DevSummit Presentations Online

Not able to go to the Developer's Summit?

You can still check out the presentations! Just search the sessions. Some of the PowerPoints have already been posted and I expect more to follow.

RIP ArcCatalog and other changes in 9.4

From mandown

ArcCatalog will no longer be a separate application in ArcGIS Desktop 9.4. It will be integrated as a window within ArcMap. Old-schoolers may remember when ArcToolbox was a seperate application (pre 8.3?), and now it is like a toolbar accessable in ArcMap and ArcCatalog. I expect ArcCatalog will function the same way. I've really never understood the reasoning behind the two applications. Hopefully this will be the end of pointless schema locks. Yes!

I also like the idea that the docability of the toolbars will be improved to Visual Studio's feel. Oh how much time I've wasted trying to get the Tool toolbar and the Layout toolbar positioned exactly where I want them.

"ArcMap will sport a similar feel to Microsoft Visual Studio. Dockable windows and improved toolbars ... ArcCatalog will be built into ArcMap and made available via a dockable window. Drag and drop will be supported as well."

I also love to script in Python, so I'm glad to hear -

"... Python will be integrated within ArcMap. A new Python window will be available directly from ArcMap which will allow you to run and debug Python scripts directly. Python scripts will also run asynchronously so you can continue working while your script is running in the background."

But 9.4 is "quite a while off". By these two changes alone, I think this will be the most significant upgrade at the desktop level (at least for me) since 8.3.

If you have more to add, please comment. As of now I haven't seen this too much covered yet from the DevSummit.

GIS isn't just for Government

A course on Business Analyst Online will be added to Milwaukee Area Technical College's existing GIS Certificate program. Teaching the power of GIS through government applications is helpful (land use, utilities, law enforcement, etc.) it can be difficult for businesses to see how it will be useful for their day-to-day needs. So I agree that it's great to see the business aspects of GIS being taught and used.

Milwaukee County Web Mapping Is Now Available

To follow up on my January posting, most Wisconsin Counties now have web mapping sites. Most significantly Milwaukee County is finally available. While several municipalities within the County have been online - most notably the City of Milwaukee - its great to see the state's most populated county online.

Madison Gets Photographed by Kite

I have a thing for this sort of aerial photography. There is a great article from the Wisconsin State Journal about it.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Loves GIS

That's not sarcastic, I really think the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has found the power of GIS for telling a story. It seems like more and more of their "Watchdog" reports are using GIS. Most recently they looked at pavement conditions by Aldermanic district. What's really neat, is they actually try to describe the methodology they use. They've done this in the past with potholes, and their "Wasted in Wisconsin" series. Its more than showing a pretty map, its actually doing some geographic analysis to make a point.

ESRI Server Contest

Hopefully you received the email for voting for the ArcGIS Server Mashup and ArcGIS Mobile code challenges. There is real money involved.

Vote for ArcGIS Server Mashup Code Challenge
First prize - $7,000
Second prize - $3,000

Vote for ArcGIS Mobile Code Challenge
First prize - $4,000
Second prize - $2,000

Unfortunately, you have to receive the email to vote. I think that's a bad idea. Wouldn't non-GIS types be a better judge of the best application? Doing GIS f0r GIS's sake seems kind of silly in the day of Web 2.0. Otherwise it's kind of like the Oscars where the winner isn't always the most popular.

ArcPad 8 and Maintenance

ArcPad 8 will be released soon. While it contains many new features and enhancements, the most significant change viewed by many will be its change to a maintenance-based application.

Previously ArcPad was sold without 'free' software upgrades. If you wanted a upgrade to the next version, you had to buy the next version complete. Now with version 8, you can put ArcPad on maintenance - complete with regular updates and technical support just like many of the other 'Arc' products. This is likely to be a welcome change, as it may bring about much more frequent software updates to the fast changing world of mobile GIS.

Wisconsin GISPs

In the latest GISC-Eye newsletter a fellow EWUGer is profiled.

The list of GISPs keeps growing. Last time I looked, Wisconsin has a good share of them too. If you run the numbers, I think Wisconsin would be at the top of a ranking of GISPs per capita.

T-Shirts

Did you know you can see all the T-Shirt photos that have every appeared in ArcNews?

While getting your picture in ArcNews is pretty neat, getting your own design printed on a T-Shirt is even better.

For the 2009 EWUG conference, we're having a T-shirt design contest. The winner gets their design - go figure- printed on this year's conference T-shirt! The only rule - the design must be created with ESRI software. Just think of the cool stuff you can do with ArcMap or ArcGIS Explorer. Deadlines and other submittion stuff will be posted later in the year on the webpage. But start thinking about what you want to do.

If you can do this with GE, just think of what you could do with some real cartography: