ESRI-UC - ESRI, National Geographic and Geospatial One Stop: A Three Way Street

At a press conference today, ESRI, National Geographic (NG) and Geospatial One-Stop (GOS) announced they are coming together in new ways. First off, NG will be offering a 3D Globe service of its maps for use with ESRI’s updated ArcExplorer. It will be part of the company’s MapMachine, a online atlas tool used widely in K-12 education. Data will also be available from Tele Atlas, EarthSat and GlobeXplorer.

Second, ESRI will be updating its MapShop, a for-pay service originally focused on newspaper journalists who need for print maps, to a new offering, MapStudio, aimed at other disciplines including book publishers and others who need high quality print maps.

Third, and most important perhaps, to the greater world, NG and GOS will form a partnership. National Geographic will make its metadata available via GOS and GOS resources will be available from the MapMachine. The idea, explained NG Chief Cartographer Allen Carroll is to perhaps have MapMachine be the public face of GOS. GOS’ Hank Garie also hopes it will help raise awareness of the portal and enhance contributions.

The first product of these relationships will be the new version of MapMachine, expected around the end of the year. Said Jack Dangermond, connecting the consumer/education focus of NG with the professionals geospatial community of ESRI is key.