DeLorme, Merrick, Home Use License, Mobile Development (#esriuc)

I took a walk through the exhibit hall to find the answer to one question and of course got "grabbed" to get updates on several fronts.

DeLorme is reorganizing as many know (APB coverage) and Mike Gerling (once of Tele Atlas/TomTom) who is now on the board explained, explain the current vision. While DeLorme has a great base in consumer products the idea now is to look more toward complete solutions for business and consumers. For example, last year the company offered the SPOT locator, which allowed those in the wilds to send a "help" message via satellite. But it was only one way...so authorities had to answer and often found (after much effort) a not so life threatening emergency.

The new solution, the DeLorme inReach (press release) slated for this fall, is a two way communicator build to work with the Iridium constellation. So now recreational hikers and weekend worriers can track their adventures and ensure simple chats with loved ones and have real time communications if there is indeed an emergency. For business workers, say lone workers in the wilds, the solution means an extra layer of safety. I like that the device is really simple - it has basically a GPS and the chip for the Iridium network - there's no screen. Why? So you can use it with your own personal or corporate cell phone (via Bluetooth) or with a ruggedized data collection device (with buttons for those use gloves). The devices is in the hundreds of dollars with data plans from about $10 making it reasonable for consumers and business users.

Merrick continues to be LiDAR central. New federal regulation require airports to have obstruction mapping completed by 2015 and the technology is far faster and more accurate that having suveyors walk the large areas that need to be covered. Further, the 3D models LiDAR enables are more meaningful than a single point identifying, say, a tree. More and more jurisdictions are including LiDAR with their aerial imagery capture and it's likely LiDAR will be on a several year cycle especially in high growth areas.

I wanted to get some more information about the new home use license program which went live yesterday, once Jack Dangermond announced it. I found a page where those with codes from employers can sign up, and this page seems to be for those without such a code. I met with the marketing manager for the program and hope to get more information on the license.

I ran into my former Esri-Boston colleague Mansour Raad, one of the lead folks involved in development platforms. While he's very excited about what can be done with Flex, he's also excited about what's possible with node.js and Javascript. He did confirm what I'd heard elsewhere regarding mobile development in general: that  in time HTML5 will be the way to go for mobile devices. He did note that Esri has some work to do to remove some of its existing dependancies and rejig its interfaces, but that the future looks bright for mobile. And, he made clear, such APIs are no longer optional; mobile developer tools and apps are a must have for all the mobile platforms.