ESRI’s Pre-UC Q&A Highlights
Each year, before the User Conference ESRI prepares a long detailed document answering questions it’s created along with those from users. When I worked at ESRI this was what I read on the 5 hour flight from Boston to California. It helped me get ready to answer all those questions I’d hear in the week ahead. Now that I attend ESRI as a member of the media, I use it to help me figure out what questions I will ask during the week. I also read it to tease out tidbits that might be of special interest to readers of this blog.
So, on the list of interesting tidbits! My comments are in [brackets].
ROI:
“ArcLogistics continues to provide some of the most compelling ROI and cost savings stories of any of ESRI’s technologies.” [That’s been a long running story at ESRI. I wonder if ROI for routing is just simpler to measure than “better decision making”?]
Ease of Use: [Thought this was under a question about the impact of neogeography on GIS]
“We believe ArcGIS 10 is an order of magnitude easier to use than previous versions.” [No mention of an enhanced UI or HCI, but rather “This simplification comes from a new focus on how people will use the information and capabilities of GIS…” I wonder if one of my students this summer will dig into this topic!]
VGI: [Though this was in a discussion of geographic knowlege as infrastructure.]
“GIS practitioners have long been the keepers of purely authoritative data, and are now beginning to take crowdsourced data very seriously.” [ESRI is a sponsor of the State of Map, the OSM even later this year.]
“GIS Data ReViewer [an extension] provides tools for sampling and visual review of large datasets such as crowd sourced data.”
Transparency:
“The data.gov Web site is the U.S. government’s main portal for making data available to the public. This site has recently added maps so that anyone can select a data set and ask that the site make a map of it. [I do not believe this is online yet. It was referenced in this article, which I will be honest, I am still trying to fact check.
Free tools, aka from Google, Microsoft:
“People have learned what they can do and, more importantly what they cannot do with these tools.”
“... we realize many synergies and benefits for our users by collaborating with these companies.”
Moving from 9.3 to 10
“straightforward”
“Most user applications will continue running at version 10 without adjustment. “
Geocoding:
“ArcGIS 10 includes a totally new geocoding engine. “
Python:
In ArcGIS 10 there is “...a new Python subsystem called ArcPy, which exposes many of the ArcGIS functions. This allows users to easily script map production, editing, data management, and geoprocessing.”
Add-ins:
“The new ArcGIS Desktop add-in model provides developers a method to easily extend desktop application capabilities.” Copy to a folder to install the funcationality, delete it to remove it. [Sounds like MacOS!]
64 Bit support:
“ArcGIS Desktop is currently a 32-bit application that is fully supported on 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems. We have started the migration to 64-bit ArcGIS. Our priority will be to complete the migration of ArcGIS Server first (the next release).” [Manifold will note that, yet again.]
KML support:
“Yes. ArcGIS Desktop users can share their GIS data in the Keyhole Markup Language (KML) format to reach Google users.” [KML is now an OGC standard; it’s not just for Google anymore!]
VBS support:
“ArcGIS 10 is the last version with VBA support.” It’s not in the default ArcGIS 10 install; you need a separate free install for it and an addition authorization file.
In- house ArcGIS Online:
Yes, it’s possible via ESRI’s professional services organization.
OGC Web Services in ArcGIS Online: [Actually a question on ArcIMS in ArcGIS Online]
“ESRI strongly believes in and supports open standards in all its products (OGC, Web, and ISO) including local variation in different regions of the world. This allows our technology to be interoperable with other geospatial platforms. Currently, OGC is in the process of extending WMS to incorporate the high performance Web map services like those supported by ArcGIS Server. When this is complete, ESRI will support it in ArcGIS Online.
“For users who wish to develop and manage a fully compliant open standards portal, ESRI has developed a standards-based product for services and metadata management - ArcGIS Server Geoportal extension.’ [Why are standard services not in the box?]
Support direct access to the spatial types within relational databases that are not geodatabases?:
“ArcGIS 10 includes new functionality called “query layers” to allow users to directly access spatial type data stored in a database that is not a geodatabase. Query layers allow users to use a SQL query to access spatial type data and create a new (read-only) layer in ArcMap. This layer will allow users to map, query, and analyze data from spatially enabled databases such as SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, or Informix without registering the spatial information in a geodatabase or installing and configuring ArcSDE.” [That was a long time in coming. Will it be used or have users found a workaround the makes it redundant?]
Community Maps Program Ownership Questions [These came up on our podcast last week. These statements were not publicly available on the Community Maps website then.]
“Q: Does ESRI take ownership of my organization’s data?
No, ESRI merely blends your data into an existing online basemap, publishes and hosts the basemap, and makes it freely available to anyone.
“Q: Who owns the data that has been shared in ArcGIS Online?
The intention of ArcGIS.com and ArcGIS Online is to be a service to our users. The users who contributed the data continue to retain full IP rights to information shared on this site. Regarding the community basemaps, we are using the “Creative Commons” license through which original creators are fully recognized. There is no attempt by ESRI to own rights to this information. “
HTML 5?:
We are researching it and some functionality is accessible via ArcGIS API for JavaScript; more will come in a new version this year.
iOS/Android support for mobile?:
iOS is in beta; “We plan to release both an API and an application for the Android operating system around the end of this year.”
LiDAR?:
ESRI supports reading it, but not “data production such as calibration, cleanup, classification, or feature extraction.” Partners do that.
Redistricting:
On the desktop, in the cloud, hosted locally - and partner offerings. [ESRI seems to be investing quite a bit in that arena.]
REST API’s are open?:
“We see this as a big thing. In many ways, by releasing the ArcGIS REST APIs as open technology, ESRI is repeating what it did in the early 90s…releasing shapefiles as an open data format.”
Metadata:
“In ArcGIS 10, we introduced a new metadata editor on ArcGIS Desktop”; it supports informal “tags” for those who do not want full FGDC or ISO standard metadata.
Open Source:
We support it in a few ways. “While ESRI is not an open source company, we are empathetic to the open source movement and seek to collaborate on interoperability that further integrates our technology with this environment. “
Home use?:
“Yes. As part of enterprise license agreements, agencies or organizations can set up a program for you to have home use of ArcGIS Desktop.” Small fee for media. [Cool. That’s very popular in the CAD space.]
