ArcGIS Online: Enabling Technology for USAA

Editor's Notes

• #2: Welcome to the 2013 Geodesign Summit. My name is Bern Szukalski, andit’s my privilege to be able to briefly introduce ArcGIS and a someinteresting ArcGIS capabilities that have direct impact on your work as geodesigners, leveraging geospatial capabilities.
• #3: I believe that GIS, and therefore geodesign, is at a milestone – we have new data and tools that are readily accessible that will allow us to transform our work – geospatially.What do we need for effective geodesign? We need authoritative data, whether highly localized or regional in nature.We need tools to integrate data from many sources, and bring it together in meaningful ways.We need analytic tools that can help us glean every drop of valuable information that we can from these sources.And we need ways to enable collaboration, broader access to our work, and public engagement.All of these together can help us arrive at our intended goal – the very best solution, not just from a design perspective but from a holistic approach, and perhaps most importantly, solution that is both achievable and sustainable.
• #4: Recently someone told me a story about an executive – a decision maker – they had talked to. They were involved in far-reaching planning decisions, with long-term implications. When asked about whether those decisions would achieve success, or would achieve the intended goals, the person responded – well, we think so.Geography is a science and unifying concept that integrates many forms of disparate data to create an understanding of our world.While uncertainty is sometimes inevitable, what we want to do is gain geographic understanding. It’s what we, as GIS users, believe in and strive for. We want to turn “I think” into “I know” or “I understand.”
• #5: And that’s what ArcGIS is really about. It’s a platform that enables us to gain geographic understanding. Years ago when I first entered the doors of ESRI, one could clearly describe ArcGIS as software that was installed on a computer – a very large minicomputer at the time. But ArcGIS has evolved well beyond that. It’s not a single piece of software – rather it’s a combination of many different kinds of applications intended for many kinds of users – for individuals collecting data in the field, for developers building apps for public consumption, for organizations of all kinds, and for governments.This platform supports a wide variety of uses in many different ways – via the cloud, on desktops, through servers, and on mobile devices.All of these components work together to provide a broad and deep platform for gaining geographic understanding, and sharing it with others. It’s a complete ecosystem that we can leverage for our geodesign work.
• #6: And that’s what ArcGIS is really about. It’s a platform that enables us to gain geographic understanding. Years ago when I first entered the doors of ESRI, one could clearly describe ArcGIS as software that was installed on a computer – a very large minicomputer at the time. But ArcGIS has evolved well beyond that. It’s not a single piece of software – rather it’s a combination of many different kinds of applications intended for many kinds of users – for individuals collecting data in the field, for developers building apps for public consumption, for organizations of all kinds, and for governments.This platform supports a wide variety of uses in many different ways – via the cloud, on desktops, through servers, and on mobile devices.All of these components work together to provide a broad and deep platform for gaining geographic understanding, and sharing it with others. It’s a complete ecosystem that we can leverage for our geodesign work.
• #7: ArcGIS Online is probably the biggest thing to happen to the ArcGIS platform in recent years. And it’s still evolving rapidly. ArcGIS Online has evolved from a simple framework for sharing data, to a deeply integrated and integral cloud component of ArcGIS.It leverages the cloud – hosted services, online storage, dynamic web maps, and more – to provide a new pattern for implementing GIS. But while new in many ways, it’s also an integration of traditional patterns – desktops, servers, and enterprises coupled with new cloud-based capabilities.It has unlocked geographic knowledge and capabilities for many of our users, and transformed the way they work and collaborate, and make their information more available. And it’s also enabled others, outside the GIS hallways in organizations, to participate.
• #8: ArcGIS Online offers essential capabilities that complement and extend GIS professional desktops and servers, and can also offer alternatives in many cases to these existing workflows. These capabilities include ways to store and manage an organizations content, viewers for authoring and publishing maps and apps, and new tools that enable self-service mapping and collaboration.
• #9: A web map, in the context of ArcGIS, is more than just a map in browser. To the Esri development teams they’re a specification that ensures they can be used in many different applications, across many different platforms, and on many different devices.To us, they are important building blocks that we can use to capture our knowledge, configure how it is experienced, and deliver informationin ways that make sense to our audience.
• #10: ArcGIS Online also includes Esri Maps for Office – a way to extend GIS and mapping capabilities to many other kinds of users – it lets us put mapping into everyone’s office. So for users that are more familiar with spreadsheets than they are maps, it lets them become part of the ecosystem, and both leverage from, and contribute to, our geographic understanding.
• #11: Community Analyst has a very powerful collection of capabilities that enable anyone access to needed data, ways to visualize that data, and ways to generate reports based on many layers of geographic information, and many types of geographies. While Community Analyst is about the “people” information, Community Analyst uses that same framework to offer similar capabilities that support planning and conservation at regional and national scales. Extending ArcGIS Online with data useful for biogeographic analysis, natural resource management, landuse planning, and other applications.
• #12: What is geoenrichment? Now that’s a good question. It’s a rather large word which means something quite simple and powerful – enriching our applications with geographic information, and allowing us to gain information and insights about people and places. These are offered as ArcGIS Online services that can be brought into the context of applications that support specific workflows, including geodesign.
• #13: ArcGIS Online demonstration.
• #14: Community Analyst demonstrationLandscape Analyst demonstration
• #15: Geoenrichment demonstration.
• #16: Blah, blah, blah, blah-d-blah.