Although it was two years ago, it seems like only yesterday that we published a blog welcoming Elena to Astun as a Metadata Consultant. 

At the time, Elena revealed she aspired to work on more techy projects and hone her presenting skills at industry events. We’re pleased to say that her career progression at Astun has ticked both boxes plus other boxes that Elena didn’t even know she had. 

Let’s learn more about what life has had in store for Elena.

A change of role for Elena

Looking after our customers’ data is of vital importance. After working with Elena for some time, it was clear she was the ideal candidate to take on a custodial role for our data. Now, as a Data Services Engineer, she has ownership of our data holdings and any data-related projects, like the ADS syndicated datasets. She also continues to look after metadata deployments. Elena comments, “It’s a big challenge which is sometimes stressful.  Fortunately, the team in general and Ali in particular have been extremely supportive and understanding. I am very grateful to have grown professionally at an accelerated pace. I’ve enjoyed learning many new things about the business and myself.”

Developing more technical expertise

It’s safe to say that Elena loves learning and her new role has given her plenty of scope to build on her expertise. Recently, she undertook Amazon Web Services (AWS) training, available from the AWS Skill Builder. This has expanded her cloud skills and understanding of various AWS cloud services. She found the ‘AWS Technical Essentials’ course especially helpful for improving her understanding of the basic concepts and navigating the AWS console. It’s also helped her communicate quickly and easily with the DevOps team who look after our AWS environment. This is particularly important as the majority of our iShare clients use iShare in the Cloud which is hosted on AWS.

Next, Elena plans to tackle the ‘Data Engineering on AWS – Foundations’ course and the ‘Data Analytics Learning Plan’, which introduces AWS services like AWS Glue and AWS Athena.

Most enjoyable large-scale project in the last year

Elena has a soft spot for a Planning Inspectorate (PINS) project relating to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs). NSIPs are large-scale projects like power stations, highways, power lines and data centres.  

Elena worked alongside the PINS team to review existing data sources and update the data sets that feed into their reporting plug-in. She comments, “I found this equally interesting and challenging. I was excited to put my QGIS and PostGIS training to good use. As a bonus, I got to work closely with a very talented and friendly PINS team. I enjoyed developing a deeper understanding of our iShare GIS.”

Most enjoyable small-scale project in the last year

Many organisations still struggle to have a clear view of the extent and ownership of their data. This is understandable as data holdings grow but GIS teams are often frozen in size or shrinking. The solution lies in metadata which, in Elena’s words, “allows a light to shine brightly on data. This makes it accessible to more people and supports informed decision making.” 

Elena has particularly fond memories of helping Monmouthshire County Council and Newport City Council start their metadata journeys. 

Firstly, Elena set up their environment in our shared metadata portal. This already holds thousands of metadata records for many local authorities. Once done, she trained council staff on the correct way to record metadata. Now, they can confidently create records which are Q-FAIR and UK GEMINI-compliant.

Putting data in the spotlight

We encourage our team to share their knowledge with the wider community. Since we last caught up with Elena, she has delivered several presentations:

• Watch a re-recording of her FOSS4G:UK presentation on the benefits of automated metadata creation
• Her well-received GeoBusiness talk in 2024 outlined the benefits of metadata and covered some of the most common acronyms and terms that you might hear when working with metadata
• She’s demonstrated to colleagues how technologies can be used 
• She’s delivered client presentations to help them explore the benefits of metadata management (please contact us if this would be useful for you)

What else has Elena been working on?

Elena recently joined the BSI IST/36 (Geographic Information) committee. This is responsible for providing UK input into the ISO/TC 211 (Geographic Information/Geometrics  Technical Committee) and CEN/TC 287 (Geographic Information Technical Committee). IST/36 is also responsible for the preparation, revision and amendment of British Standards relating to digital geographic information.

Elena has also been nominated to join ISO/TC 211 AG 10 – the XML maintenance working group, which is responsible for looking after the XML implementation of the standards. This will enable her to stay up-to-date with any upcoming changes to the relevant standards and put her XML and XSL skills to good use.

Like many small businesses, we recognise the importance of documentation. Elena’s put a lot of work into ensuring ours is as up-to-date and complete as possible. 

Elena watches the GeoNetwork GitHub repository and subscribes to the GeoNetwork Developer mailing list. These help her keep abreast of changes to the underlying software that powers our metadata solution. 

Life outside Astun

Outside the world of data, Elena is a keen puzzler and one of the growing numbers of adult Lego builders. Unfortunately, a lack of display space has forced her to down bricks. Instead, she’s spending time on Geoguessr, a ridiculously addictive geography game in which players deduce locations from Google Street View imagery.