Given that I’ve let everyone let off a little steam in my comments in regards to Manifold vs Open Source vs ArcGIS, what can we glean from what transpired?
Plain and simple, all software sucks (and I say this as a software developer). On top of that, life is too short to get worked up about software (because it sucks remember) even if you get paid to push it or develop it.
What the hell, lets continue posting about Manifold. I know both the NASA World Wind team and others have been wondering how they heck Manifold can be allowed to use the Google when they aren’t. Well that has changed (via Bull’s rambles):
Just prior to the release of 7x, Google lawyers contacted manifold.net to complain that Google requires access to Google web offerings to be licensed in accordance with Google’s API. Because manifold.net does not create ISI drivers for Google we cannot say that such ISI drivers are or are not licensed under Google’s API, and we will not cooperate in any efforts to limit the rights of third party developers who are writing ISI drivers.
Although all ISI drivers for Google are created by third parties unrelated to manifold.net, we are concerned that our unwillingness to help Google stomp on such developers will expose 7x as a target. Therefore, to avoid legal complications that could delay the release of 7x, manifold.net has removed discussion of third party ISI drivers for Google from the Help documentation committed to the 7x DVD. It could be that if Google’s lawyers come to their senses this topic will be restored in future updates available by download as part of the automatic update notification system in 7x.
OK, so there you have it. But in true Manifold tradition, they can’t but not push their holier than thou attitude.
Even though this is not our fight, we therefore cannot in good faith any longer recommend use of ISI drivers for Google, even if such ISI drivers are duly licensed and approved by Google. If Google insists on total control, we cannot recommend them. Instead, we will encourage developers and users to move to the more open world of Microsoft’s Virtual Earth.
Of course, a cynic might say it is easy for Manifold to delete discussion of Google image servers since in any event the Microsoft Virtual Earth image servers work so much better that nobody uses ISI drivers for Google anyway. That may be true, but nonetheless we feel that ethics and fair competition continue to be important and that moral support for third party developers is our duty.
Ah, feels so good to be better than everyone else. Of course they do point out what everyone else has noted, Virtual Earth is available and Microsoft seems to be more open than Google to sharing their data (of course we have no idea if there are contractual reasons Google can’t allow this). Those at the ESRI .NET SIG also saw ESRI combining ArcGIS Server and Virtual Earth in their new .NET API (which is to be included as a demo so everyone can see how to use Virtual Earth with ESRI server products).
OK, well I have heard of it. Still I’ve never run across it in my professional experience. Guess that makes me less than serious about GIS. shrug
Actually I have one more confession to make. I’ve never used it or installed it in my life.
Steve Citron-Pousty wonders if there are too many barriers to using open source GIS for the average user, especially those already knee deep in the ESRI suite. Steve’s got some good points that I’ve heard from some of our clients when we’ve proposed open source solutions (well some, I’ve gotten a couple hooked on FWTools).
I’ll play devils advocate here and say that if someone really wanted to go open source, they could just take their ESRI maintenance costs and apply that to a consultant who could help them deploy open source correctly. Technically that is the same as paying ESRI for maintenance/support. Rather than calling up Redlands, you’d just call up Canada.
**Update – **Steve wrote up a response to some of the discussion
Both Adena and Jason hit the big points about this bundle release, but I thought I’d chime in. From the press release:
“Incorporating Google Earth Pro into our Autodesk Government Geospatial Solution creates a complete workflow for government agencies,” said Dave Rhodes, vice president of Autodesk Government. “The powerful combination enables professional GIS staff to more easily share complex, precision data with a wide audience of non-technical colleagues and partners that need to leverage that data in a variety of geospatially-enabled business projects.”
Kinda sounds like Autodesk is answering ArcGIS 9.2 (specifically ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Explorer) and at a cheaper price. I wonder how long until this bundle is available for non-governmental organizations.
Oh and check out that press release, Autodesk has been working on the Web 2.0 lingo.
Zooomr has a nice geotagging feature, but Flickr alas doesn’t (at least an official one, yet). But that hasn’t stopped people from geotagging their Flickr photos. On the heals of his Localize Bookmark for Flickr, Aemkei has released loc.alize.us using the Google Map and Flickr APIs. If you use his Localize Bookmark tool, your photos will appear almost instantly in the viewer. I think this is the best geotag browser so far.
We had a little rain last night so I figured I’d spend my morning looking for ways to bring Doppler radar imagery into ArcMap. There are of course a ton of ways (and at 9.2 you’ll have even more), but one simple ArcScript caught my eye. NOAA/NWS WEATHER FOR ArcGIS 9.X gives ArcMap users access some some nice NOAA/NWS radar imagery. Simplicity I think is what caught my eye (Of course I’d rather just add a WMS service, but that will have to wait) and sometimes that is the best way to be productive.
click for larger view
Chad Zimmerman has posted some wonderful screenshots of NASA World Wind 1.4. Go over to Chad’s blog and take a look.
The Web 2.0 Bullshit Generator is not a bad idea for those who want to talk like they understand Web 2.0. I’m glad to see that the words “consume” and “rich client” are not on the generator. Guys at ESRI can still use them with impunity!
I guess I freaked out a couple ArcIMS folks with some of my posts this week. Don’t worry, ArcIMS is not going anywhere and will still be an integral part of the ESRI Server product family. 9.2 could be the last big release for ArcIMS, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. Remember, you no longer need to use those wacky Java admin tools, its all web based now and looks great. There are also improvements to ArcMap Server that will fix some weird bugs. Plus you get access to the new web ADF for .NET and Java so you can ditch the old HTML viewer. Actually if you do like the old HTML viewer, there have been improvements to that so you can continue to use that also. And one big change is something one of my clients will be very happy about:
Take advantage of improved security for served vector data. Image and ArcMap Image Services will not include geometry by default in the response to GET_FEATURES requests if the output mode is binary. With this change, ArcMap cannot be used to download vector data served in ArcIMS without the knowledge of the service provider.
Some seemed to have been taken back by the ArcInfo 7 reference Jack made toward ArcIMS. That isn’t a bad thing as Workstation is still going strong at 9.2 and I’d suspect ArcIMS will be going strong for years to come.
