Bern Szukalski is back to being Bernie (which pleases me,and my Uncle Bernie). His demo of ArcGIS Explorer 900 (coming soon) showed off how it is GIS for Everyone,which interestingly,was the slogan for ArcView back in the day.
When Jack Dangermond asked how many attendees were using ArcGIS Explorer,very few raised their hands. I wonder when it will take off? The latest version with presentation support may pick up some new users including those who present GIS data and educators.
The next version of ArcGIS will be 9.4. ESRI pondered calling it 10,but decided to hold back to 9.4 to highlight quality and stability. I think that’s a good marketing decision and hope it works for both ESRI and users.
One of John Calkins top 9 enhancements in ArcGIS 9.4 is dockable,hideable windows for things like Catalog and the table of contents. That means there’s more space for the map! That,per research done by Muki Haklay,should mean higher productivity. His work noted that ESRI users typically have less map real estate compared to other desktop GISs.
Jack Dangermond noted the release at 9.4 of an API to the geodatabase. He said that’d make the geodatabase an open format. I don’t agree that having an API makes it an open format. I continue to encourage people to ask what people mean when they use the term open.
Lowrie Jordan talked about quite a lot of “on the fly”technology for imagery coming in 9.4 including color balancing,orthorectification and pan sharpening. Very cool. Is that ESRI technology or something they licensed? I’ll be looking into that.
Chris Cappelli showed off an early version of the ESRI iPhone app. It looked like most other mobile mapping apps on the iPhone. Dangermond was excited about how the device could be used to capture user generated (professional or casual) data. Still,it’s the database structure on the back end,he noted that makes this solution different.
When I watch TV with my Dad he points out how in so many of the cop/detective/doctor drama all they do is walk and talk. In GIS it seems all people do (based on images here at the ESRI user conference) is point.
ESRI is 40 years old this year.
The list of ESRI’s goals is back to three:advance GIS,promote spatial thinking and support its employees growth.
Final quote of the morning session is from Thomas Edison:“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”I’ve also seen it attributed to Abraham Lincoln and Alan Kay. Still,it’s a good quote and very appropriate for the “Designing our Future”theme of the conference.
I’ve heard suggestions that Twitter is overloaded by ESRI and things tagged with #ESRIUC are not being found.
ESRI received 100 queries from folks wanting to present lightening talks on Monday night. They selected just 20 presenters.