I was talking with a “CAD Operator” the other day and he mentioned to me that he noticed that Shapefiles are the GIS equivalent to the DWG. I explained to him how technically it wasn’t like that, but I guess you’d get that feeling as almost everyone uses the Shapefile in one way other another.

There was some talk about the OSG-SD not happening, but it looks like its a go.

From the OSG-SD mailing list:

Hi All

Well its on !

Tim Foresman has agreed to be our speaker again ! Fresh from the ISDE5 conference in Berkeley.

http://www.isde5.org/

We had a Great time and made lots of new friends. Lots of good news to share about the Digital Earth Exchange and the new
announcement from Spot Image of France about Planet Action Collaboration to Provide Climate Change Tools.

I will also be showing some of the latest coolest open source software on the planet 🙂 We will also be opening it up for others to share what they are up to! Feel free to contact me if you would like to present something but its not required.

We will buy Pizza and refreshments for all so we would like to know how many want to attend… reply to the list or me directly! Invite folks you meet at the ESRI conference 🙂

The plan is to start around 6PM at the Vizlab on SDSU campus.

http://citi.sdsu.edu/directions/

The trolley runs from downtown and stops on the south side of campus or its a short drive east on Rt.8

Hope to see you all on the 18th of June at 6PM

John Graham
Chief Scientist, Visualization Center
San Diego State University
johngattelascience.org

All had a great time last year and it is very easy to get there via the Trolley. Trust me, if you want to see some amazing stuff head over. And don’t worry, it isn’t an ESRI hate session. Most (though there are some folks that are close minded) understand the reality of ESRI and their place in GIS and try and work with them as opposed to fighting them. That is what makes what you see so special.

UPDATE: I have no idea why ESRI doesn’t believe in permalinks so all those links below do nothing special. Sorry.

I’m not going and probably most of you aren’t either so this might be your best bet as to getting an idea what might or might not be said Monday morning.

ESRI International User Conference 2007 Q&A

Some of note:

Q: What are ESRI’s plans for ArcGIS 9.3?
Doesn’t that sound like what 9.2 was supposed to be?

Q: When will ESRI support multiple layouts in an MXD?
I know this is a big deal for many of you, but I’ve learned to live with it)

**Q: What is ESRI working on beyond 9.3? **
Am I the only one that worries about more integration of everything into the geodatabase?

Q: Can you clarify the difference between ESRI’s viewer technologies ArcGIS Explorer, ArcExplorer, and ArcWeb Explorer? When should I use one over the other?
How about stop naming everything the same? I spend more time explaining to clients the difference between AGX and ArcExplorer than I do showing them its capabilities.

Q: Does ArcGIS 3D Analyst provide support for interchanging SketchUp models?
Now we are talking, import without the need of an additional extension (well beyond 3D Analyst) is huge. That said where is the export to SketchUp?

Q: What are your plans for improving documentation for ArcGIS Server, especially related to developer help?

1 request of mine. Keep the improvements coming.

Q: Please provide an overview of the ArcGIS Server licensing model.
The only thing more confusing that ArcGIS Explorer/ArcExplorer/ArcWeb Explorer is the ArcGIS Server licensing model. I guess they needed something to go with the ArcObjects model.

Q: What’s coming in ArcGIS Server 9.3?
Anyone who’s tried to implement AGS knows the security model is a mess. The Javascript API is interesting and better WMS/WFS support is great. Where is the improved KML support?

Q: What happened to ArcSDE?
Yea what did happen to ArcSDE?

Q: I have heard Microsoft is developing a spatial type in SQL Server. Will ESRI be supporting this?
I suspect SQL Server and ArcGIS will go together like bees and honey.

Q: What are ESRI’s plans for opening up access to the geodatabase?
Well there you go, more proof that they will go the API route on this.

Q: Will ArcGIS Server support PostgreSQL? Will it provide SQL access to features stored in a geodatabase?
While I think generally, most ESRI users will gravitate to SQL Server, PostgreSQL support is huge.

Q: What is the status of CAD Client?
The most unloved part of the ESRI stack. We need it and use it, but it lags so far behind. I can only hope they’ll at least support Autocad 2007 at 9.2, but I’m not hopeful.

**Q: When will ESRI be releasing Service Pack 3? **
So July 2007 it is….

Q: When will ESRI publish a list of known software defects?
OK, I’ll be the first to say it, “How long do you think that list will be?” 😉

Q: To what extent does ESRI support interoperability with KML and Google Earth? Is KML becoming an OGC standard like GML?
I was hoping to see more mention of KML. Seems like ESRI still isn’t going to jump with both two feet into supporting KML. Kinda looks like they are being dragged into it. Too bad for us.

**Q: Does ESRI have an interoperability strategy to work with or integrate its tools with Google Earth and Virtual Earth? **
Again I have to say it, you’d think by Summer 2007 ESRI with have a more focus strategy than “ESRI is also actively working with both Microsoft and Google to improve interoperability”. We should be seeing integration at 9.3. shrug

Q: How is ESRI participating in the Open Source environment?
Interesting answer to that question, I’ll give you that…

Q: What is the status of ESRI’s support for running ArcGIS on 64-bit operating systems?
There we go, the answer we all were looking for.

Q: Does ESRI have a plan to improve ArcGIS Desktop to utilize multiprocessors on a PC?
Again, great answer!

Q: Can you provide better access to ESRI customer records about my organization?
When will ESRI Customer Care be open to Business Partners? It seems like we’ve been waiting for a long time.

Q: What is ESRI doing in ArcGIS to make it easier for users to share geoprocessing models and best practices?
Community building is a wonderful idea.

Q: What is the GeoWeb? How will it be used?
ESRI’s definition of the GeoWeb.

Q: What are some of the results from your survey? What have you discovered?
Interesting to say the least. ESRI users want a little of everything.

If only I had vacation time to go to Omaha. Oh well I’ll have to watch the CWS and the ESRI UC both on TV this year.

I’ll be heading out later today to watch my Sun Devils send Ole Miss back east and advance to the College World Series. My hats off to those who are from the SEC and have to deal with “Hotty Toddy” regularly. So have at it folks.

Just a note to those who keep emailing me about my “attack on GeoCommons”. GeoCommons is irrelevant to this conversation and was just picked because Steve brought it up. A couple brought up the point that the Keyhole community and all those “pushpins” now in Google Earth as proof that this concept works. I think that those points are proof that this concept doesn’t work in “the real world”. Sure its great to put a pushpin on the Redlands Post Office and call it ESRI’s home office.

There is no authority in these kinds of applications and until that happens, I’ll continue to view it as just another recreational activity. It is the same issue facing Wikipedia.

At some point someone will figure this out and then we’ll be in business.

Steve and I had a heated argument about Geocommons. Steve used statements such as “it is frickin sweet!!!” and “no need for spatial analyst anymore”. I responded with “its pretty worthless” and “meh”. Steve likes the idea that he can access maps that people have created and leverage them in his own work. I’m pretty much down on the lack of metadata and no idea of the motives of some of the map creators such as “aark2” and others.

Steve of course loves the idea that “I can upload my data and do stuff with it – without owning ArcMap w/spatial analyst”. That may be true, but I just can’t imagine using any of this data in anything other than recreational browsing. I mean what EIS would ever reference GeoCommons as a source. Not one of mine, that is for sure.

Steve understandably tries to back up his faulty logic with a gem of a post:

So I think he is missing my point – this is not about some new great place to go look at interesting maps. This is about the democratization of GIS tools.

Heat mapping will bring GIS to the masses? Well there you go. I always assumed it would be airplane sightings in Google Earth, but Steve being the visionary he is, goes on record with his thoughts.

Finally, a blog that is devoted to making maps (though post dates show this has been under the radar for a while). For those of you who continue to email me asking why there are only developers blogging, here is your new blog. The ESRI Mapping Center blog says that they’ll focus on; mapping techniques, ArcGIS functionality as applied to mapping tasks and current and relevant topics in mapping. If there is one thing ArcGIS does well that EVERYONE can agree on is producing great looking maps without the need of additional software. I’m lucky enough to work at a job where I get to program and make maps so I’m always looking for techniques to make better maps. Immediately this blog is going to the top of my list of blog that I’m paying attention to.

The posts all appear to be written by Charlie Frye who many may recognize from his cartography presentations at the ESRI User Conferences and has been with ESRI for many years (users of ArcView IMS can throw rocks at him as he was involved with that 🙂 ).

via the ESRI Support Center Blog which has been a great resource since its started.

Explore the World with ESRI ArcGIS Explorer

ESRI announced today that ArcGIS Explorer is available to the public. This unique lightweight application lets you not only connect directly to a variety of ready-to-use globes hosted by ESRI but also provides tasks that allow you to do more than just visualize a simple map. You can use ArcGIS Explorer to leverage data, services, and applications on the Web by easily connecting to your own ArcGIS services or those published by others. This application helps you extend the power of these Web-based services by fusing them with your local data.

Well there you go, you can freely use AGX. Hooray ArcGIS!

I had bookmarked this article yesterday, but had not had time to read it until today. My first thought was that this is exactly something that would have been done on ArcIMS or MapGuide two years ago. Now in 2007, these applications are being done with Virtual Earth (at a government organization no less, the bastion of ESRI and Autodesk).

The EVOC (Enterprise Virtual Operations Center) portal layers the City’s GIS data on top of Virtual Earth, providing users with the ability to visualize City assets, resources and live incident reporting. Information is merged from the fire departments of 7 cities and well as the police departments of 2 of those cities.

Rather than deploying at big GIS server and having clients hit it, they deploy a lightweight web application. I think we are beginning to see a trend here, away from loading up a huge server with tons of server products and toward lightweight APIs that are capable of being deployed anywhere with little administration from anyone.