Monday, August 4. 2008

UC Plenary Afternoon Session - ArcGIS 9.4 Teases and a call to Biodiversity Action

In the afternoon session of the opening plenary, Jack Dangermond stated the company would do something it had never done before: preview a new release. I'm not sure that was something new, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. The preview included:

- A brief video of Scott Morehouse, director of software development highlighting streamlining and simplification of workflows and sharing on the desktop, successful enterprise implementations on server and rich clients on the Web. He noted that "chasing technology" is not the best way forward, rather he noted looking to help users do their jobs will bring out the best products.

- A team of 9.4 developers showing off (1) the new, fully colored icons in the interface in desktop, dockable widows including a preview of where they'll "sit" when moved, hiding of widows, smooth panning from an enhanced rendering engine, desktop search for data, e-mail tools to send MXDs from ArcGIS (2) new editing tools in desktop including "pick and draw" to create new features, context sensitive "mini-toolbars," the ability to select features in a single location (which may be on top of one another) from a list, show/edit just attributes of interest (3) new publishing tools for publishing from desktop to server that "check" all is well for publishing, and (4) enhancements in server, including quicker rendering. Those last two, if I understood right, will be in a service pack in Q1 next year.

- Demo of ArcGIS Explorer 600 including a new ribbon interface, the availability of different tools based on the current situation, and a 2D/3D visualization option. That last thing will appear in ArcMap, per Jack Dangermond. My sense: if you want to know what ArcGIS might look like: check out ArcGIS Explorer.

After a demo of from a 6th grade graduate of her research into the "dividedness" of her town racially, educationally and in other ways, Dr. Peter Raven and colleague Dr. Trish Consiglio showed off their vision and work at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Dr. Raven shared his passion for biodiversity, sustainability and issued a 45 minute call to action, is his quiet, reserved way. It was a most enjoyable and energizing discussion from someone who has clearly thought about these issues for many years. Consiglio showed the power of weighted regression in her work predicting biodiversity based on limited data. I am pleased to say, I understood the whole process. More on UC blog.

ESRI UC Plenary: A Breather

At the lunch break of the first day of plenary sessions at the ESRI UC, I would describe the morning as "a breather." It's as though ESRI has gotten a bit too far ahead of the users and this is a chance for them to catch up. Much of the content was not "new" but rather reinforced ideas and products already introduced or available. That's perhaps a good strategy: in my informal survey only 1/2 the people I spoke to had installed ArcGIS 9.3.

Some "new" items and observations of note:

- Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of Interior, and winner of a "Making a Difference" Award re-announced the availability of Landsat data free on the Web by end of year. He also announced a GIO would be appointed for DOI (originally, in error said USGS). A second award went to the Perezs of Grupo ESRI de Venezuela for their work with GIS on poverty. (More on their work in ArcNews 2003 and their book in this press release.) Mr. Perez is the president of ESRI Venezuela.

- John Calkins rattled of the top 10 productivity enhancements for ArcGIS Desktop 9.3. ESRI UC blog has all the details. I guess this is becoming a standard part of the Day One offerings.

- Web mapping was not mentioned; Web GIS was, quite a bit. GeoWeb? Not that I recall.

- Microsoft got more mentions than Google, specifically on the provision of Virtual Earth via ArcGIS Online and Silverlight. Mentions of cloud computing: none.

- A list of 7 different demo "mashups" of services and data brought little response - until the data was shown on top of Virtual Earth and Google Maps. ESRI seems a bit late to the mashup party, though clearly there is interest in the integration via the new Javascript APIs.

- In a video, a rep from GeoEye was excited to use ArcGIS Server image services to support not just ESRI users, but "OGC users." An interesting term.

- A Flex interface to a Server demo (about what else, situational awareness after a toxic spill - sort of the "find me the nearest pizza place for data integration) was very sexy but I think took away from the core idea - real analysis was being done on the server.

- The ArcGIS Server/ArcGIS Mobile demo had actual people in the field around the Convention Center gathering and uploading GPS'ed data. Those in attendance are invited to test out the app. Details will be on the UC blog.

Dangermond, Tomlinson Paired for All Time

At this point in time in the immature development of geospatial technology, just a mere 40-year old, Jack Dangermond and Dr. Roger Tomlinson are remarkably paired forever in history. Rare that you have both the recognized "father" of anything alongside the individual that is arguably to biggest success story in any particular industry. Hence the two are inextricably joined in the annuls of technology history.

"I admit it, I got the lady pregnant," said Tomlinson, at the Senior Executive Summit (SES), an event just prior to the ESRI UC, in referring to the oft made comment that he is the "father" of GIS. "But Jack brought up the kid," Tomlinson further remarked referring to Dangermond's success in promoting geospatial technology through ESRI's products and services.

Dangermond's comments during the SES focused on applications and the widespread use of geotechnology. "GIS is beginning to wire up our sensors so that we see processes in real time...the common operating picture (COP) is not unique to homeland security. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see a COP for any agency," said Dangermond. He also discussed how IT professionals are beginning to integrate GIS into the wider IT infrastructure. "Roger, do you have an IT system in your consulting business," asked Dangermond. “We use an abacus,” said Tomlinson, not missing a beat.

Dangermond and Tomlinson aren't quite that old, perhaps "slide-rule" age, but each can remember when GIS was in its infancy and each has helped nurture it to middle age.

Painless Location Mapping for Web Pages

Got an e-mail from Brandon Bruce about his new MapMyPage Web app. It uses the MetaCarta engine to geocode locations in your webpages and place globe next to them. Click on the globe and see the location in a pop-up map (Googe Maps).

Continue reading "Painless Location Mapping for Web Pages"

Non-ESRI UC News tidbits: Yahoo, California, HotStop

- Yahoo updated Yahoo Maps - most have to do with laying out and printing driving directions. More at YGeoBlog.

- GovTech reviews California CIO's vision of its new geospatial initiative. The Task Force gives its first set of recommendations to the governor on August 15.

- Mashable compares Google's walking directions to those available on mostly public transportation site HotStop. Google covers more geography, but HotStop offers more options, sometimes too many for the first timeer.

NLPC Follows up on Google Dismal Request; Pushes Privacy Issue

The National Legal and Policy Center spread the news (press release) about Google's response (a request for dismissal) to a privacy complaint from a couple on private road in Pittsburgh. Now word from the Mercury News NLPC has posted photos and "route to work" info for Larry Page, one of Google's founders. The idea is to get Google to rethink its vision of privacy. More from the BBC.