We’ve pretty much just finished up a rush job given to us by a client to create a tool to allow planners to see where constraints (man-made and natural) are located on their property. This had to be done in such a quick time we were really concerned how we’d be able to pull it off. Thank God for Map Objects. I’ve always like the object model in MO and how easy and quickly one can develop applications. I’ve lost count on home many MO and MOLT. It is a shame these products are being “phased” out as ESRI transitions to ArcGIS Engine/ArcObjects. Dealing with COM and .NET in the same application is a mess sometimes, so I can understand why MO is being put on the back burner. There are many of us who really cut our teeth on GIS programming using MO and even Avenue over the years and there has to be a point that one walks away from these two “development environments” but if I have any say over it I’ll still be using both (especially MO and MOLT) for years to come.
Blog
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Keeping Google Earth at Bay
With the explosive introduction of Google Earth, it is hard to imagine what the world was like before we were all started looking up our old high school on satellite imagery. As the novelty of Google Earth wears off, GIS professionals are beginning to come up with different way to utilize this new tool to disseminate GIS data and in turn are creating tools to export data to Google Earth. Right now ESRI doesn’t have any answer to Google Earth. Their viewers are either too expensive or too old to compete leaving a void that Google Earth is beginning to fill. At the UC, we saw the new ArcExplorer, but as with most development at ESRI it becomes hidden from view until the next big conference (I guess that means we’ll see it at the Business Partner Conference?). In the mean time, tools such as Arc2Earth and KML Home Companion will be matured and assimilated into workflows making Google Earth an integrated part of GIS distribution.
I’m sure there are many at ESRI who feel that ArcExplorer will be a “Google Killer”, but to them I say don’t look at it that way. Google Earth is just another tool to help sell products that ESRI develops. In the end it will be ESRI desktop and server software that will power most of this new way of sharing GIS information and that is what matters. I can only guess to how well ArcExplorer will perform but if I use ArcGlobe as any reference point, ArcExplorer could be DOA. Again as I said above, this might not be the case, but since we get no updates from ESRI to the development of the software it is hard to say. So in this absence of information, many will continue to explore using KML and KMZ in conjunction with Google Earth. Even if ArcExplorer is a home run, why would users change their workflows when their customers are already used to Google Earth?
I’ve said before that I think ESRI should leverage support for KML/KMZ into their products and jump on the Google Earth bandwagon while its hot. CNN seems quite intent on using Google Earth on their newscasts and anyone with a broadband internet connection can join in that fun. I can’t imagine a scenario where people type in ESRI.com and grab the latest copy of ArcExplorer to view the huge earthquake in Southern California (though ESRI would have a front row seat) unless somehow ArcExplorer is pushed by Yahoo! to compete against Microsoft and Google.
I think in the end if there is any hope that ArcExplorer can compete against Google Earth in our marketplace, we need to know more about what to expect from ArcExplorer, a timetable for its release and even a broad beta release (beyond the ones at ESRI’s beta site).
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KML Home Companion 2.0
Link – KML Home Companion (new 2.0)
Jim Cser emailed me and let me know that KML Home Companion 2.0 is now available. The new features include
on-the-fly Lat/Long conversion, and color picker tools. Jim is also kind enough to include the source VB code with his distribution. One thing I really like about KML Home Companion is that it is so simple to use. I’m stuck at home this morning, but when I get in later I’ll post some screen shots. -
More Virtual Earth Information
Link – Virtual Earth – Now available for Commercial Use
First and foremost, VE is now available for commercial use. The nitty-gritty details are available from the virtual earth developer site (www.viavirtualearth.com) but, in essence, if you leave the What and Where fields visible, you can use the control provided for a commercial site for free. In Jan 2006, there will be an option to pay for use and remove those controls. Steve’s working on a demo site for this technology called www.MyFavouritePlaceOnEarth.com – catchy huh? It’s not live yet, but when it is, it’ll allow you to mark a spot anywhere on the earth (or, more accurately at the moment, anywhere in the continental US) as a significant site” and decorate it with the metadata to say why.
Andrew Coates updates us on some information from the Microsoft PDC. Can someone explain to me how the 45 degree angle on satellite/aerial imagery is of any value to web users? Microsoft keeps mentioning it like is will change the way we view maps, but I’m just left trying to figure out how.
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Ron Lake – What is KML?
Link – What is KML?
One could easily create a GML representation for , treating it as a GML feature. So far so good. What about using KML to represent other geographic features? It seems unsatisfactory to say that all geographic features need to be represerted using . How would we encode say a building with a polygonal extent, a number of floors, a height, a position, a type (e.g. Church, Police Station etc), and the date when the building was erected.
Defenders of GML are begining to take a closer look at KML.
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Jason Posts Some Screen Shots of Data From A2E
Link – Z Lots
Here is a shot of some data that A2E is capable of rendering. I had the data scrambled so it shouldn’t make any sense, but if the data were accurate, it would represent sales prices for various master planned communities and planned area developments in maricopa and pinal counties with z values representing these prices as percentages in height.
Take a look at the screen shots he posted and tell me you aren’t excited about A2E? On top of all this we’ll get to see the Exporter API that Brian will allow developers to use in any ArcGIS application. The possibilities are endless with A2E and it should solidify Google Earth as a GIS viewer.
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Phillip Holmstrand, KMZ is becoming the geographic equivalent of the PDF
Brilliant! Its like the KMZ is becoming the geographic equivalent of the PDF
In the comments on Brian’s post about Arc2Earth, Phillip Holmstrand makes a profound statement that stopped me in my tracks. I think he is right on about KMZ becoming the equivalent of PDF in the geospatial world. ESRI should do whatever they can to introduce support of KMZ into their product lineup as soon as possible or be left behind. Tools like Brian’s are going to revolutionize the way data is shared on clients and if ESRI wants to be part of that, they need to step up immediately and support KMZ/KML.
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The Map Room on Google Earth Privacy and Security
Link – Google Earth Privacy and Security Roundup
When the satellite-photo version of Google Maps came out earlier this year, there was some apprehension about the impact of these high-resolution photos on individual privacy. For example, some nervousness about being able to see the car in your driveway. I’m sensitive to privacy concerns, but for the most part I think these worries are unwarranted: most individual activities wouldn’t show up on even the highest resolution photos, and the age of the photos, as we’ve seen, can be considerable in some cases.
I’ve been on a moratorium over the past couple weeks on these Google Earth/Map privacy/security issues because nothing new has come out of any of them. Well I’ve lifted that ban temporarily to post about an excellent article over at The Map Room by Jonathan Crowe. Jonathan brings up some great new points about the difference between individual privacy concerns and state control over “secret” information. In the end I totally agree with his assertion that this is just a case of everyone overreacting.
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Brian Flood Talks About Arc2Earth
Link – Arc2Earth – ArcGIS to Google Earth Conversion
Here’s a quick update on the GE/GIS conversion front. While there is still work to be done, significant progress has been made on the ArcGIS to Google Earth converter which is now known as Arc2Earth. While there are several other KML converters out there, Arc2Earth is different in it’s scope of conversion. Instead of just raw data, A2E leverages the fact that the ArcGIS platform is a great authoring environment for traditional maps. In addition to data, it also includes cartography, renderers, labeling, feature identify functionality, ad-hoc graphics, as well as other MXD specific features that help enrich the user experience exported to the KMZ file.
Brian has a detailed post on Arc2Earth which should make converting maps made in ArcMap to Google Earth much easier. I’m very impressed with the user interface Brian has and it should allow just about anyone to share their maps via Google Earth. I can see this totally blowing up since there is no good tool from ESRI to share ArcMap documents. Google Earth will become the default free viewer for GIS and Arc2Earth could become the tool to make that happen. Great work Brian!
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geoTorrent – Distributing Large Datasets via BitTorrent
Link – geoTorrent.org via Very Spatial
Sharing huge datasets can be difficult given the bandwidth constraints. BitTorrent has always been a good solution and now we have a website “clearinghouse” of huge datasets. The only drawback is the only available image types are ECW and JPEG2000. I’m not too high on such compressed formats, but at least it is something.
