# HG changeset patch
# User Primal Pappachan <primal007@gmail.com>
# Date 1322637125 -19800
# Node ID c8068bc1d7c38d7bd324b5756f021ee8c460e947
# Parent  6cd2a8ce66627bcae42072d28838c59aa80bc494
Edited Ole Nielson's Tutorial Description

diff -r 6cd2a8ce6662 -r c8068bc1d7c3 project/templates/about/tutorial.html
--- a/project/templates/about/tutorial.html	Thu Nov 24 17:42:13 2011 +0530
+++ b/project/templates/about/tutorial.html	Wed Nov 30 12:42:05 2011 +0530
@@ -198,29 +198,43 @@
 <h3 id="sec2.5">Ole Nielsen: Mapping and Geoprocessing with Python (2 hrs)</h3>
 <ul>
 	<li>
-	Putting information on a map and analyzing spatial data are fundamental to a 
-	wide range of areas such as navigation, working with climate or geological data, 
-	disaster management, presentation of modelling results, demographics, social networking etc.
+	Putting information on a map and analyzing spatial data are fundamental to a
+ 	wide range of areas such as navigation, working with climate or geological
+ 	data, disaster management, presentation of modelling results, demographics,
+ 	social networking etc. However, making and viewing maps is just the tip of
+ 	the iceberg: to communicate spatial information much work is needed under
+ 	the hood to read, write, manipulate and process the data underpinning the
+	maps.
 	</li>
 	<li>
-	This tutorial will give a practical introduction to tools and techniques 
-	available for processing spatial information and, through a few hands-on 
-	exercises, give the participants a sense of how to manipulate and visualise 
-	spatial data using Python. Topics covered include reading and writing 
-	of important data formats for both raster and vector data, looking at the layers, 
-	awareness of issues with datums and projections, calculating centroids of polygons, 
-	calculation of distance between points on the surface of Earth, interpolation from raster 
-	grids to points etc. The tutorial has been developed for Ubuntu Linux and will provide source code, 
-	tests and data for this platform. However, the content and messages should be general and apply to any platform.
+	T This tutorial will give a practical introduction to tools and techniques
+ 	available for processing spatial information and, through hands-on
+	 exercises, give the participants a sense of how to manipulate spatial data
+	 using Python. Depending on time, topics covered include reading and writing
+	 of important data formats for both raster and vector data, looking at the
+ 	layers with qgis, awareness of issues with datums and projections,
+ 	calculating area and centroids of polygons, performance enhancement using
+ 	vector operations, numerical stability issues, calculation of distance
+	 between points on the surface of Earth, interpolation from raster grids to
+	 points etc. The tutorial has been developed for Ubuntu Linux 11.04/11.10 and
+	 will provide source code, tests and data for this platform. However, the
+	 content and messages should be general and apply to any self-respecting
+	 platform.
 	</li>
 	<li>
-	I assume that participants know how to write and run 
-	Python scripts and would suggest you install qgis as well as 
-	the python dependencies numpy, matplotlib and gdal on your 
-	laptop. I don't assume any previous knowledge of mapping or Geographic Information Systems (GIS).		
+	I assume that participants know how to write and run Python scripts and are
+ 	OK having a crack at implementing simple numerical operations such as
+ 	summations in Python. I don't assume any previous knowledge of mapping or
+ 	Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The tutorial depends on the
+ 	packages qgis and gdal-bin as well as the python dependencies python-numpy
+ 	and python-gdal which are preloaded on the distributed live-DVD. The
+ 	tutorial material itself will be available in the Subversion repository
+ 	http://oles-tutorials.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/scipy2011 and also on a USB
+ 	stick that I will bring along.		
 	</li>
 	<li>
-	If you have some spatial data you want to manipulate in Python feel free to bring it along and grab me during a lunch break.
+	If you have some spatial data you want to manipulate in Python feel free to
+ 	bring it along and grab me during a lunch break.
 	</li>
 </ul>