The Plenary Session At The ESRI International User Conference 2009

The ESRI International User Conference 2009 kicked off in San Deigo yesterday morning and since then information has been flooding in about what is being talked about and showcased this year. Lots of the demonstrations and content at this years Plenary was similar to what was shown at the ESRI International Business Partner Conference 2009 and ESRI Developer Summit 2009.

Many individuals have been covering the Plenary session so I thought I would summarise some of what was showcased.

~ 12600 attendees attending the opening Plenary session.

 

The ESRI International User Conference 2009  kicked off with Jack being on stage handing out awards. The Presidents Awards went to the State of Maryland due to Governor O’Malley’s vision for GIS.

 

Jack moved onto the “vision” on the ESRI International User Conference 2009.

Jack calls us designers and it falls into three areas; software, systems, geography.  The first two are well know, but designing geography is really what this conference is about.  GIS + Design gives us a plan for decision making. Maps and GIS are changing; and there are many new ways to take advantage of the new technology to improve GIS.

Interesting that Jack refers to this as GeoDesign.

Notion of Geodesign.  It’s an interactive design process, where design can get immediate feedback.  GIS hasn’t done this well in the past.  ESRI is extending their products with tools and methods to allow for this stuff.  The notion is that you can see impacts in real time.

Moving onto ESRI’s work and how it fits into that vision. The main focus, ArcGIS!

They want it to be a complete and integrated system for server to desktop to web.  Seeing online being a greater segment of their vision.  The Geodatabase becomes the center point of this vision.  It should be a comprehensive information model that is storable in a scalable system.

And onto the demonstrations. Bundles of demonstrations included the new high-performance dynamic services in ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, and end user utilization of ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 using the new API’s. This combined with the amounts of free data available for users, right through from Bing Maps for Enterprise to ArcGIS Online.

It was then on one of the newest products that’s coming from ESRI. ArcGIS Explorer 900. Bernie was on stage doing his thing.

At this morning’s opening plenary at the ESRI 2009 User Conference, Jack Dangermond introduced ArcGIS Explorer as technology that would be "tranformational." Bernie Szukalski provided a demonstration, highlighting some of the new features and capabilities coming up in the next release.

One of the first features Bernie demonstrated was the new ribbon. A well designed, intuitive interface which makes ArcGIS Explorer very easy to use. Bernie showcases the new Bing Maps for Enterprise, including aerials and roads.

Bernie went on to talk about the basemap gallery and making use of these. This was followed up by demonstrating the new integrated 2D/3D display and talking about the projects and transformations that ArcGIS Explorer 900 now offers.

Layer packages were demonstrated and talked about and how you can use ArcGIS Explorer 900 to read these directly.

Bernie ended off this segment by talking about the ArcGIS Explorer 900 being extensible and the powerful SDK thats going to be offered. The last demonstration for this segment included making use an ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 geoprocessing service directly from ArcGIS Explorer 900. In this case, terrain profiling.

During the next segment, Bernie went onto to talk about the new presentation capabilities of ArcGIS Explorer 900, talking about how presentations can be created in Microsoft PowerPoint and then used in ArcGIS Explorer 900.

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Though the segment, Bernie talked demonstrated some of the capabilities while in presentation mode, integrating layer packages as well as KML and KMZ files for showing 3D models. He ended by bringing in flash based animations. Very neat stuff!

The topic of layer packages continued. Jack emphasised the concept of layer packages, what they are and how they should be used.

It is a way to package up layers and data and give it out to people.  You can put it on CD or even share it online on ArcGIS online.  There’s now a new, free, integrated cloud storage site online.  You can share maps and data with whomever you choose.

Rob Shanks was up on stage to demonstrated the new ArcGIS Online. This was similar to the demonstration I gave during the ArcGIS 9.3.1 Seminar Series in New Zealand where ArcMap was used to create a layer package with the new tools in ArcGIS 9.3.1. This layer package was then uploaded directly onto the new ArcGIS Online and shared with the rest of the community. The new mashup capability of ArcGIS Online was also demonstrated.

Jack moved on to talking about templates. What these are and how we can share these with others online. There were a few demonstrations around templates.

To end of the morning session, Jack introduced MapIt. Information on MapIt can be found here: http://geo.geek.nz/esri/…

The second part of the Plenary session was about the future. A “What’s Next”. In Jack’s words:

It will fundamentally change how we work with ArcGIS by making us more productive.

A number of the ArcGIS 9.4 was similar to that covered off earlier this year. Scott Moorehouse talked about what they are doing and the key areas that they are focusing on. This included areas like editing, spatial analysis, streamlining the software and a number of productivity increases.

The desktop is going to become easier to use.  Time visualization, map display, integration search, dynamic TOC, better reports, better access to SQL Server spatial and Oracle Spatial.  Easier administration, as you’ll be able to have 9.3.1 installed concurrently with 9.4.

John Calkins went on to present his top ten favourite features about ArcGIS 9.4.

1. Fast Base Maps – Select map layers and drop them into a new "basemap" layer with continuous redraw and panning
2. Ability to make temporal maps using time stamps for each map that has been created; also included is a tool bar to step through each of the temporal maps in the user’s selection
3. Ability to change symbols by search using key words like “green push pin”; no longer have to search through many many symbols
4. New Layers Tab – a smart legend that only shows features withing the current viewable maps; with a map location is changed, the symbology will “gray out” if they are no longer visible.
5. Geoprocessing in Model Builder – users can have access to a new pop up for tool tips without having to open up a tool; there is an “undo button” for the auto-layout selection; customization capability to access all of the functions
6. Reporting – save reports with selected sets
7. New Search tool to compliment “Add Data” catalog – search tool for layers using keywords – new capability for fast access
8. Tab browsing on tables
9. New User Interface – dockable windows; as windows come and go, the map does not have to redraw; Catalog Window allows user to sort and search on layers and then drag and drop them on the map

The new feature based editing was showcased and demonstrated as well as talk around the new editing service that is coming for ArcGIS Server 9.4. The new map automation and generalization capabilities was a key feature of ArcGIS 9.4. demonstrated as well and the embedded Python within ArcMap. Some of the new 3D capabilities of ArcGIS 9.4 was also demonstrated.

ArcGIS 9.4 3D support allows you to take more control over your maps.  Performance seems greatly improved.  You can edit in 3D (ArcScene and ArcGlobe), but it is still not integrated directly into ArcMap (you have to deal with two programs).  Import of SketchUp models is much improved, click and place.  You can update model changes by right clicking on the model and click update.  You won’t lose all your new attribute data.  You can also place video layers in ArcGlobe and drape them over the the terrain.

Quite a big list of improvements for ArcGIS 9.4. For ArcGIS Server 9.4

Jack Dangermond noted the release at 9.4 of an API to the geodatabase. He said that’d make the geodatabase an open format.  

Any client can embed the API and use it. Lawrie Jordan then demonstrated imagery analysis capabilities of ArcGIS 9.4. 

As James mentions

There are a ton of new features to discover and add updated imagery that I’m sure will go over well.  ESRI also has improved the speed at which imagery draws (you can pan around without waiting for it to appear).  The Image Analysis tools are now all combined in one panel for easy manipulation.

The last part of the Plenary before lunch talked about ArcGIS Mobile 9.4.

There a bundles of new improvements coming with ArcGIS Mobile 9.4. One of the biggest enhancements, iPhone support!

Mobile GIS has been a part of ESRI for some time and I think we are beginning to see a shift from from Windows Mobile to the iPhone and Blackberry.  The first demo though was the classic Windows Mobile demo that we’ve seen for years and saw at the ESRI Developer Summit in March.  The new iPhone app looked nice and allows you to use ArcGIS Server services.  You can click on the map and get attributes and it seem to integrate in with the GPS.  You can add notes to the map and then share them back with via email, sms or sync back to the ArcGIS Server.&
#160; The iPhone already does a better job with interaction of ArcGIS Server than Windows Mobile so the future is very bright.

This is going to be great!

The first part of the Plenary ended with lunch and celebration that ESRI is 40 years old and the following quote:

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Wow what a day! Twitter has been going crazy with the #esriuc tag. Lots of good information. Thanks for James and Glenn for feeding back live updates from the Plenary. I have received a bundle more updates from the sessions. I will try and get these posted as soon as possible.