What are we doing now?.....August 2010
Mark Probert will be working on a study that will result in a generic methodology for assessing and monitoring the progress of cadastre and land administration projects. This is being done with the Netherlands Kadaster and is funded by the EC. The work follows on from the monitoring work that has been done by the same team over the previous years. Mark Probert will also be taking some leave in this month.
In June we were mainly spending time in the office preparing bids for future work. Mark Probert attended the INSPIRE conference in Krakow, Poland, where he chaired the session on trans national SDI projects and participated in meetings of the "state of play" project.
May was a busy month for Land Surveying training again. In conjunction with PBTDS Ltd, Mark Probert delivered three courses to Land Registry staff. The courses are specifically aimed at helping candidates on the path to AssocRICS membership. Candidates spend a week of intensive practical training using graphic, total station and rtk gps surveying methods to consolidate classroom learning.
In April Mark Probert was in Mongolia again for two weeks working with BlomInfo on the subject of addresses.
In March Mark Probert was in Greece for two weeks, supporting Dutch Kadaster with the monitoring of the Greek cadastre. This involved a two week mission in the middle of the month.
In January and February 2010 Mark Probert visited Mongolia again to concentrate on the NSDI aspects of the Land Privatization and Title Registration Project being managed by BlomInfo. The 18 months project is part of the Property Rights Project being supported by the Millenium Challenge Corporation of the USA.
December 2009 - Mark Probert was supporting Blom in their Land Privatization and Title Registration project in Mongolia. During December Mark was assisting with the project start-up and his input concluded with the creation of the project inception report and a stakeholder workshop.
November 2009 - During November Mark Probert visited Greece again acting as team leader for the Kadaster International project that is monitoring the implimentation of various activities in support of the creation of the Greek Cadastre. The team spent just over one week in Athens and visited the offices of Ktimatalogio and Agroland.
During the Autumn we have been based in the Southampton office, mainly preparing bids for future projects.
August 2009 - In August we were in Macedonia again to finish the Training Needs Assessment began in June. This trip included visits to the regional offices of Ohrid and Struge to evaluate the training needs in the districts away from the Skopje HQ.
July 2009 - In July we were back in Azerbaijan to complete the Training Needs Assessment project started in May this year. There were some organisational changes in the meantime with a new State Committee for Property Issues now responsible for the land register.
June 2009- Geolink Consulting has begun a seven week project looking at the training needs of the Macedonian Cadastre and Land Registry - AREC. The project began with a week long mission in Skopje in mid June and continues until August. Working with PBTDS Ltd the study has involved a concentrated information gathering exercise using interviews, focus groups, observation, existing documentation and a questionnaire. Work has involved visiting the main City registration office and the regional office of Kumanaova as well as the main HQ in Skopje.
May 2009-We have been working in Baku, Azerbaijan for two weeks on a Training Needs Assessment for the main cadastre and registration agencies. The three main agencies implementing the World Bank Real Estate Registration Project have very recently been streamlined into two agencies. The work, which will be completed by a second two week visit in July, will result in a Training Strategy and Training Plan to help the agencies with the Registration and Cadastre project and with their day to day work into the future.
April 2009 -During April we have been running this years AssocRICS Land Surveying courses with staff from Land Registry. Two events took place in Bristol, with another course scheduled for the second week of May in Leeds. Candidates enjoyed fine weather for the first course and were out surveying every day. Rain during the second week necessitated a re-schedule of some of the work but didn't prevent the candidates from completing all their graphic, total station and RTK GPS surveyassignments. For the rest of this month Geolink staff have been preparing for forthcoming projects in Azerbaijan and Macedonia.
Nov 2008 - Mar 2009- Most of this period has been spent in the UK preparing bids and content for future projects. April sees the start of this years programme of AssocRICS land surveying courses for Land Registry staff.
Oct - At the beginning of October we attended the WPLA workshop in Cavtat, Croatia. A paper about Training Needs Analysis, co-written by Mark Probert, Paul Bullock and Mario Josic was presented at the workshop by Paul Bullock of PBTDS Ltd. The event, which was superbly organised at a great venue, was a great opportunity to meet up with old and new friends, and to learn about new activities in the world of Land Administration.
Sep - The end of September brought about the final Geolink input into the Training Needs Assessment project in Albania. Geolink had previously completed inputs earlier in September and back in July. Geolink was involved in a GPS network project in Albania at the end of 2007.
July - During July Geolink supported the PBTDS Ltd Training Needs Analysis project in the IPRO, Albania. IPRO is the Immovable Property Registration Office and this first 2 weeks input was aimed at gathering information on the current status - through existing documentation, interviews and a questionnaire. The remainder of the project was completed in September. Final deliverables included a training strategy and plan, an evaluation package, and a report.
June - The Geolink NSDI Study for Croatia, completed in 2006, has now been published in Croatia (in Croatian). The Geolink report has been combined with another SDI study - from German geoada company conterra, and was launched at a very pleasant event in Zagreb on 26th June 2008. The book (ISBN-978-953-6971-13-8) will be distributed to a wide range of stakeholders in the Croatian NSDI and forms an excellent medium for communicating the key issues. For enquiries contact the Project Implementation Unit of the Real Property Registration and Cadastre Project. 
Also in June we attended the FIG working week in Stockholm and the EC GI-GIS Workshop in Slovenia. Both represented excellent opportunities to keep up to date with current developments and to maintain contacts in the Land Administration / SDI worlds. For much of September we will again be working back in Albania before presenting a paper at the WPLA Land Administration Workshop in Croatia at the beginning of October. (In August we might even take a holiday!)
May - back in April/May, and working with PBTDS Ltd, we delivered a series of land surveying training courses for Land Registry and Registers of Scotland. Land Registry students were gaining survey experience as part of their work towards the TechRICS qualification. The courses took place in Bristol and Leeds - culminating with survey exercises that involved use of graphic survey techniques, total station and rtk gps. The data captured was loaded into Cadcorp GIS and merged with Ordnance Survey data. Registers of Scotland staff were provided with three day Introduction to Survey Practice courses.
Feb - Earlier in the year we presented a paper on capacity building and SDIs at the Intergeo East conference in Belgrade, continued monitoring work in Greece, and visited the Immovable Property Registration Office in Albania again. Geolink Consulting Ltd continues to be active in a number of fields connected with Land Administration - the navigation menu to the right will link through to case study examples that give a brief overview of many of the projects. We will regularly update these.