The release of ArcGIS.com is coming soon.
What is it and how does it differ from ArcGIS Online. Let’s review the pick list of details:
- Think of ArcGIS.com as an MS Office Online support website. It is where you should begin your ArcGIS online experience.
- The new ArcGIS.com will have ArcGIS Online built into it.
- It will include a Map and App gallery. It will contain building blocks for app builders. It has a built in Java Script Viewer and will be leveraging content from ArcGIS Online. Click a map and create mashups. Then the use can connect services on a known server and when you are happy-click save (like a Yahoo account)
- Its free
- Wherever you make a map you can open it in any application. For example, open a map in ArcGIS Explorer online or ArcMap or an iPhone app. The map is always the same.
- Publish the map in a JSON format
- If someone else authors the map in ArcGIS.com, others can leverage this map and add to it perhaps even applying other apps
- ArcGIS.com will be already enabled in ArcGIS desktop
- ESRI believes that ArcGIS.com will provide broader access to their data
- If you like OpenStreetMap you will find that it is already built into the ArcGIS Online catalog
- Bing Maps is an option as well
- There will be a newer versions of ArcGIS basemaps:
- World topographic maps
- Street maps
- VGI data
What is ESRI’s overall objective?
ESRI wants to be in partnership with uses to publish content, create a “national dial-tone of services.” What his means is that during a crisis, the gathering of the information should reside in a common repository where users can “plug in” to the resources being updated and uploaded to ArcGIS.com. According to Bernie Szukalski it should be like “plugging your cable into the TV and you receive the basic services. With a little bit of help…ESRI can help users get data out to the people.”
What’s the difference between ArcGIS.com and ArcGIS Online?
According to Szukalski, “ArcGIS Online is a place where users (not just GIS users, but anyone) can find resources shared by ESRI and GIS users everywhere. It becomes an integrated part of your experience whether you are using one of the free, publicly available Web apps, or a professional GIS desktop.” There are two featured Web apps that are free now and anyone can use them:
- An ArcGIS.com viewer (a JavaScript app)
- ArcGIS Explorer Online – a Silverlight version of ESRI’s free-to-download ArcGIS Explorer desktop app.
Need more information?
- Watch a demo of ArcGIS.com
- More general information from ESRI
- FAQ
