Author: James

By far the best thing I have read on Planet Geospatial in months.

Welcome to ESRI User Conference 2007: Amateurs Go Home!

…the plenary was quite disappointing. While some of the usual suspects have round-ups that make it look like a lot is being added, I find little to be energized about. They are integrating Image Server with ArcGIS server. Wonderful, I can’t wait to see how badly hacked together that API will be. They are enabling “mash ups”. Welcome to 2005.

I’m pretty sure I would have written that after reading what was being said in the IRC back channel. I’m glad to see that what was being said there matches up with what actually went down at the UC. (of course I’m not there so take my opinion as you wish)

Oh and Sebastian…. They are enabling “mash ups” in 2008 so we even have to wait for that.

If you want to talk live about what you’ve seen, drop by the Planet Geospatial IRC channel.

Planet Geospatial IRC
Server: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #planetgeospatial

The convention center blocks IRC, but you can use the web based client here:

http://crschmidt.net/irc/irc.cgi

What do you know, RSS is now available at ESRI Support.

Now you can keep up to date on the latest support articles and downloads without having to manually look through the site. Very welcome!

ESRI has introduced their new ArcGIS Online Content Sharing Program.

The ArcGIS Online Content Sharing Program enables your organization to contribute geographic data content to be published and hosted by ESRI. By participating in the program, ESRI will integrate your content with that from other providers for publication in ArcGIS Online services. Once your data is published, the data can be accessed by users throughout your organization and by other users with access to the Internet. This program is available to any ESRI user and other geographic data providers interested in making their data content broadly available.

Interesting, I’ve always wondered why ESRI never offered up such a service before. I’ll be interested to see who starts offering their data through the service.

Anyone wonder when they’ll offer ArcGIS Online via KML?

ESRI customer handing keys to their data over to ESRI

I got an email from a fan:

from xxxxx@hotmail.com
to james.fee@gmail.com
date Jun 15, 2007 6:04 AM
subject re: James Fee GIS Blog
James,

You are such a wikicracker. Grow up.

I had not heard of the term wikicracker before, but Urban Dictionary is my friend.

Tim Sutton just announced on the QGIS blog that 0.8.1 has been released.

It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Quantum GIS (QGIS) Version 0.8.1. Quantum GIS (QGIS) is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) that runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, and Windows. QGIS supports vector, raster, and database formats. QGIS is licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS lets you browse and create map data on your computer. It supports many common spatial data formats (e.g. ESRI ShapeFile, geotiff). QGIS supports plugins to do things like display tracks from your GPS. QGIS is Open Source software and its free of cost (download here).

The release notes are here.

BTW, what is up with the new icon? Seems a little retro to me…

The police have pulled down the tape and we are back in the office. The suspicious package lunch box has been destroyed by the Tempe Bomb squad. No word on the status of the ham and cheese sandwich.

I’m sure Microsoft Popfly is really cool, but until you get around to sending me an invite (I’ve been waiting for weeks), I’m stuck looking in from the outside.

Respectfully yours:

James Fee

We’ve been kicked out of our office building due to a bomb scare at the bus station below. What does any respected GIS professional do in that situation? Grabs his laptop and a copy of Manifold. I figured I might as well get Manifold reinstalled and give it another try.