2009 ESRI International User Conference

Q & A

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Dear ESRI User:

It is less than two weeks before the conference and all of us at ESRI are getting excited to see you and learn what you have been doing.

We appreciate the strong response to our conference questionnaire.  It’s quite lengthy and we value the time you spent answering our questions.  Your input gives us insight into your interests and the direction you would like us to take.  We have already made a number of strategic decisions based on your comments and we will work aggressively to be responsive to your suggestions.  I urge you to read our responses to your questions below before arriving at the conference. Your conference experience will be much richer as a result.

The technology focus of this year's conference will be ArcGIS.  We will highlight the ArcGIS 9.3.1 release and preview ArcGIS 9.4

There will be many opportunities for sharing and learning about applications and successful GIS implementations via user presentations, special interest group meetings, and dozens of regional user group meetings.  This year we have added a new Lightning Talks session on Monday evening as part of the Map Gallery. The UC agenda is available online for you to plan your week.

You are part of an incredible group with a tremendous amount of collective knowledge.  I encourage you to contribute to the sense of community that characterizes this conference by interacting and sharing knowledge with your peers. 

Best regards,

Jack Dangermond

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Jump to Q & A Categories

GIS

1. What is the concept behind this year’s User Conference theme: GIS –Designing our Future?

2. What are the main green applications of GIS software?

3. What is the value of GIS in the economic downturn?

4. What are the generic benefits of GIS?

5. What is the prospect for GIS in light of an economic slowdown?

6. What is the Geographic Approach?

7. Does GIS have value for kids? What kinds of things do students, teachers, and administrators do with GIS?

8. Is the vision of a spatial data infrastructure (SDI) practical?

9. How can GIS users participate in volunteer efforts during emergency disasters and in humanitarian efforts?

10. What GIS applications deliver the largest ROI?

11. What applications of GIS are creating new jobs?

12. What are the unique skills that GIS professionals provide?

13. Can you explain further the idea of using GIS for improving government transparency and accountability?

14. Does ESRI have any resources to help me define ROI for my GIS?

15. Is GIS being used as a guide for stimulus funding?

16. Are there any new areas where government agencies can apply for grants to develop and support their GIS?

17. How is GIS improving business processes?

18. How will GIS professionals lead the GeoWeb revolution?

ArcGIS

1. What are the major themes for ArcGIS 9.4?

2. When will ArcGIS 9.4 be released?

3. What new functionality in ArcGIS 9.4 supports the work of scientists?

4. What improvements can we expect with respect to 3D?

5. What is the story behind Microsoft Bing Maps and Google Maps/Earth integration with ArcGIS technology?

6. What are layer packages? How can I share them?

8. What is ESRI doing to support the use of AutoCAD with ArcGIS?

9. What are the planned improvements for geoprocessing?

10. What is ESRI doing to better support time in ArcGIS?

11. How important do you feel metadata and metadata standards are going forward?

12. What is ESRI doing about metadata in its core products?

13. How do you plan to integrate search with ArcGIS?

14. What are you doing to help users make better maps using ArcGIS?

15. Does ESRI support KML?

16. When will the speed of drawing my data draped on a 3D surface improve?

17. What is your strategy with respect to 3D virtual city databases?

18. When will ESRI provide better multi language support for ArcGIS?

19. When will ESRI’s 3D visualization catch up with Google Earth?

20. Does ESRI support a home licensing program for ArcGIS software?

21. What are some of the key characteristics of the ArcGIS 9.3.1 release?

22. Should I migrate to ArcGIS 9.3.1?

23. Will there be any service packs for ArcGIS 9.3.1?

24. Is there a Resource Center for Enterprise GIS?

ArcGIS Desktop

1. What improvements are planned for the ArcMap user interface in ArcGIS 9.4?

2. How will ArcCatalog be improved in the future?

3. What is template-based editing? How will it be useful?

4. Does ESRI plan to simplify the desktop user experience?

5. When will the metadata editor in ArcCatalog be improved?

6. How does ArcGIS Desktop support Web GIS?

7. Does ESRI plan to support 3D data capture? What about photogrammetry?

8. How can I automate my map production workflows?

9. What are you doing with graphing capabilities in ArcGIS?

10. Do I still need to use ArcInfo Workstation to do my analysis and map production?

11. Will ESRI support check out licensing of ArcGIS Desktop?

ArcGIS Extensions

1. What is coming in ArcGIS 3D Analyst at 9.4?

2. What improvements are coming in ArcGIS Spatial Analyst at 9.4?

3. What is coming in ArcGIS Geostatistical Analyst at 9.4?

4. How will you improve ArcGIS Network Analyst?

5. What improvements will be made in ArcGIS Schematics?

6. What functionality does the ArcGIS Data Interoperability extension provide?

8. What are some solutions for high-end image analysis on the desktop?

9. Will there be technical workshops that focus on ArcGIS extensions at the User Conference?

ArcGIS Server

1. What new developments are planned for ArcGIS Server 9.4?

2. How are ESRI users deploying ArcGIS Server?

3. I am an ArcIMS user. How can I migrate easily to ArcGIS Server?

4. Has ESRI changed its licensing policy for ArcGIS Server deployments?

5. When will ESRI support server editing?

6. Are data appliances a way of the future? What is ESRI providing?

7. Will ArcGIS Server support cloud hosting?

8. Will template-based editing be available on the Web?

ArcGIS Explorer

1. What is the role of ArcGIS Explorer in ArcGIS?

2. How will ArcGIS Explorer improve?

3. What are the new features of the next ArcGIS Explorer release?

4. What is the significance of layer packages and layer files in ArcGIS Explorer?

5. Can my services and layer packages be viewed in ArcGIS Explorer in 2D as well as 3D?

ArcGIS Online

1. Can I serve the ArcGIS Online maps and tasks on my own server?

2. What is the ArcGIS Online sharing capability? When will it be available?

3. Can you explain your vision for the ArcGIS Online Map services?

4. What are ArcGIS Online basemaps and how do you expect users to apply them?

5. How did ESRI develop the ArcGIS Online basemaps?

6. What is the price of ArcGIS Online map services?

Geodatabase

1. Will you support the integration of building information models (BIMs) in ArcGIS?

2. I am interested in data storage formats. What format should I use when?

3. When will you open access to the file geodatabase (without using ESRI software)?

4. When will ESRI support direct access to the spatial types within relational databases (i.e. SQL 2008, Oracle Spatial, etc) that are not geodatabases (i.e. does not utilize ArcSDE technology)?

Quality

1. What is ESRI doing to improve software quality and stability?

2. Why does ESRI release service packs?

3. How does ESRI solicit feedback from the user community regarding improvements to software development?

4. What is ESRI doing to improve the stability and functionality of its software products?

Platforms

1. Will ESRI continue to support the Solaris platform?

2. How can I effectively utilize ESRI software in virtual environments?

3. What is ESRI’s direction with 64-bit computing environments?

4. Will ESRI software support Microsoft Windows 7?

5. Does ESRI have plans to support native Mac OS?

6. Can you describe how ESRI products can be deployed in virtualized environments such as Citrix?

7. Does ESRI intend to expand support for Linux OS to include desktop products?

8. Will you support ArcView 3.x on Microsoft Windows Vista?

9. Does ArcGIS support multi-core processors?

Mobile GIS

1. What are the trends in the deployment of mobile GIS? What are ESRI’s solutions?

2. Why is ArcPad no longer supporting Windows CE .NET devices?

3. Will ESRI support the iPhone?

4. Will ESRI support BlackBerry?

5. What is ESRI doing in the location-based services marketplace? Do you see your technology as having a strong competitive edge here?

Web GIS

1. What are some of the Web mapping success stories?

2. Which ESRI products should I use to support my Web development environment?

3. What is your solution for high performance Web mapping?

4. What is the definition of the Web 2.0 platform and why does it matter?

5. What is ESRI’s Web 2.0 strategy?

6. How has ESRI improved its Web mapping?

7. What is the future of ArcIMS?

8. How is Web mapping changing? Are there common patterns?

9. How will template editing support Web 2.0?

10. When will ESRI support full Web editing of the geodatabase?

Imagery

1. What is ESRI’s plan for imagery in ArcGIS?

2. Does ESRI plan to add more capability to support image data visualization and analysis?

3. What is ESRI doing to better integrate remote sensing and GIS?

4. Is ESRI doing anything in the land cover change analysis area?

5. What are the image related capabilities of ArcGIS Server?

6. What are the options for capturing photogrammetric data in ArcGIS?

7. Will ESRI be implementing a lidar processing system?

Developers

1. How does ESRI support developers?

2. What is ESRI’s strategy with respect to rich Internet application (RIA) clients (i.e, JavaScript, Flex, Silverlight, etc.)?

3. How can I get access to the ArcGIS Web APIs? Are there fees associated with their use?

4. Will ESRI’s Flex API work with Bing Maps for Enterprise (formerly Microsoft Virtual Earth)?

5. Will VB6/VBA be supported in the future?

6. When will the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/WPF be released?

7. What is ESRI recommending for scripting with ArcGIS?

8. How can we use ColdFusion with ArcGIS?

9. How is ESRI improving the scripting experience?

Solution Products

1. What are ESRI’s solution software products?

2. Are there any new updates in your business analysis products?

3. What is ESRI’s solution for users who want to do asset management?

4. What is ArcLogistics Navigator?

5. What is JTX and how can I use it in my organization?

6. Is ESRI doing anything to support situational awareness?

Data

1. What data products do you provide?

2. How is ESRI working with DeLorme?

Standards & Interoperability

1. What is ESRI's interoperability strategy and how is it showing up in ArcGIS?

2. What is the current level of support for OGC and ISO TC211 standards?

Support

1. Does ESRI provide access to customer records about my organization?

2. How can I use the Web to improve my customer support?

3. How can I learn more about ESRI Support Services?

4. What did ESRI Support Services do to prepare for the ArcGIS 9.3.1 release, and how will they prepare for ArcGIS 9.4?

5. What kinds of community interaction tools and resources does ESRI support?

6. What are the key changes that are happening in technical support?

Training and Education

1. How will ESRI support professional standing through certification?

2. I prefer instructor-led training but am not able to travel. What are my options?

3. My company’s training budget has been reduced drastically for the remainder of the year. How can we get the most training value for our GIS staff?

4. I am new to GIS and need guidance on which training to take. How can I determine which training is right for me?

5. If I complete a learning pathway, will I be certified?

6. Can a dedicated education Web portal be created?

7. Educators these days need to do more with less. What are you doing to support education?

8. Can you explain your involvement in K-12 GIS education?

ESRI

1. What is the status of ESRI as an organization?

2. Can you review ESRI's main business focus?

3. Is ESRI moving into any new business lines?

4. What have been some of the recent and ongoing challenges for ESRI and how are you managing them?

5. Can you share ESRI's critical success factors?

6. What were the results of the question regarding ESRI’s relationships with other technology vendors?

7. What is ESRI doing to support its users in tight budget times?

8. What is ESRI’s history? Where are ESRI and GIS headed in the future?

9. Are there any special projects you are collaborating on with Microsoft?

10. What were ESRI’s main software development activities in the past year?

11. What is ESRI doing in social media?

12. How can ESRI support collaboration among its user communities?

13. How is ESRI supporting conservation and green development?

14. Is the ELA program successful?

15. How will ESRI support professional standing through certification?

16. Does ESRI consider Google and Microsoft to be competitors?

17. What is ESRI’s position on open source?

18. Does ESRI make use of open source software?

User Conference

1. What is ESRI doing to be green at the User Conference?

2. Can I get the User Conference agenda prior to the conference?

3. Where can I get the latest information about the UC?

4. I am trying to connect with other people who are attending the UC. How can I find other attendees with similar interests to mine?

5. What is the wireless accessibility of the San Diego Convention Center?

6. How does ESRI use the User Conference survey?

7. How can I access the papers and technical workshops presented at UC?

8. What are some of the special exhibits at this year’s conference?

9. Are there any parts of this year’s user conference that focus on GIS and climate change?