Functionality Report for ArcGIS 9.4

In case you haven't seen it, here is a link to ESRI's plans for ArcGIS 9.4 and beyond. It's an important read!

EWUG 2009...10th Anniversary Conference!

Make plans to attend ESRI Wisconsin User Group's 10th Anniversary Conference at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton ~ on October 29th & 30th, 2009!

Details about the 2009 conference are coming! Check back to this blog soon for more information...

Another Chapter for EWUG

At some point during a conference, I as EWUG President, ask how many people have never attended an EWUG conference before. Year after year, about third of the hands go up. Looking back our attendance numbers, our attendance has stayed very consistent over the past seven or eight years. This could only mean one thing - about a third of EWUG turns over every year. One out of three people would not return next year, but they would be replaced by someone else. For a long time this really bothered me.

I then remembered with the “UG” stood for – we are a User Group. As GIS professionals, we need to know the nuts and bolts of the machine because we never know what we’ll be asked to do. Our job is to make sure the machine is finely tuned and ready to go. Yet for many of us, GIS is not your primary job. We do GIS for local government, state government, for business, natural resource protection, or even rat control. What I’ve come to realize is that the third of attendance that we “loose” every year is just because we’ve taught the non-GIS people enough GIS so that they can use it in their everyday jobs. And each year there’s a lot of other people that say, “Hey, this GIS thing is important – I gotta learn more about that.” And thus we teach people and they move on.

The need for greater GIS knowledge is not new either, it existed more than ten years ago. Back in 1998-ish a group of ESRI users had an idea after an ESRI technology fair in Madison. They wanted to create an ESRI user group that would help promote GIS concepts throughout the state. And thus EWUG was born. The name and logo choice quickly followed. The first conference was held in Milwaukee in 1999. The first president was Todd Niedermeyer. I, David Haines, somehow became President in 2000 and have remained a benevolent dictator ever since. Last year (2008 conference) I announced at the business meeting that my time as EWUG President would be over after the 2009 conference. Nine years was long enough. At the time, I had no idea I would departure sooner.

I have now left Wisconsin for Colorado, for a great opportunity. I will get to use both my Planning and GIS experience to help plan for unique and special area of the country. If you happen in Boulder, please feel free to stop on by the Boulder County Land Use Department. I’ll be happy to talk about GIS and Planning in the warm sun on Pearl Street.

As for EWUG – it will EWUG on! The organization is well supported, well funded and will continue on. I know that Nedd, Emily, Brian and Bill will finally get to try some things now that I’m gone. I also know you’ll continue to see the user group prosper. I am confident that they continue to grow EWUG. At and at all times, remember, it is a user group.

Checking out the Flat Irons

Website Issues

Been having trouble with the website the past few days. It should all be fixed now. If you ever have problems with the website be sure to let us know so we can get it fixed.

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.