Spatially Adjusted

Category: Thoughts

  • Corporate Blogging Policy

    I’m not sure if ESRI has a corporate blogging policy, but I can tell you that my company does not. Some day I’m sure that the blogging policy will be part of every employee’s handbook, but until that day I thought I’d share some examples on the Internet that I use as my own personal blogging policy.

    If you are unsure if you are allowed to blog, print out some of the policies above and talk to your supervisor or HR rep. Going in with a policy is much better than being found out via a Google search and then reprimanded.

  • Art Haddad Talks About AJAX

    Link: AJAX (dead link).

    Art (dead link) talks a little bit about AJAX implementations and GIS. He’s a little unsure of the performance on Mozilla, but having used the alternative IFRAME “hacks” in the past I’d rather figure out an AJAX solution. Personally it sounds like a great idea for discussion at your special interest group meeting (dead link).

  • Taking Control of the Conversation

    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.

  • ZDNet – Google Map API transforms the Web

    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.

  • The Cost of ESRI Products Causes Potential Users to Turn Elsewhere

    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.

  • Directions Magazine is looking for bloggers to cover ESRI UC

    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.

  • Blogroll Updated

    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).

  • Abstract Final – Rendezvous with Keyur Shah

    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!

  • ESRI Blog Updates

    Link: ESRI Blog Updates (dead link).

    Brian Flood has posted some links to 2 new ESRI bloggers. I like the momentum building before the ESRI UC. I’m hopeful we’ll see some great news by them from the floor of the UC.

  • Sportsim introduces beta java applets viewer

    Link: Gjermund’s Web: Cool, but what is this?.

    I have to admit, this is yet another killer aspect of Sportsim. Not only can you generate races and courses, but you can post them to your own page via a java applet which includes the maps, participants, course time and elevation. Go ahead and click on the link above and check them out for yourself.