Category: Thoughts

Yep, the service pack to the .1 release is here:

• ArcGIS (Desktop, Engine, Server) 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
• ArcSDE 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
• ArcIMS 9.3.1 Service Pack 1
• ArcGIS Image Server 9.3.1 Service Pack 1

UPDATE: Yikes, I left off ArcGIS Military Analyst 9.3.1 Service Pack 1

You can learn more on the “Issues addressed with Service Pack 1” page. I can’t think of any other way to celebrate than dear old Rocky Top…

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n9prNixjbg&w=560&h=315]

ArcGIS, you’ll always be home to me…

Autodesk has been heavily investing in their 3D technology which includes bringing on 3D game developers to help with visualization. I imagine their pitch, “Do you want to make millions programming games or change the world with 3D Studio Max?”.

Anyway I received this link to a company called Clover Point which is doing impressive things with 3D gaming engines and enterprise management with their Asset Tracking Anywhere. Yea I know what you are thinking, how could I possibly get excited about something as boring as enterprise management Well in my pervious life (before da cloud) I was heavily involved with asset management and CAFM. Now if you’ve ever been involved with this, you know how ugly the tools and how non-technical people have a great difficulty visualizing the data presented to them.

ESRI users take note:

Asset Tracking Anywhere also utilizes ESRI’s ArcGIS Server. This suite of products offers advantages over standard map engines in the ease of data layering, data creation, data visualization, data capture, raster-to-vector translation and the manipulation of projection and coordinate systems.

Detailed 3D models and immersive views are a great way to showcase your resources to managers and help them visualize their assets around the world. Tabular reporting just doesn’t help people understand the impacts of planning and future changes to their business like a great 3D model. Of course 3D modeling in GIS has been very basic, so I’m happy to see companies pushing the envelope on this.

Check out some of Clover Point’s work in these YouTube videos. As I said, very impressive stuff. What I see here is BIM and GIS coming together to help people make informed decisions.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf-ao7WgeDQ&w=560&h=315]

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIeD3I0bKeA&w=560&h=315]

I know there are two groups of people out there right now. Those who can’t believe the Geography Network is still running and those who forgot it existed. Well now both sets of you can now know that it is going to be retired at the end of this year.

With lots of changes over time to online GIS and geographic information and the technologies used to serve them, the?Geography Network has been replaced by better alternatives to publish and find data (like ArcGIS Online). Much of the same exact content, and much more content that has been updated,?can now be found and used in easier and better ways. So ESRI is planning to retire the Geography Network in late December 2009.

Can you believe it has been almost 10 years?

When people always asked me, what did I like about Bing Maps, it was always the Bird’s Eye View. It was something that Google didn’t have in their map API and it really was useful since a top down view doesn’t always tell the full story. Well today Google announced that they too are going to have what they call Aerial Imagery in their API. Yep, that is the same perspective view that Bing Maps has with their Bird’s Eye View.

Now of course how could one really get that excited about Google adding oblique imagery. Well unlike Pictometry, you can zoom out much further on the data so you can see how one might get from the Hard Rock Hotel to the San Diego Convention Center (Bing Maps is of course out of date).

Isn’t that so much more valuable than the top down version I just can’t see how any current Bird’s Eye View user can continue to use Bing Maps over this (Shall we count the days until Zillow changes?). What I’m interested in seeing which company can build out their “new service” first. Google with their oblique aerial view, or Microsoft with their street level view. I think we all know who will be throwing more resources at getting this done, don’t we?

The one weird part is this appears to be in the v2 API only. I suppose this is because launch customers Orbitz, Redfin and Trulia are all using that version of the API on their websites. v3 can’t be far along.

Dave Brubeck Quartet flying over Google’s Oblique Aerial Imagery

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htbaJFEAXQ&w=560&h=315]

Scott Gregory wanted me to share something he is working on. From the website:

Here at?geo-tee.com we strive to serve up the funny. We dive deep to dig up the humor buried in the world of GIS. We supply apparel for the seasoned old-school GIS’r that was doing GIS with punch cards, to the newbie who just figured out the difference between a datum and a projection. We have a wide range of threads that will be sure to not disappoint. So whether you have been in the game for a while, or just now getting your map on, we have got the goods for you. Enjoy!

So if you’ve been looking for some geo-shirts and stickers you’ve got another resource.

I got a response back from the City of Tempe.

Hello Mr. Fee,

Here’s some information that I hope assists with your specific request and also clarifies the city’s policy and state law with regard to production of this information. Tempe’s policy is guided by state law (available at this link) which allows for the purpose of a commercial request to be asked.

Non-commercial

You mentioned that your request is for a presentation to a Tempe elementary school, which sounds non-commercial. Please contact Wendy Springborn in our Engineering Division (480-350-8250) in order to discuss exactly what you’d like to request. The city does not charge for non-commercial requests, except for the production of CDs to deliver the records. Some records might be deliverable via an emailed PDF, but that depends on whether the requester wants to be able to manipulate the record. If they do, that cannot be delivered via PDF because of the limitations of that format. Wendy is ready to assist with your request if you’ll let her know what you need.

Commercial

Tempe bases its commercial rates in part on a fair approximation of market value. As described in the state law above, municipalities and other entities are able to ask the purpose of commercial requests and to deny improper requests upon the approval of the governor. The statute also establishes the ability to seek damages if records obtained for a non-commercial purpose are then used for a commercial purpose. You noted a few cities’ elected representatives have chosen to make all of this information searchable online; that would be a policy decision rather than staff action. It seems that some of your concerns with the city’s GIS records policy are grounded in the state law requirements rather than independent city policies.

Tempe places a high priority on transparency and customer service. We make every effort to fulfill records requests of all types across the many city functions and departments. Please let me know if I can assist in answering any other questions.

Regards,

Nikki Ripley City of Tempe Communication and Media Relations Director

So there you go, at least they are going to let you have it for personal use. Good, at a minimum that is good news. I’ll be making my request ASAP. The part that causes me to pause is this, “Tempe bases its commercial rates in part on a fair approximation of market value”. I couldn’t disagree more with this statement and it is nuts that they think that this data is worth $100,000. Nothing in the state law says Tempe should charge $100,000 for their data. Fair market value for public data shouldn’t be 6 figures. This is why people don’t go to the source to get data but third party providers who don’t have the accuracy of Tempe’s data. I’m disappointed in this response so it shows how much more work we have with local governments.

Update: I submitted a public records request, so we’ll see how this goes.

United Maps has a video up on YouTube showcasing their upcoming Walk & Ride app for the iPhone.

What I find interesting is that United Maps is rendering vectors directly on the iPhone. I’ve always though rasterizing vectors causes you to lose the power of vector datasets. All I can say is those lucky Euros are going to be having fun with this app. I really need to get my rear over there soon.

Boy, all I wanted to do is get some GIS data for GIS Day 2009. Little did I know my own hometown is one of the worst offenders of locking up GIS Data.

City of Tempe – Sale of Engineering & GIS Records

Take a look, “$568.70 for each quarter section or 1/4 mile area”. For your own information, Tempe is 40 sq miles in size so do the math. Simply nuts! Plus take a look at their “conditions”:

Conditions and Restrictions

1. All commercial orders and digital data orders will be required to document purpose of use.
2. Plotting orders in excess of $25.00 and all digital data orders will require full pre- payment before order is processed.
3. Digital data will be provided on city-issued media only.
4. All orders and payments must be done in-person only.

I mean really, not only do they “share” it in Microstation, but you have to document the purpose of public data, you have to get the data on “city-issued” media and orders must be made in person. My jaw is still on the floor a week after I looked that this. Time for a little geo-revolution in Arizona. Don’t you think? Prepare to get very tired of my “struggle” against the City of Tempe for their data.

Time to call in the troops, free public data!

Update: Andrew Turner provides a great link to put this in perspective as well as the issues with data licenses on local geodata.

Update 12/01/2009: I just received this from the city:

Hello Mr. Fee,

Thank you for bringing your concerns to the city’s attention. We will review this practice/policy with the City Attorney’s Office and I will get back to you with more information as soon as possible.

Regards,
Nikki

Nikki Ripley
City of Tempe
Communication and Media Relations Director

At least it is a response. Maybe other organizations who have more power in this valley might be able to get some results. I’m still hopeful though…

ESRI has been talking about this for months (and haphazardly blogged about on the ArcGIS Online blog last week), but they’ve now got a post up on their ArcGIS Server Blog outlining the changes coming to ESRI’s ArcGIS Online web services. (Side note, wouldn’t be nice if ESRI sort of planned their blog posts better for a common message?)

Since the release of ArcGIS Online three years ago, the 2D services have used the WGS 1984 geographic coordinate system and a 512 x 512 pixel tile size. Google and Bing, in contrast, use a modified Mercator projection and a 256 x 256 tile size. The scale sets used by both tiling schemes are similar, but not equivalent.

Make sure you read the whole ArcGIS Server blog post to understand what you have to do and when. From the ArcGIS Online blog:

The existing services in the?ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will remain available for at least six months and, depending on demand, may remain available longer. Although the services will remain available, the content in these services will no longer be updated.

I’m continuing my Geography Week 2009 in California this Friday in Ventura County, California. World GIS DAY 2009 at Ventura College is an all day event and my keynote kicks off at 8:30am in the morning. I’ve not been to a CIRGIS event yet and I’ve been told they are well attended so there should be lots of fun for everyone who comes.