2011 Esri UC Plenary Video Available
July 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
If you want to see the morning Esri UC Plenary, it is now available online.
2011 Esri UC Plenary
July 11, 2011 Leave a Comment
15,000 of my closest friends and I are packed in to the San Diego Convention Center waiting to hear from Jack and company how they are changing the geospatial world. I’ll be updating this post as much as the spotty WiFi connection allows me with details on what is being said on stage from Esri.
8:33 — Jack hits the stage and welcomes us to the conference and tells us how much he appreciates everyone attending. Jack says that there will be over 15,000 in attendance for the whole week[ref]The graphics package that Esri has put together for this years UC is beautiful[/ref]. He says 1/3 of the attendees are here for the first time. Now lets all shake hands and say hi to the person next to you.
8:37: – Now we are on to showcasing people’s use of Esri products and what they are doing[ref]“Esri is in your apps fondling your maps” I’m probably paraphrasing Jack on that…[/ref].
8:43: – Jack seems a bit ornery this morning. Could be a fun time at the plenary.
8:47: – Over 140 SAG award winners this year.
8:48: – Esri Enterprise GIS award went to the Singapore GeoSpatial Collaborative Environment (SG-SPACE).
8:49: – Esri Presidents Award went to the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre and Mapping (ROSREESTR). Russians offered to help out us sorry ass Americans get our data fixed. Oh no he didn’t! Wait… he’s right, we suck…
8:55: – On to Jack’s vision of GIS in 2011. Jack is always really big on how humans are causing change and this year seems no different Jack says, “We need collective intelligence and understanding” to deal with these challenges. Jack says GIS extends our minds and is coevolving with other technologies[ref]Jack said crowdsourcing. We can now drop VGI safely now.[/ref] A new GIS pattern is emerging making GIS accessible to everyone. It appears this includes using servers, desktop, mobile and probably some PDF. We’ll mix in a little authoritative love in it. Esri is the link between GIS Professionals and the world.
9:01: Esri’s Work — 10.1 will arrive in 2012 as was stated early. Jack mentioned that 10.1 has some “game changers” in it. Beta isn’t out for the UC, but Jack says he hopes it comes out by the end of the month. New basemaps are included such as Landsat history for the last 40 years and updates to existing maps. New tools are available, I wish I had the grouping analysis back years ago.
Dynamic legends are finally built into ArcGIS Desktop as well as feature edit tracking[ref]awesome![/ref] and some great new generalization tools. At 10.1 direct SQL access to SQL Server, Oracle, Postgres, DB2 and NETEZZA. I can’t tell you how awesome this is. Finally!
Google bragged about their mosaicing tools with Google Earth Builder, but it appears that Esri will blow them out of the water with 10.1. Also Lidar will be available to these mosaicing tools as well. Read in LAS and dynamically “convert” to rasters/TINs/point clouds.
Esri has bought a company called Procedural that gives Esri now 3D content creation tools that are used in movies such as Cars 2. Clearly this is a huge move for Esri and could put them in markets they haven’t been in before.
ArcGIS Runtime is new at 10.1 and is a new “MapObjects” type development platform. Jack said it runs in 64-bit mode.
ArcGIS Server continues to improve and will be 64-bit only, Linux (no REH only) and it appears some new standards such as WMTS and WPS. APIs continue to be pushed out faster and better than the old says with the Web ADF[ref]I still need to work out my Web ADF issues so bear with me on this[/ref]
Jack started talking about the way ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online work together. Simple as a right-click to share. Take that Google Earth Builder. Esri also has released ArcGIS for home use that costs $100/year and includes support and training.
9:18: ArcGIS Online is an “open platform” for maps and geographic information. From desktop, to server to “cloud”. The thing about ArcGIS Online vs GEB is that Esri sees their analytic tools are their secret sauce that will take other companies year (if ever) to replicate. One map that works on anywhere. This is where the Esri APIs and mobile tools they’ve cultivated over the years fit in with the master plan.
Bernie Szukalski got top billing at the Esri UC and showcased ArcGIS Online to great applause. Clearly this crowd loves the promise of ArcGIS, we’ll have to see if Esri can deliver. I talked a bit about ArcGIS Online last week and he’s going over much of what we saw back then. I have to say, Esri has doubled down on ArcGIS Online and it appears to be much deeper than previous Esri online attempts. Google Earth Builder may be a threat, but Esri has something that they can show runs rings around what Google is offering. Esri is calling “products” that you author in ArcGIS Online as apps which I think will go over very well inside the beltway.
9:37: – ArcGIS Online could be the standard geospatial analytical visualization engine moving forward. Nothing else is this deep or this usable. Sorry guys, Esri moved the bar way forward… Jack says this Fall, you can host your maps in ArcGIS Online that you author in your ArcGIS Desktop content creation tools. 10.1 will integrate ArcGIS Online into the whole package.
9:40: – Jack looks at ArcGIS Online as the catalog tool we’ll use for finding geospatial data. Jeremy Bartley is up talking about ArcGIS Online for Organizations. Basically ArcGIS Online for Organizations is a private version of ArcGIS Online for organizations for storing and sharing your data. The one area of ArcGIS Online might be limited is their support for formats. The world isn’t just shp, fgdb, kml, csv[ref]Right?[/ref].
9:53: – Esri has only talked about ArcGIS Online this morning. After the break we’ll apparently see some of the “old school” classic GIS tools. Esri is also now providing managed services for companies. Pay Esri to set up your GIS for you, how is that for you business partners?
10:02: — Morning Break, we’ll be back in 30 min with some ArcGIS Desktop and Server news.
10:33: – John Calkins is up and running the second half of the morning plenary session. First up is some guy with a Boston accent talking about the Red Sox. So the Boston “way” is talking about how awesome Boston is. You can see what they are doing here, but I don’t see what is “wicked” about it. Anytime a city comes up with an example of using a city run app to find where to eat or use a mobile phone of where potholes are, you know they have way too much time on their hands. What I did like is that they are going to give away the code[ref]at least that is what I heard[/ref].
10:46: John shows a demo of the City of Pasadena totally rendered in 3D using ArcGIS. It was smooth and detailed, but not much new beyond what we’ve seen before. ArcGlobe and ArcScene still suck, but maybe a 10.1 things will get better.
10:48: Clint Brown was up next talking about ArcGIS for Local Government. Clint says it is about opening information and brining it to live and sharing it with the world. This is a template example apparently. Esri has canned apps ready to deploy so you don’t have to pay an Esri Business Partner implementation costs.
10:59 — Jo Fraley is up showing some Sharepoint stuff. Sharepoint is just brutal, I get that enterprises use Sharepoint, but it looks like 2002 called and wants its UI back. Still I get how this is critical for many organizations to integrate their Esri silo ArcGIS Server instances into company intranet websites. I missed the IBM Cognos Viewer integration before, that’s going to be popular with many companies.
11:03 – John talks about updates to their webservices. Maps are being updated and geocoding is moving international.
11:05 — Community Analyst is being shown and how it allows community “activists” to perform the same types of analytics that business leaders do with Business Analyst type tools. The UI is classic old Esri, but I suspect they’ll get this thing cleared up soon. I’m not sure I could figure out how to use it myself, maybe there is online training. You’ll want to bring your checkbook though, this thing isn’t cheap.
11:11 — Spatial Analytics demo on what’s coming up in 10.1 which is next. Grouping Analysis is going to be a great tool for people trying to understand the patterns that are appearing in your data. I like the simplicity of the tool. The demo got into using the new areal interpolation and exploratory regression tools. I think these will be popular and the beta that will arrive later this month will be something to check out.
11:20 – John highlighted the new World Ocean Map. I like this one because it makes a great background map for my data, even if the data is on land. Soon we’ll see the new National Geographic World Map which is beautiful, but I wouldn’t call it subtle as John did.
11:21 – So at 10.1, Esri raster and image analysis tools are just killer. Clearly this is an Erdas killer package. I have no idea what pansharpening is, but damn this stuff looks sweet and performed on the fly. The image manipulation tools are just crazy impressive.
11:30 – Lidar is big news at 10.1. LAS files can be dragged and dropped into ArcMap and then use the 3D preview tools to view it. Also you can convert on the fly LAS to raster, TIN and point clouds. Its pretty amazing to watch this demo. Working with Lidar is a PITA, but it appears that Esri has some good tools to get your hands on it and work it.
12:00 — Lunch
2:00 — Afternoon session is the award/keynote part. The first making a difference award went to Professor Haruo Hayashi working on emergency management for his work during the 2011 Japan tsunami. The second went to Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining. Pretty amazing stuff on how they are saving lives by finding and removing mines from war zones.
2:13 — Jane Goodall video on Roots and Shoots.
Off to the 2011 Esri International User Conference
July 8, 2011 Leave a Comment
And just like that, the week is over and I’m getting ready to bail on the wonderful Tempe weather for miserable San Diego[ref]I might have that backwards[/ref]. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the annual Esri Tweetup Sunday night. I’ll be there through Thursday afternoon so there should be plenty of time for talking about geospatial, beer and food. I’ll also be live blogging the Esri Plenary so stop back by on Monday for the full details of Jack’s talk and all the new features of ArcGIS 10.1 and its implications to the industry.
If you are going to the UC, make sure you use The Un-Official 2011 Esri User Conference Back Channel to keep on track of the sessions, meetups and everything that is going on. Photo safari should be much better this year as it uses Facebook and Instagram to upload mobile photos. Looking forward to it.
Restaurant and Bar Map of the Gaslamp for ESRI UC
July 7, 2010 1 Comment
Thanks to Martha Rodger we’ve got a new updated restaurant and bar map of the Gaslamp ready to use for the ESRI UC. According to Martha, there are 24 new places in the Gaslamp this year making this map even more useful.
Not that anyone has any time to head to the Gaslamp during the UC.
The ESRI UC Q&A Response Is Up
July 1, 2010 17 Comments
One of the best insights into ESRI and their direction is the UC Q&A. ESRI has posted the latest one here and some highlights are below:
Q: What has ESRI done in the area of map books?
A: At ArcGIS 10, functionality has been added to allow you to create map books using a feature layer to define map extents for multiple pages. This new functionality, in conjunction with all the other enhancements to support map books, is referred to as data driven pages. Data driven pages give you the ability to generate multiple pages by taking a single layout and iterating over a set of map extents. Any feature layer, point, line or polygon can be used, along with a margin, to define the extents.
A question I still get asked again and again is when is ESRI going to update DS Mapbook. Well now you’ve got a real solution built into ArcGIS 10.
Q: Does ArcGIS 10 open up more functionality for use with Python?
A: Python integration is one of the key features of ArcGIS 10. At this release we’ve introduced a new Python subsystem called ArcPy, which exposes many of the ArcGIS functions.
ArcPy is still a little kludgy, but wasn’t isn’t with ArcGIS 10.
Q: What are “add-ins” and how do I use them?
A: The new ArcGIS Desktop add-in model provides developers a method to easily extend desktop application capabilities. This is done with a declaratively based framework for creating blocks of custom functionality within a single compressed file. These add-in files can then be easily shared between users without relying on installation programs or Component Object Model (COM) registration. Add-in files can be installed by copying them to a well-known folder location and uninstalled by deleting them from that folder location.
Add-ins are really a game changer for ESRI extension/toolbar developers.
Q: When will ArcGIS Desktop be able to take full advantage of the 64-bit operating systems?
A: We are aware of the need for 64-bit desktop 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).
Basically sit back and wait for Server to go 64-bit first.
Q: Can I open a map that was built using Maplex on a computer that does not have that extension enabled?
A: Yes. At ArcGIS 10 users can open map documents authored using Maplex in a “read only” mode on any ArcGIS Desktop regardless of whether the Maplex extension is enabled. The map retains all the labeling properties. The Maplex extension is required to edit or alter them.
I’m sure this will make all Maplex users happy. A wonderful change…
Q: How does GIS Data ReViewer help review crowd sourced data?
A: GIS Data ReViewer provides tools for sampling and visual review of large datasets such as crowd sourced data. The sampling check automatically generates a statistical sampling of features or records from one or more layers or tables for your review. Using this tool, you can ensure that your data meets the accuracy standards put forth by your organization. GIS Data ReViewer also provides guided visual review tools that allow you to keep track of the areas / features that have been through the quality control process.
It is a new world isn’t it?
Q: Is VBA supported with ArcGIS Desktop 10?
A: Yes, ArcGIS Desktop 10 does support Microsoft VBA. However ArcGIS 10 is the last version with VBA support, so we encourage you to start the migration process. Python is an integral part of ArcGIS Desktop for automating tasks and the new add-in capabilities allow developers to easily create and deploy ArcMap customizations.
An important change at version 10 is that VBA is not part of the ArcGIS Desktop install. If you need VBA, you need to install the ArcObjects VBA SDK, which will setup the VBA Runtime, Editor, and Help. Please note that an additional authorization file is required for VBA. This is a no charge license that can be requested from ESRI Customer Service.
Not only is the writing on the wall, but the door is closing. Migrate those VBA apps now!
Q: Are ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS.com closed communities?
A: No. ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS.com are fully open and accessible to anyone and include access to the rich set of ESRI-hosted basemaps and image services. Shared items from ESRI and the user community are available for use in a variety of ways with free, lightweight Web applications like the ArcGIS Web Map and ArcGIS Explorer Online as well as ArcGIS Desktop 10. The services are published using standard and open RESTful architecture, and can be consumed in many different ways. Free Web APIs are available that enable developers to use these resources freely.
I personally think ESRI is answering this question all wrong. Part of it is that they define open one and and others define it another way. For now I still see them getting beaten up on ArcGIS Online being closed.
Q: How is ArcGIS being integrated with Python statistics packages?
A: At the data level, ArcGIS 10 supports import and export of rasters to NumPy arrays; this is a starting point in many statistical analysis workflows. On the Geoprocessing Resource Center Model and Script Tool Gallery you will also find examples of using R in ArcGIS 10, and we expect to expand these samples throughout the year.
Very nice that ESRI is taking it upon themselves to push some of these Python packages. I think all boats will rise in the Python community because of it.
Q: Is there a place for “crowdsourced” data in my “authoritative” GIS environment?
A: Sometimes referred to as volunteered geographic information (VGI) or user-generated content (UGC), crowdsourced data is contributed by nonauthoritative sources (e.g., everyday citizens). The challenge for GIS practitioners is to ensure the usability of this data in a GIS workflow or to turn this crowdsourced data into useful geographic knowledge. This can mean checking the data to make sure that it is correct. It can also mean getting involved in data collection; structuring the process to ensure that the collected data has meaning and is appropriate as well as accurate.
Does anyone else get the feeling of someone taking down with this response. At least that is my “authoritative” response.
Q: What is the future of the Web ADF?
A: The Web ADFs will be deprecated in the next release after ArcGIS Server 10.
Hmm, I think I need a picture of me dancing on Web ADF’s grave.
Q: Will ArcGIS be available for iPhone, iPad or other iOS devices?
A: Yes. ArcGIS for iOS is the latest ESRI mobile product available at the ArcGIS 10 release that extends GIS to the popular Apple iOS platform. It includes a ready to deploy application which will be downloadable from the Apple App Store, and a native Objective C API that developers can use to build GIS applications that meet their business needs. By making ArcGIS available for iOS, existing customers can extend the reach of their GIS to a wider market.
Apple’s platforms are going to be a key part of ESRI’s mobile strategy moving forward.
Q: Will ESRI support the Android phone?
A: We will continue to build on our supported mobile platforms. We plan to release both an API and an application for the Android operating system around the end of this year.
Makes sense, having ArcGIS Mobile on the two big mobile platforms is not unexpected.
Q: Is Visual Basic (VB) 6 supported with ArcGIS 10?
A: No, as previously announced, ArcGIS 10 doesn’t include a Visual Basic 6 SDK or support. Older VB 6 code will need to be migrated using Visual Studio 2008 or 2010 (VB.NET or C#). The ArcObjects SDK provides several topics on migrating to VB.NET.
VBA devs take note, you’ll be experiencing this answer next year.
Q: Is ArcGIS open?
A: Yes. ArcGIS is open, and it is interoperable.
This is how they should have answered the ArcGIS Online Open question. There are ways to interact with ArcGIS and they have support for some open standards. Better than most GIS companies…
Q: Why has ESRI released its REST APIs as open technology? What does it mean?
A: 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.
Hmm, I say shapefiles and REST APIs are apples and oranges, but clearly ESRI is using the word “open” as much as they can with their APIs.
Q: How does ArcGIS 10 support OpenStreetMap?
A: You can use OpenStreetMap as a basemap in ArcGIS. ESRI has also developed OSMEditor (OpenStreetMap Editor) and provides it as a free add-on for ArcGIS Desktop. This technology supports disconnected editing, template-based editing, and basic conflict detection.
Nice, very nice!
Q: How does ArcGIS support open source?
A: 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.
A nice pragmatic answer to a tough question. I think that is all anyone could ask for. BTW, I’m empathetic towards sea turtles.
Q: What are ESRI’s plans for 64-bit native support?
A: ESRI is actively working to ensure that our server technology runs natively on 64-bit operating systems. This is a major undertaking and a high priority for the ArcGIS Server team. The next release of ArcGIS Server after 10 will run entirely as a 64-bit application.
I’m sure ESRI is counting the days until they can stop answering this question with their “we can run as 32-bit on 64-bit operating systems”.
Q: Does ESRI have plans to support native Mac OS?
A: ESRI has no plans to support native Mac OS for ArcGIS Desktop. However, we have a growing number of users who have adopted the Mac platform for running their ArcGIS Desktop applications using Windows emulation software. We have had excellent feedback regarding interoperability and performance of the Windows environment on this Intel-based platform.
ArcGIS Server applications based on the ArcGIS Web Mapping APIs (JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight) work well on Mac OS.
Yea, ArcObjects on Mac OS X? Never going to happen.
Anyway looks like some exciting stuff going on. I hope everyone has a chance to drop by and see us at the UC or for adult beverages after.
Submit a GeoDesign Lightning Talk at the 2010 ESRI User Conference
June 4, 2010 Leave a Comment
As expected, there is going to be a GeoDesign Track at the 2010 ESRI UC. ESRI is going to be doing some more lightning talks like we did at the Developer Summit. They were well attended and the presentations were a blast. If you think you’d like to give the world you spin on GeoDesign, a 5 minute lightning talk is a perfect opportunity.
You can submit an abstract for your Lightning Talk by emailing it to ucgeodesign_external@esri.com.
