Link: Shapefile points to GPX in Google Earth.
I managed to get a long list of ESRI ArcGIS shapefile points converted into the free version of Google Earth.
It was more of a work-around than any brilliance on my part. If you could think of an easier way to do it, I’m all ears.
Has anyone developed an easy way to do this?
Link: ArcGIS Server User Conference Presentation
This year at the user conference, we will be doing a presentation on our recently completed project for New Zealand Post (http://www.nzpost.co.nz). Was a full ArcGIS Server implementation with ArcSDE and Oracle backend. We put in alot of hard work in getting this project completed in the time frame, but the end result was amazing.
GIS Case Studies and Best Practices: New Zealand Post Enhancing Postal Address Quality Through Spatial Technology
Thursday, July 28 3:30pm 5:00pm Marina Salon G, Marriott Hotel, Level 3, South Tower”
Sounds interesting, I’ll try to go.
Link: Sanction your mashups with Google Maps API (dead link).
A few days ago a visitor posted (dead link) a link to a news story about a patent infringement case involving a successful real estate agent making use of a computer mapping system without acquiring a license for it first. The mapping system wasn’t the same as Google Maps but does hold a patent and royalties are owed for those who profit from it. In the story it states that “an average residential real estate agent may owe royalties of as much as $50,000 before the company’s patent expires in 2008.” The case raises some important questions when considering the possible actions that could be taken for those not making use of a sanctioned API (such as the Google Maps API), thereby licensing the application or mashup you are creating.
A good lesson to anyone thinking about using the Google Maps API in their applications. As the dust begins to settle on the Google Maps API, people are beginning to think about the implications of a “free” API. As I’ve said before, they’ll eventually either want to pay for a license to use one or go open source. Another great reason to open the ArcWeb Services API to these people as when they need to have a deployment license, they won’t have to learn a new API.
I doubt ESRI could have ever generated the press Google has for web mapping, but they might as well take advantage of it.
Link: Visualize Your Exercise Routes with Google Maps.
Our implementation loads the XML file (GPS coordinates) and draws a polyline between each point on a small delay to give the animated effect and route taken. We thought it would be cool to spice it up and added some other calculations like total time, total distance, pace, markers at different colored intervals, a loading bar, and stats.
Quite a big jump from the Gmap Pedometer. I’m just amazed at how quickly programmers have jumped on the Google Maps API. This implementation of the GMap API allows you to import your routes from the GPS unit, but I think that it has hit the wall as far as the API can go. Elevation is very important in these kinds of applications and at least for the time being, GMap API won’t be able to do this. Sportsim still runs circles around gMap Workout tracker, but given how quickly the have caught up it could only be a matter of time before we see a similar program using Google Maps especially since Google has all that terrain data in Google Earth.
I was very happy to read on Brian Flood’s blog (dead link) the other day that David Maguire had started up a weblog. If you have ever had a chance to talk, listen or read anything David has been involved with, you know he does a very good job of getting everyone excited about ESRI and GIS in general. I hope he’ll use his blog to focus on what ESRI is doing and has been doing over the course of their existence. Perfect case in point is the latest craze with Google Maps and Google Earth. I pointed out last week to everyone that was excited about Gmaps Pedometer that there was an ArcWeb Services application that was 100 times better and just as free. Gjermund has done a great job with Sportsim and he was kind enough to point out some new features he is working on. But even bigger than that has been the notice that my blog entry has gotten in the blogsphere. C.A.R. Report among others noticed the post (dead link) and featured it in their post on Gmap Pedometer. Without my post, I’m sure it would have gone unnoticed by them. (though they do call me a Google Maps naysayer, but I think I’m more of a Gmap Realist)
I hope David that you’ll be able to do more of this (as well as all ESRI bloggers). Weblogs are a really easy way to educate people to your products and with RSS Aggregators, people get that information as soon as it is posted, not when an email or magazine shows up months down the road. If ESRI can take control of the conversation about GIS, more people will better understand what you are doing and you’ll improve your relationship with your users. Sure, people will still make statements like “ESRI Sucks” but if you can directly answer them (take a look at my post about reading the blogsphere) you’ll be able to most likely change their opinions or at least discount them (the search “ESRI Sucks” is of great benefit). Google is using weblogs to increase their exposure and as I said in my post about ESRI and their PR battle it is something you should look into too.
Lastly David, you should read this article by Bob Lutz (who writes on General Motor’s weblog Fast Lane) which does a great job of explaining why corporate blogging is important and hits on some themes that I outlined above. I think we are all really excited to see some more ESRI bloggers and all of them should take advantage (after you recover for the UC) of weblogs and bring the discussion to the blogsphere.
Link: Annotation use cases (dead link).
“The most talked about feature at J1 this year was annotations. It was as if every new API / framework had to have support for annotations or must have something pertaining to it on their radar to gain acceptance or even be considered a contender. I have not yet being able to make my mind if this profileration of @YeahIHaveAnAnnotationToo is a good thing or not. For the time being I am trying to come up with use cases of where annotations make sense. Here are some that I have assimilated from various blogs, J1 sessions and my own brain dumps:”
I’m not a Java programmer, but I love Keyur Shah’s blog (dead link). These kinds of discussions are perfect for users to learn more and respond directly to Keyur. If there are any more ESRI blogger’s getting ready to start up, take a look at Keyur’s blog.
Superb blog Keyur!
UPDATE – Looks like there is a bug with FeedDemon uploading only the RSS feed address into my blogroll. I’m goin to put it back to the RSS feed list so you can at least subscribe to them if you wish. I’ll post back when it is resolved.
I finally got my blogroll updated. Since I use FeedDemon as my RSS Aggregator, I can now take advantage of Newsgator Online to synchronize my feeds. The two blogrolls on the left are dynamically updated as I add or removed GIS feeds from FeedDemon so they should be as up-to-date as I am.
I’m sure I’m missing someones blog so if you see one that you think I should be reading, feel free to either post it here or email me (my address is located under my photo on the upper right of the page).
Link: Blogging ESRI UC – All Points Blog (dead link).
If you’ve wanted to get move involved in blogging, but haven’t had an opportunity, Directions Magazine is looking for blogger (or wannabe bloggers) to cover the UC. Just email Adena to find out more.
Link: Guns, Germs, and Steel and GMaps Census (dead link).
“A quick word on GIS software: ESRI’s ArcGIS is the industry standard, but it can be a challenge to learn and costs way too much. My wife, who does some GIS in her research at the Prevention Research Center in Berkeley, has recently become a big fan of another software called Maptitude. It’s extremely intuitive and an order of magnitude cheaper than ArcGIS.”
I posted about this a couple weeks ago as well as my posts about opening up ArcWeb Services to more users. People want to use ESRI products, but the first word out of their mouths is always it costs too much and in many cases it does. ArcExplorer is about the only free tool that ESRI offers to get into GIS. Compared to products such as Google Earth and the many open source GIS tools, it is very weak and not worth mentioning.
It appears that most users are willing to spend about $500 for a professional GIS system, but their choices are very limited.
Link: Google map API transforms the Web – ZDNet.com via PubSub: Google Maps.
“We are getting a great demonstration right now of open source power, as applications using the Google Maps API begin to appear. Mapquest, owned by AOL, has been around for many years, but it’s a proprietary offering. Yahoo Maps has been around for years, but it has been late to this party. It’s Google, using the open source process, that has blown the field apart. The code has only been out a few weeks but already we’re seeing several really great applications.”
Yea, yea Google Maps API is great, but yet another article that doesn’t mention ESRI or their API. It isn’t open source, but they’ve had it much longer than Google has had theirs. But the point they do make at the end of the article is very true.
“And remember, this is just the start. I guarantee that hundreds of programmers are now poring over the Google Map API documentation, thinking about applications that will drive both them, and Google, to new heights.”
I hope we’ll hear an announcement at the ESRI UC that ESRI will release a version of their ArcWeb Services API that these programmers can freely use. If it is features these programmers need and what for their applications, it is ArcWeb Services that can deliver it today, not Google Maps.