career on this topic and have developed other data scientist into spatial data scientist for the last decade. This book also pulls from a lot of real world experiences with hands on case studies that are relevant and can be expounded upon by readers.
Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?
David: I really want readers to understand how special and impactful geospatial thinking is. I also hope that this book allows GIS professionals and standard data scientist to connect in the middle with a common vernacular which will enable them to solve some of the hardest problems facing our collective society.
Q. What advice would you give to readers jumping into this technology? Do you have any top tips?
David: Continue to learn, it never stops! Be a veracious reader, look at new PhD research papers, ask lots of questions, always be humble and check your ego at the door.
Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?
David: Packt really makes it easy to become an author. They provide you with a lot of upfront training on how to structure materials. The feedback and review process along the way ensures that you’re producing the best content for readers.
Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?
David: I created an outline for the chapter and anticipated topics. I then used this outline to create calendar of milestone dates for initial drafts and revised drafts after publisher review. This helped me stay on track and deliver the book in an expedited timeline.
Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?
David: Trust yourself and trust the process.
Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.
David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsjordan/ on LinkedIn, @ImDavidJordan most other places.
You can find David’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please Click Here
