If you missed the DevSummit plenary, the recording of it is now online at the ESRI DevSummit site.
If you missed the live ArcGIS Explorer 900 demonstrations during the plenary, you can view them from among the videos. Just look for the Explorer and Online button among the choices of video segments to view.
ESRI Expands Virtual Earth Access in GIS by Teaming with Microsoft
ArcGIS Users to Bring Dynamic Basemaps into Analysis and Service Applications
Redlands, California—March 26, 2009— ESRI announced today a new agreement with Microsoft Corporation that gives ArcGIS users fast access to Microsoft Virtual Earth for their geographic information system (GIS) projects. As part of ArcGIS Online at the ArcGIS 9.3.1 release, ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Server users will be able to connect directly to Virtual Earth and quickly start their GIS projects with ready-to-use content.
"Our agreement with Microsoft defines a pattern of sharing geospatial data on the Web that promises to grow the GIS community," says ESRI President Jack Dangermond. "By bringing Virtual Earth into their GIS projects, people will have a greater opportunity to perform spatial analysis based on dynamic data."
ArcGIS users who are current on maintenance and have an Internet connection will have access to Virtual Earth for a variety of up-to-date mapping content.including aerial imagery, roads, and hybrid (aerial with labels) imagery. With a familiar look, imagery access will appear as another data layer in GIS. The imagery will provide excellent background maps on which users can overlay their operational data. This means users will be able to focus more on their business data than on its context.
For example, an electric utility can layer its distribution line data over a Virtual Earth aerial view of a neighborhood to create a map of its lines and customer connections. This Virtual Earth background layer is useful for editing the company's data and can be easily shared online with other company users.
ArcGIS users can build Web applications that support geospatial services through ArcGIS Server and ArcGIS Web Software Developer Kits (SDKs) , including APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Microsoft Silverlight. This enables them to provide their clients with access to Virtual Earth content from their applications.
“ESRI and Microsoft share a long history of building geographic information systems solutions that combine both of our companies’ strengths,” said Chris Sampson, director of Virtual Earth at Microsoft. “By integrating Microsoft Virtual Earth across all ESRI ArcGIS products, we can provide our mutual customers with spatial analysis software that has instant access to comprehensive geographic data that can only be found in a software plus services solution.”
ArcGIS Desktop 9.3.1 users who are current on maintenance will be offered access to Virtual Earth at no cost. ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 users will have instant access to a built-in 90-day evaluation of Virtual Earth. After the evaluation ends, ArcGIS Server users will be able to purchase an annual subscription that will be based on transactions. [...]
Developer Richard Brundritt has created a new Flight Simulator plugin for Microsoft Virtual Earth (our Virtual Earth API profile) that uses the VE3D map control to provide a very cool user experience.
By leveraging the 3D API, Richard has managed to create the first flight simulation experience in Virtual Earth that puts users inside of a realistic cockpit, complete with controls and a visual readout of heading, pitch, altitude, latitude and longitude. Note that Navigation can be controlled via keyboard or XBox 360 control. [...]
The ArcGIS JavaScript API provides classes to deliver rich mapping functionality to your applications. The Resource Center has a wealth of information about these classes, their properties and methods. When building your applications, you want this information easily accessible from within your IDE. If you've spent a lot of time creating web mapping applications with the ArcGIS JavaScript API, you've probably been missing this for a while now. Yesterday we uploaded to the Code Gallery a plug-in that provides code assistance for the ArcGIS JavaScript API in the Aptana Studio IDE. The plug-in provides the following context-sensitive information:
We believe the plug-in will greatly enhance your development experience with the ArcGIS JavaScript API. Moving forward, we intend to provide updates to this plug-in whenever a new version of the API is released. We are also working towards providing IntelliSense bits for Visual Studio. As always, we welcome your feedback.
Contributed by Praveen Ponnusamy of the ArcGIS JavaScript API development team
From stateofthemaporg:
The SOTM working group is pleased to announce a call for logo designs. Our existing logos have served us well and the time is right to look further afield to make sure we have the best design possible. We’ve put together a Design Brief which outlines what we’re looking for in a logo. We invite you to either build a logo yourself, rope in some friends/co-workers or use a site like elance.com and a spare £/$/€50 and get a freelancer to have a go.
The logo must be licensed CC-BY-SA and received by email within two weeks (by midnight Wednesday 8th April UK time). The team will decide by vote the logo to go with.
The winning entry will be rewarded with a full weekend ticket to SOTM!
The SOTM team can’t wait to see your entries!
Google lets you get in the path of American Le Mans racers on the track at Mazda raceway Laguna Seca. Specifically, Google was able to roll one of its Street View trucks, which use a spherical camera to take 360-degree photos, around the track in front of the cars preparing for the final race of the 2008 American Le Mans season. You will be able to go to Laguna Seca on Google Maps, and place the Street View icon to see track features such as the famous Corkscrew, and get a sense of why it's so tricky.
The USGS Astrogeology Research Program–the folks behind PIGWAD (Planetary Interactive GIS-on-the-Web Analyzable Database)–released a beta version of their Planetary Geodesic Tools for ArcMap on 20 March 2009.
