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Cohga Secures Contract with Tasmanian Government for ACHRIS Implementation

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Contract Awarded

In a significant milestone for cultural heritage management, Cohga has entered into a contract with the Tasmanian Government to implement their Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Information System '(ACHRIS), a comprehensive solution for managing Aboriginal heritage. The partnership represents a pivotal step forward in preserving Tasmania’s rich Aboriginal heritage and underscores Cohga’s unwavering commitment to delivering cutting-edge technology for cultural heritage management.

Aboriginal Heritage Register

The Aboriginal Heritage Register (AHR) is a vital database that houses information about over 13,000 significant places and objects related to the Aboriginal people of Tasmania. Although not publicly accessible due to its culturally sensitive content, the AHR serves several essential functions. These include collecting and managing site data, providing access to this information, offering legislative advice on heritage matters, assisting with compliance, and handling system administration and reporting. Initially developed in 2013 as part of proposed changes to the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1975, the AHR has encountered challenges due to the non-passage of expected updates, resulting in a system that is difficult to enhance and maintain.

Proven Solution

ACHRIS, Cohga’s Indigenous Heritage Information Management System, tackles these challenges by providing a web application that seamlessly integrates forms-based workflows with a spatial system. This enables staff, key stakeholders, and the public to query, report, and manage cultural heritage information within a single, user-friendly, spatially-enabled environment. Not only does the system enhance the efficiency of managing cultural heritage data, but it also ensures the preservation and protection of culturally significant information.

Proven Partnership

Cohga’s partnership with the Tasmanian Government underscores the company’s proven history of collaboration with government agencies throughout Australia. ACHRIS, along with its platform Weave, has been successfully deployed as cultural heritage databases and registers in three Australian states, with Tasmania being the fourth. These implementations serve as compelling evidence of Cohga’s capacity to provide efficient and user-friendly access to cultural heritage information, all while adhering to the requirements of the relevant Cultural Heritage Acts.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with the Tasmanian Government in implementing ACHRIS," said Aaron Van Herk, Cohga Director. "This partnership not only reinforces our commitment to preserving Aboriginal heritage but also highlights the strengths of the partnerships we have built with various government agencies. We provide a robust, adaptable, and user-friendly system that meets the specific needs of cultural heritage management."

Summary

The implementation of ACHRIS in Tasmania will be completed within this financial year. This significant milestone will significantly enhance the management of Aboriginal heritage information, ensuring its preservation for future generations while making it accessible to those who need it. Cohga remains committed to building strong partnerships with government agencies and leveraging technology to protect and manage Australia’s invaluable cultural heritage.

For more information about Cohga and its innovative solutions for cultural heritage management, please visit our website https://www.cohga.com/solutions/indigenous-heritage-management/.

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Introducing the Weave Raster Inquiry Tool

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Weave Raster Inquiry Tool

Cohga is pleased to announce the release of a new raster inquiry utility designed for the Weave platform. This utility allows users to perform raster statistical calculations using vector data inputs, offering practical applications such as measuring carbon footprints or flood heights in specific areas.

Configurable Capabilites

As with other Weave utilities, users have the flexibility to customize the tool's functionality through XML configuration settings. Currently, the Weave Raster Inquiry Tool is compatible with Oracle and PostGIS raster databases, and it can be easily adapted to work with other raster database systems like ArcGIS Image Server. This adaptability allows users to configure the tool for various calculations across different datasets, potentially spanning multiple database systems.

Example Site

This utility has recently been deployed for public use by the Department of Environment, Parks, and Water Security in the Northern Territory. They are utilizing it to measure Greenhouse Gas Emissions in designated areas, contributing to sustainable land management efforts. You can explore this system here https://nrmaps.nt.gov.au/carbon/carbon.html.

Summary

The release of the Weave Raster Inquiry Tool brings a useful resource for conducting raster calculations within the Weave platform. This tool offers flexibility for a wide range of tasks, from environmental assessments to geographic analysis. Its capacity to adapt and its practical use in environmentally important projects underscore its value across diverse fields.

Contact Us for further information about the Weave Raster Inquiry Tool. 

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Configuring Weave Clients an Introductory Series of Training Tutorials

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Weave Training

Cohga has developed a training course called Configuring Weave Clients.  It is a two-day introductory series of training tutorials that teaches the essentials of Weave from the perspective of configuring a Weave web client application. 

Configuring Weave Clients

Cohga provides a range of training courses that takes students from beginner to an advanced Weave user and administrator.

As an introduction to Weave we recommend that our customers undertake the Configuring Weave Clients series of training tutorials. The intent of this course is to equip students with a foundational knowledge to allow them to confidently approach the task of building their own Weave web clients, as well as managing their existing Weave clients. 

 

Training courses are demand driven, so we will work with you to schedule the training to meet your needs.

Contact Us for further information.

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Nearmap WMS 2.0 – Important Update

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Nearmap WMS 2.0

As of August 2022 Nearmap have updated their WMS server, they have referred to this update as "WMS 2.0" but this is not a change to the WMS version supported by Nearmap, it is still 1.1.1, and is just used to indicate a new implementation of their server.

This change will break existing Weave toc model configurations for the Nearmap WMS map engines, since the change involved the renaming of all of the layers in Nearmap. The Nearmap WMS map engine in Weave still works as it did before, but you will need to update any toc models you have that relate to the Nearmap map engine to reflect the new layer names.

Note that you should ensure the id attribute for each toc model entry remains the same after the update so as to not break any bookmarks.

Please review the Cohga Wiki Page for the most recent information and updates on Nearmap.

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DIY Drone Mapping Workshop for Agriculture

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Cutting-edge solutions to improve farming outcomes

Cohga has teamed up with University of Southern Queensland, Land Solution, and Nursery & Garden Industry Queensland / Queensland Farmers’ Federation, to put on a free half day workshop on key concepts of using drones for smart farming and agriculture purpose.

This workshop will be held on 22 April 2021 in Stanthorpe. You can register and find out more details here.

Hear directly from agricultural, industry professionals and researchers in a series of talks and demonstrations. In this interactive workshop you will learn about cutting edge drone technology and how their products can be used to better manage your farms.

If you would like to know more about how Cohga can assist your agriculture business then please Contact us to start the discussion.

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Cohga Joins Northern Territory Government ICT Panel Contract

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Provision of ICT Specialist Services

Cohga is pleased to announce that we have been granted lateral entry to the Northern Territory Government panel contract D19-0147 - Provision of ICT Specialist Services.

Cohga was selected for Stream 1 - ICT Packaged Works under the panel, which will allow us to continue providing our Weave software and services in a more effective and efficient manner.

Cohga Manager Graeme Taylor noted “Cohga has been operating in the Northern Territory since 2013 and entry to this contract confirms our commitment to the local ICT industry.  We are excited by this panel arrangement as it will streamline the procurement process and ensure projects are not delayed.”

Some well-known public Weave systems in the Northern Territory include

NRMAPS – https://nrmaps.nt.gov.au/

STRIKE – http://strike.nt.gov.au/

POINT – https://point.nt.gov.au/

If you would like to know more about how to engage with Cohga under the D19-0147 Panel Contract then please Contact us now to start the discussion.

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GDA2020 Upgrade Services

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GDA2020 Background

From 1 January 2020 Australia has adopted the GDA2020 datum to represent coordinates on a more accurate and modern global reference frame. As a consequence, spatial information custodians are being encouraged to use GDA2020 as the foundation for their spatial data sets.

For data custodians this will mean converting their spatial data from their current datum (e.g. GDA94) to the new datum, and adopting the associated map projection change.

More information is available from the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) websites on GDA2020 and upgrades to the Australian Geospatial Reference System. Resources include the GDA2020 Technical Manual, FAQs, Fact Sheets and a GDA2020 Forum.

Cohga GDA2020 Services

If you are considering moving to GDA2020 then please contact Cohga to discuss what you will need to do from a Weave perspective. Cohga has a range of upgrade services to suit needs and budget and will work with you to identify what is the best approach for your organisation.

From a project perspective we recommend the following steps:

Plan

It is important to plan this upgrade project well, as the changes being made are significant and need to be carried out in a methodical and structured way. From experience we can advise that the more time spent planning this upgrade the better the outcome, so we encourage you to engage a Project Manager and adopt some Project Planning tools and processes.

Communicate

It is vitally important that your clients – internal and external – are made aware of the changes you are planning as this will assist with the smooth transition to the new system. We encourage a communications strategy that provides clients with timely and informative updates to ensure there are no surprises at any stage of the project.

This communications strategy is also a good opportunity for you to promote yourself and your services by showing your clients that you are working to improve and modernise the system for them.

Test

Your project plan should include conducting a full system upgrade in a test environment before upgrading your production system. This will provide you the opportunity to develop and test all the steps in the process to ensure your system is upgraded correctly and in the most efficient way.

Once you have your plan, scripts and processes defined you will be ready to upgrade your production system.

Execute

If you have planned well and tested your plan then the execution phase should be relatively straight forward and successful. Set aside enough time to roll out the upgraded production system and importantly communicate this change with your clients early.

Take the pain out of the GDA2020 upgrade. Cohga professional services team are ready to work with you and your IT team to deliver a smooth transition. Contact us now to start the discussion.

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Petroleum Onshore Information NT Portal now Available

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POINT Portal

On 17 February 2021 Minister for Mining and Industry Nicole Manison and Minister for Environment Eva Lawler announced the availability of the POINT system that provides public access to key information and data about onshore petroleum activities.

This new portal provides information relating to proposed and approved activities, including environmental approvals, environment management plans, monitoring data and compliance reporting.

Visit Site

POINT contributes to the government’s commitment of ensuring transparency in the development and regulation of the onshore petroleum industry. This free mapping portal provides information on the onshore petroleum industry in the Territory, including:

  • The Territory’s regulatory framework
  • Industry codes of practice and guidelines
  • Geological regions in the NT, including Basins and Sub-basins
  • Petroleum titles
  • Petroleum wells
  • Companies with a petroleum interest in the NT
  • Petroleum activities.

The POINT system is the first enterprise level Weave 3 solution to hit the market. Previous Weave 3 implementations have been simple public clients and this POINT solution illustrates the maturity of the Weave 3 platform.

POINT has a clean, intuitive and modern interface on both the desktop and mobile clients. A feature developed for this project is the Data Catalogue which provides a tree like navigation to documents served to it from an external third-party document management system. Within this catalogue is the concept of Relationships, where the administrator can define relationships between entities and let the end user navigate (up and down) through the relationship tree using the Data Catalogue.

Relationships is a core part of Weave 3 and available to all users. Cohga is happy to chat to you about this new capability and how it can be used in your context.

“The Northern Territory Government is building a productive onshore petroleum industry that protects our unique environment and delivers local jobs and it is integral to ensure a robust and trusted regulatory framework is in place. Strengthening regulation will ensure industry is accountable for its practices, water and the environment is safeguarded, community and culture is respected, the benefits and opportunities available to local businesses and communities is maximised, and to ensure planning for future. Jobs are critical to Territorians, and a healthy exploration sector can play a key role in supporting our economy."
Nicole Manison
Nicole ManisonMinister for Mining and Industry
“Our natural environment is one of our best assets and it’s a large part of what makes living in the Territory so special. It is important that our unique environment and the jobs that rely on it are protected – and that is exactly what this Government is doing. Today’s launch of the POINT Portal strengthens accountability and transparency, and is another measure we are taking to protect our environment.”
Eva Lawler
Eva LawlerMinister for Environment
“Working with Cohga and the Weave solution has been a great experience. As a project team, we worked closely with the Cohga team to continuously develop new concepts and then refine these into outputs that ultimately delivered an end product that exceeded our Reference Group’s initial expectations. Without the insights and technical skills of the Cohga Team and Weave’s inherent and extensive capabilities, we would not have been able to achieve what we did. The Cohga team consistently and rapidly translated our unique conceptual ideas into real-world products that we could see and test drive, and we often relied on their high level of technical competence to drive our solution to completion.”
Don Cole
Don ColeProject Manager

Take the pain out of Weave 3 set up and configuration. Cohga professional services team are ready to work with you and your IT team to deliver a smooth transition. Contact us now to start the discussion.

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Weave Supports SAML

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Authenticating with SAML

Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) is an open standard where you can use one set of credentials to log in to many different websites.

As of Weave 2.6.5, SAML 2.0 is supported by Weave as a means of authenticating users.

SAML is the specification that outlines the steps required to perform the authentication but there are multiple different implementations of SAML Identity Providers (IdP), Weave itself is a SAML Service Provider (SP), this includes:

Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) - a Single Sign-On (SSO) solution created by Microsoft

  • Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) - a cloud based SSO solution provided by Microsoft
  • Keycloak - an open source identity and access management solution provided by Red Hat
  • Cognito - an AWS identity provider solution provided by Amazon
  • Okta - a cloud based SAML identity provider created by Okta, Inc.

Weave itself uses the Keycloak Java library, which is different from the Keycloak identity provider listed above but is provided by the same team, for communicating with whichever SAML Identity Provider you wish to integrate with. This page documents how to configure Weave so that it will use this Keycloak library to communicate with your chosen SAML IdP.

Learn more about SAML Authentication

Take the pain out of SAML configuration. Cohga professional services team are ready to work with your IT team to deliver a smooth transition. Contact us now to start the discussion.