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10 Highlights from the ESRI UC Plenary Session

Posted on July 12, 2010. Filed under: ESRI, ESRI UC |

Serious problems with the WIFI today at the plenary session so I wasn’t able to do any live blogging.

The plenary session today had a bit of a different feel from those that I’ve been to in the past.  I expected a series of bullet point presentations detailing every new feature of ArcGIS 10.  Instead, ESRI focused more on delivering a high level overview of ArcGIS 10 that highlighted the integration between the desktop, server, and mobile environments.  I thought they did a pretty good job of delivering this message through a series of demonstrations.

Here were my top 10 highlights of the day in no particular order:

1. Sounds like ESRI is beginning to embrace crowd sourced data and social media.  So much for the argument that crowd sourced data isn’t useful because it doesn’t originate from an “authoritative source”!
2. ESRI is publishing their REST Interface as an Open Standard like they did the Shapefile
3. World Topographic Basemap provides a seamless worldwide basemap at many scales from data compiled from many sources.  The cartographic quality of this basemap is excellent.
4. It comes as no surprise, but Cloud computing is clearly a big part of the future for ESRI.
5. I thought the ability to create PowerPoint like presentations in ArcGIS Explorer Online was a nice addition.
6. ArcGIS for the iOS on the iPad.  The interface is really sweet!  Business Analyst Online a free application for the iPhone.
7. Lots of new functionality and performance improvements in ArcGIS 10 Desktop.
8. Social and Community Analyst product coming this Fall.  Built for policy makers who need rich information and analysis.  Available on the desktop, online, and server.
9. I think Jack mentioned that this is the largest gathering yet for the UC.  Never heard an exact number, but just walking around it certainly felt as though there were more people than in the past.
10. Enjoyed the keynote from Richard Saul Wurman, et al.  Quite different from past keynote presentations.  Never thought I’d see Johnny Cash at the ESRI UC!

There was much more content today, and I’m sure other bloggers will fill in the gaps.  More tomorrow.

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