Programmable Web Asks: Will ESRI's Free API Draw in GeoWebbers?

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Friday, July 31. 2009

Programmable Web Asks: Will ESRI's Free API Draw in GeoWebbers?

The site, which covers programing and APIs for the Web, got wind of ESRI's recent press release noting that even those without ArcGIS Server can now use the APIs for free. Adam DuVander suggests that now ESRI has removed the biggest criticism about about its Web offerings and asks if that means programmers will flock to ESRI's solution. He notes: "It’s not as clear for those not already an ESRI shop what it provides over Google, Yahoo or any other mapping provider."

I think that misses the point. ESRI didn't make the API available to pull in those who are using or considering using these other APIs. (If it did, it would have addressed the differences between its offering and those from Google et al.) It changed the terms to better serve its existing users, many many of whom are non-profits (and governments of various sizes) who will be unlikely to ever hold an ArcGIS Server license.

- Programmable Web

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in ESRI at 06:38 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0) |

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Adena:

Actually, the licensing is a big deal.

Google and MS require non-trivial amounts of money ($8-10K) to create mapping applications for in-house use. But if the press release means what I think it means--

"Private businesses can also deploy these API-based applications internally for free"

Then that indeed is a big deal.

The largest market for web mapping is for internal business apps behind the firewall (there's only so many coffee-shop finders that the world needs). And with the Silverlight and Flex APIs, you're seeing free 3rd party code and add-ins that can ingest data from non ESRI data sources, so the possibility of creating a very substantial in-house web mapping application using these APIs without paying anyone anything is quite real.

And I think ESRI is trying to extend the reach beyond existing customers. They've done a lot of out-reach to the Adobe developer community to encourage uptake of the Flex API.

In short, the difference in licensing terms is real and substantial and, if nothing else, enables ESRI to keeping banging "we're the choice for 'real' geospatial applications in the enterprise."

Brian Timoney

p.s. As an outside observer, I've been surprised that Microsoft hasn't taken a similar tack in licensing given their single-digit share of the consumer-facing mash-up market.

#1 Brian Timoney (Link) on 2009-07-31 08:59 (Reply)

Brian,

You may be correct. That was not the story I got from ESRI staff when I asked about the change at ESRI UC. But, stories do change!

Adena

#1.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2009-07-31 09:33 (Reply)

Thanks for the feedback and coverage, Adena. I hope I didn't miss the point. I read Jack Dangermond's quote (included in the article) to mean he sees new users from the "whole new creative group." I also mention that this API is most useful for the current users, so we certainly agree there.

Brian has some good points I hadn't considered about internal applications. That's pretty big.

#2 AdamD (Link) on 2009-08-01 00:57 (Reply)

Adam,

Thanks for your note. It's my understanding (from my discussions from ESRI staff at the conference) that the "free for non-commercial environments" change was done for existing users.
http://apb.directionsmag.com/archives/6134-Making-sense-of-Dangermonds-ESRIUC-API-free-for-non-commercial-use-Comment.html

The "free for internal use" change was not made at the plenary so far as I saw in reviewing it. (At the end of Map Servers on the Web video available here: http://www.esri.com/events/uc/agenda/plenary.html)

I guess we'll have to see what sort of uptake the APIs have in a world that has seen more and hear more about the Google Maps and Bing Maps APIs. I'll be curious to see how ESRI promotes the new licensing. That I think will say a good deal about the larger goal.

Adena

#2.1 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2009-08-02 13:17 (Reply)

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