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ESRI Federal User Conference 2007
January 9–11, 2007, Washington, D.C.
The seventh annual ESRI Federal User Conference (FedUC) was held January 9–11, 2007, in Washington, D.C. More than 1,900 geographic information system (GIS) users gathered at the Washington Convention Center to learn about GIS solutions and network with colleagues.
“Changes are occurring rapidly in the United States and understanding change calls for a geographic way of thinking,” ESRI president Jack Dangermond said at the plenary. “GIS provides a new medium for understanding. It models all physical and cultural aspects of our world. It breaks it down into pieces. It provides us with systematic knowledge, and it’s also an integrative framework, which makes it so powerful for collaborating and working together.”
Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski from the 11th Congressional District, Pennsylvania, gave the Keynote Address. The congressman has played an important role in developing the Pennsylvania GIS Consortium at Wilkes University and in creating the Earth Conservancy, an organization that uses GIS to reclaim and develop land in Pennsylvania that was harmed from coal mining.
Kanjorski encouraged attendees to use their knowledge of GIS to help reform government. He cited the ability one has with GIS to save money and better track projects and programs. He also encouraged users to work together on building a national GIS.
“A challenge I see quite readily today is a lack of willingness to share information, a lack of incentive to share information, particularly between the various levels of government,” Kanjorski said. “And since most of this information resides at the local government level or at the state level, it’s incumbent upon the federal government to come up with a theory of carrot and stick to accomplish some methodology that encourages and rewards those entities that push this information up the line, make it more useful, and keep it current.” He encouraged users to find ways to motivate government to keep current information flowing up and down through all levels. “If we do that,” he said, “all of us will have more effective tools.”
Kanjorski pointed out that every department in every agency can use GIS as a tool for making government more effective and efficient and called attendees to be part of the army of reform. At the end of his address, Dangermond presented the congressman with a Making a Difference Award.
Later in the plenary, attention turned to GIS software advances, specifically new functionality with the release of ArcGIS 9.2. The ArcGIS 9.2 product family allows ESRI users to author data with ArcGIS Desktop software; publish the data to ArcGIS Server; and use it through Web, desktop, and mobile clients.
“This environment for me is about as exciting as anything I’ve seen in my 40 years of working on this—this idea that I can share or publish to a broader audience and interconnect information,” Dangermond said.
With ArcGIS 9.2, improvements have been made with mapping and visualization, interoperability, transformation procedures, content standards, support for metadata, and extending what the geodatabase can model and manage, to name a few. Improvements to the geodatabase include adding high-precision coordinates, a new class of data called terrains, intelligent images, and cadastral fabrics.
ArcGIS Image Server, a new product, was also introduced. This is software that dynamically performs image processing, georeferencing, and mosaicking. Its functionality significantly reduces the time between image capture and the image being available on the Web. “This will dramatically change the way people access and serve imagery,” Dangermond said.
The most significant change at version 9.2 is the architecture of ArcGIS Server. With comprehensive functionality, it will support almost any type of client including desktop, Web, cell phones, and any geospatial client that meets Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standards and other direct connections. ArcGIS Server comes with out-of-the-box applications and services. ArcGIS Explorer, a light desktop client for ArcGIS Server, allows for 2D and 3D visualization of maps and data that are published on the server.
There were demonstrations of ArcGIS Server 9.2, ArcGIS geodatabase replication technology, ArcGIS tools for interoperability, and ArcGIS Online. For ArcGIS users, ArcGIS Online is a family of Web-based products and services that are available via the Web including maps and globes. There were also demonstrations of ArcGIS Desktop 9.2; mission-critical GIS, deploying GIS across organizations; enterprise GIS from an IT perspective; and geoenabled service-oriented architecture.
During the conference, attendees gathered at paper sessions to hear other ESRI users discuss GIS applications and procedures. Tracks included asset/facility management, demographics, global affairs, health, homeland security/emergency response, land and environment, law enforcement, military, system architecture, and technology. ESRI staff presented technical sessions that covered product and technology topics.
The closing address was given by Chief Warrant Officer 4 Michael A. Harper, Military Deputy/Advisor at the Topographic Engineering Center (TEC), Engineer Research and Development Center, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Harper discussed geospatial engineering and enabling the war fighter. Specifically, he explained geospatial challenges the Army faces and TEC programs that are focused on those challenges. Dangermond presented Harper with a Making a Difference Award at the conclusion of his address. .
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