news

Fingal County Council use ESRI in their Draft Development Plan Council Meetings

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:22:33 GMT

Fingal County Council are using ArcGIS Explorer in their Draft Development Plan Council meetings.This forum provides Councillors and Management with the opportunity to review all of the proposed amendments to these plans, which have previously been submitted using the on-line submissions tool (also developed by ESRI Ireland).

Fingal County Councils history of using GIS for the Development Plan process started in 1996. This project completely migrated from paper to GIS, the production of the 1999 Development Plan maps. This was further enhanced for the 2005 Development Plan, in partnership with ESRI Ireland, with the implementation of ArcSDE, multi-user editing, topology and domains resulting in further efficiencies.

The 2005 Development Plan process also saw the first use of GIS live at Council meetings to assist Councillors in deliberating on the Development Plan. Fingal have now progressed by implementing ArcGIS Explorer as a viewer for Council meetings. ArcGIS Explorer has provided a user friendly tool which allows a large volume of data to be easily viewed and interrogated at the click of a mouse.

Visitors are able to access these webcasts of Fingals live council meetings, view archived council meetings from the last few months, view or complete any surveys or polls and access any documents or presentations associated to the webcasts.

Fingal Council's Webcast Microsite

Live Council Meetings -How ArcGIS Explorer is being used

Check out the latest in the ESRI Podcast Speaker Series

admin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:56:51 GMT

Simon Thompson, ESRI's Commercial Business Manager, discusses how GIS gives retailers of any size a more comprehensive understanding of their business and customers.

Click here to listen to podcast.

Simon also explains how financial institutions can use GIS to better serve their customers by providing products and services targeted to their needs. Listen to Simon's podcast here.

ESRI President, Jack Dangermond Introduces MapIt.

admin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:03:29 GMT

MapIt is a new mapping product for business intelligence - comprised of software and online services that enables you to create simple maps from your enterprise data. MapIt software transforms your data into meaningful information displayed on maps while providing access to a wealth of online data, basemaps, and task services from ESRI and Bing Maps. MapIt is built on the Microsoft platform, enabling organisations to leverage their developers' skills and IT infrastructure using Silverlight, WPF, SharePoint, SQL Server 2008 and Excel.

Watch Jack talk about the possibilities with MapIt along, hear about the new functionality and why developers love it!

RTE's Six One News Feature - Education & ESRI Ireland

admin — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:22:10 GMT

Find out how the Department of Education & Science are working with ESRI Ireland to plan for future School Accommodation - by RTE Education Correspondent Emma O'Kelly. Click here to view.

Donegal County Council Choose ESRI Ireland to further GIS Strategy

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:27:14 GMT

Over the last number of years Donegal County Council has endeavoured to bring services closer to local communities with the opening of Public Service Centres in Dungloe, Donegal Town, Carndonagh, Letterkenny and Milford. Most Council services are now provided through each of these Centres representing a significant improvement in quality and convenience for customers. Nowadays citizens want to be able to access information in a quick, easy and flexible way. Many of the operational activities of Local Authorities are inherently spatial - services are delivered “somewhere” and the location element is now seen as critical to the efficient delivery of service.

In line is the recent announcement by the Council to work with ESRI Ireland in order to drive forward with their GIS Strategy. Together Donegal & ESRI Ireland will collaborate to re-develop their web presence taking advantage of the newer Web2.0 style technologies now available. This will help promote greater interaction with the public and improvement of its business processes.

The Council needed a modern flexible web mapping architecture that can do this efficiently – In the future, interactive maps will be a fundamental aspect of Donegal County Council’s external web presence whereby members of the public can easily access and digest large amounts of information presented to them in an intuitive manner.

Donegal County Council intend to make extensive use of GIS within their “back office” functions - Large amounts of spatial information is being collected and maintained to share internally across the Intranet and with the public, via Internet based systems.

ArcGIS Online Maps Now in Google Maps/Bing Maps Tiling Scheme

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:24:49 GMT

In response to requests from many users, ArcGIS Online map services have been migrated to the Google Maps/Bing Maps tiling scheme in Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere. This enables Web developers to more easily combine ArcGIS Online map services with other popular Web map services including those from Bing Maps, Google Maps, and other providers using the same Web map tiling scheme.

The existing services in the ArcGIS Online tiling scheme will remain available for at least the next six months and, depending on demand, may remain available longer. Although the services will remain available, the content will no longer be updated.

For more details, see Migrating map tiling schemes in the ArcGIS Online Help

Take Part in ESRI's Mashup Challenge 2010

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:07:26 GMT

Anyone can use geographic information systems (GIS) to create maps and use them to make better decisions. Explore how you can make interactive maps and share them with others:

Visit the ESRI Mapping for Everyone site to take part in the ESRI Mashup Challenge 2010
Create an innovative mashup using ArcGIS Online and Web Mapping APIs for the chance to win one of four cash prizes. Awards will be based on originality, creativity, and analytic process.
Deadline to submit your mashup is 5th March 2010

Join the GI Discussion at ESRI's Spatial Roundtable

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:09:31 GMT

Spatial Roundtable is a new blog sponsored by ESRI where GIS industry thought leaders share their points of view about concerns, trends, challenges, and technologies.

Participants in the online Spatial Roundtable discussions include the main contributor who initiates the discussion and invited topic-expert guests. Site visitors may also add comments. Topics remain open for discussion for 6 weeks. Archived topics are accessible for 24 months.

New Look for a New Year - ESRI Ireland Web Site

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:01:04 GMT

We’d like to introduce ESRI Ireland’s new updated, upgraded and revamped website! We hope our site’s new design allows customers to access information that is most relevant to their needs, quickly and easily. Much of the content has been simplified to make it more user-friendly for both first time visitors and regular visitors.

Maps feature more prominently in our Maps On-Line section, highlighting how organisations are using GI in their decision making processes, through both static and interactive mapping. There are now more ways for you to interact with ESRI Ireland through our social networking links (Twitter, Facebook, Blog and Linked In). Our “How Can We Help You" service is another new feature we have added enabling us to communicate better with you to provide a better service than ever before.

Why not check it out for yourself by visiting www.esri-ireland.ie We’d be delighted to get your feedback: marketing@esri-ireland.ie

Jack Dangermond Announces Major Release ArcGIS 10

Joanne McLaughlin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:19:42 GMT

Jack Dangermond recently announced Major Release ArcGIS 10 - The ArcGIS 9.4 release was renamed ArcGIS 10 in January. Listen to ESRI President Jack Dangermond explain why in a podcast [MP3].

ArcGIS 10 is a major release of all aspects of ArcGIS and is designed to help you perform your GIS work faster. You can read a full range of the highlights expected in this release by visiting: ArcGIS 10 What's Coming

Watch John Calkins from ESRI Inc discuss how ArcGIS Desktop 10 innovations simplify and streamline workflows.

ESRI Ireland Officially Launches NImapWeb 2.0 into Northern Ireland

admin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:46:00 GMT

ESRI Ireland launched the newly upgraded NImapWeb 2.0 web site and map viewer today via a Live Webinar on 22nd September 2009. There have been significant enhancements to NImapWeb, a free-to-use mapping interface for Northern Ireland. This online service further improves accessibility to mapping and GIS capabilities for organisations that participate in the Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement (NIMA). Read More.

There have been significant enhancements to NImapWeb, a free-to-use mapping interface for Northern Ireland. This online service further improves accessibility to mapping and GIS capabilities for organisations that participate in the Northern Ireland Mapping Agreement (NIMA). Presented by John Hewitt Regional Manager, Northern Ireland and Eamonn Doyle, CTO ESRI Ireland, the webinar attracted registrations from Government Departments, Councils and educational institutions who are signatories to NIMA. The Webinar included a live demonstration highlighting the new user interface, a new continuous pan and zoom capability; a number of alternative renditions of BasemapNI; new, clearer cartography in full colour; the ability to include thematic content; dockable windows; additional content, spatial bookmarks, along with some thoughts and ideas around the future direction of NImapWeb 2.0. In addition, the re-engineered the NImapWeb 2.0 application utilises the very latest in Cloud Computing from Amazon thus introducing a whole new level of availability and performance to the application. If your organisation is signed up to the NIMA agreement, you are free to visit the site at www.nimap.net

If you were unable to attend the webinar, you can download the recorded webinar by clicking the following link:

Download recorded webinar

Lisburn City Councils Bring Services Closer to their Citizens

admin — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 09:50:00 GMT

Lisburn City Council Officially Launched their LocalView Service to citizens - "Where in Lisburn" on August 28th 2009. This provides Lisburn residents with an on-line one-stop shop for many of the services across the city. The "Where in Lisburn" facility can be found on the Lisburn City Council website www.lisburncity.co.uk and helps users to familiarise themselves with the area surrounding their main location. A variety of information is available, from local elected members to the nearest amenities. The pilot scheme in association with NILGA (Northern Ireland Local Government Agency) and ESRI Ireland will also allow users to find out more about many facilities within a 15-mile (25km) radius. Speaking at the launch, Councillor Paul Givan, Chairman of the Council’s Corporate Services Committee said: "If you`ve ever needed to pinpoint on a map, the location of a particular street or property in Lisburn, find the location of your nearest restaurant, your closest Doctors’ Surgery, School, Recycling Centre or even Library opening times, then ‘Where in Lisburn’ can help."Councillor Paul Givan also stated: "The pilot site`s launch this week marks an important step for the Council in the provision of 24/7 public access to interactive local text and map-based information of the local area over the Internet."

LocalView is a solution that has been specifically designed to bring the power of geographic information to the front line of your Council. It is used to deliver a variety of location based services and improve accessibility of information to citizens online. This is helping Councils in Northern Ireland to meet a growing demand for "spatially aware" online services and enables users to find services & information about a particular address location, access services & information in their local area, report a fault or complaint to the governing authority and locate services and information on a map of their local area.

There are currently 5 Local Councils in Northern Ireland participating in LocalView Northern Ireland which include Lisburn, Omagh District Council, Newry & Mourne District Council, Derry City Council, and North Down Borough Council. As a citizen within these 5 Local Council areas LocalViewNI facilitates access to local services in your area. If your Council is not represented amongst these participating councils we suggest that you contact your Local Council and ask them to contact us for details on how to become part of this innovative citizen services portal. For more information contact our Regional Manager Northern Ireland - John Hewitt on jhewitt@esri-ireland.ie Tel: +44 (0)7810 897 567 or visit: www.localviewni.com

ESRI Releases Web Mapping APIs at No Cost

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:53:00 GMT

Redlands, California—July 28, 2009—ESRI announces that its popular Web mapping APIs are available at no cost to users who are building applications for use in internal and noncommercial environments. ArcGIS Web mapping APIs have always been free for licensed ArcGIS Server users. Now government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and educational institutions can take full advantage of fast, high-quality mapping applications built on top of ArcGIS Server without additional costs or licensing. Private businesses can also deploy these API-based applications internally for free.

"Delivering rich Internet applications using Silverlight, Flex, and Java Script is a new and exciting trend for Web application developers, and the demand for these types of applications is growing at a phenomenal rate," states Jack Dangermond, president of ESRI. "Making these tools widely available means that as GIS professionals across the globe continue to author geographic knowledge, application developers will use these APIs to easily access this information."

ArcGIS Web mapping APIs are part of ESRI`s Web infrastructure. Developers will have access to ArcGIS Online map services for imagery, street maps, and topographic maps, as well as services for routing, geocoding, demographic analysis, and more. Organizations can spatially enable their da tabases easily without the need for maintaining an expensive infrastructure.

For example, a city government might deploy two different types of applications: an internal-facing ex ecutive dashboard that allows officials and managers to track capital improvement spending and an external-facing application for citizens to contribute their concerns and suggestions regarding those improvements. Both applications could be deployed at no cost.

"I see the geospatially enabled Web—the GeoWeb—as driving change that is beneficial for both users and creators of geospatial information," says Dangermond. "This means that we`ll see a whole new creative group of people take these APIs and create new, interesting approaches to mapping. A powerful new generation of Web maps will proliferate and become commonplace to Web users."

ArcGIS Web mapping APIs include the ArcGIS API for Flex, the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and the ArcGIS API for Java Script. To access downloads and get more information about ArcGIS Web mapping APIs, visit www.esri.com/apis.

ArcGIS Explorer - A Big Step Forward and a New Generation of GeoBrowser Tools

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:51:00 GMT

ArcGIS Explorer is a free, downloadable GIS viewer that gives you an easy way to explore, visualise, and share GIS information. ArcGIS Explorer adds value to any GIS because it helps you deliver your authoritative data to a broad audience.

With ArcGIS Explorer, you can

Access ready-to-use ArcGIS Online basemaps and layers.
Fuse your local da ta with map services to create custom maps.
Add photos, reports, videos, and other information to your maps.
Perform spatial analysis (e.g., visibility, modeling, proximity search).

You can check out all of the benefits that ArcGIS Explorer has to offer by viewing this video link from the ESRI User Conference in San Diego in July 2009.

http://www.esri.com/events/uc/images/plenary/6arcgis-explorer.html

ArcGIS 9.3.1 Unlocks the potential of your GIS

admin — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:54:00 GMT

ArcGIS 9.3.1, which has already begun shipping, helps you create and share modern Web maps that are relevant to your entire organisation. This release of ESRI`s integrated collection of geographic information system (GIS) software products focuses on improving the performance of dynamic map publishing and increasing the visibility of geographic information.

High-Performance Dynamic Map Publishing

ArcGIS 9.3.1 includes an optimised map service that allows you to produce high-performance dynamic maps. The improved map quality in these services includes sharper edges to features, clearer labels, and better color transparency. ArcGIS Desktop users can fine-tune their maps for faster performance using the new Map Service Publishing toolbar. The toolbar allows maps to be analysed and makes recommendations for fine-tuning. The results can be previewed, and estimated draw times are provided. Maps can now be published directly from the ArcGIS Desktop ArcMap application to ArcGIS Server. Optimised map services also improve map caching performance, as faster rendering speeds reduce the time it takes to create map caches for basemaps. Map quality is noticeably improved, and storage is more efficient. These new map services outperform equivalent ArcIMS services and provide significantly better-looking maps, benefiting those who use dynamic Web mapping or combine dynamic and cached maps on the Web.

Better Sharing of Geographic Information

ArcGIS now includes functionality to allow users to easily share and search for geographic content, such as maps, da ta, layers, and services. ArcGIS Online includes a new application in which users can create an account and, through a keyword search, find content; preview it; and, with a simple click, add it to ArcMap or ArcGIS Explorer. To facilitate the sharing of layers in ArcGIS, users can create layer packages that encapsulate ArcMap cartography and da ta, including a thumbnail, the extent, and spatial reference, in an easy-to-share package. Layer packages can be shared via ArcGIS Online as files, attached to e-mails, or included on DVDs. Joining the ArcGIS Online user community is easy and free to all ArcGIS users.

Seamless Integration with Microsoft Virtual Earth

ArcGIS Desktop users are now able to directly connect to Microsoft Virtual Earth services and quickly start their GIS projects with ready-to-use content at no additional charge. Virtual Earth services, which include imagery, streets, and hybrid imagery with street labeling, appear as just another da ta layer in GIS. Virtual Earth imagery and street maps provide excellent background maps on which users can overlay their operational da ta. Also, ArcGIS Explorer users and ArcGIS Server developers who are using Microsoft Silverlight, Flex, java script, Java, or .NET now have simple access to the same high-quality Microsoft Virtual Earth basemap da ta.

ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight

ArcGIS Server now supports Microsoft`s Silverlight Web development platform for building fast, highly interactive Web applications. The new ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight allows developers to use any .NET Framework-supported language to add GIS capabilities and consume services from ArcGIS Server and Microsoft Virtual Earth in a Silverlight application. The API takes full advantage of the mapping, geocoding geometry, image, and geoprocessing capabilities of ArcGIS Server. End users can display their da ta in an interactive map, search for and display GIS da ta features and attributes, locate addresses, identify features, access raster imagery, and perform complex spatial analysis by simply clicking a button or feature on the map.

Easy to Install

ArcGIS 9.3 users are able to easily upgrade to ArcGIS 9.3.1 without having to uninstall ArcGIS 9.3. In addition, ArcGIS 9.3.1 is completely compatible with ArcGIS 9.3, so users will be able to easily work in mixed environments within the same organisation.

Changes to ArcGIS Server Licensing Provide More Flexibility

With the release of ArcGIS Server 9.3.1, some licensing changes have been made to allow users more flexibility in their ArcGIS Server deployments. The editing feature of ArcGIS Server is now available for ArcGIS Server Standard users (previously, editing was only available with ArcGIS Server Advanced). In addition, ArcGIS Server 9.3.1 Advanced includes the Spatial, 3D, Network, and Geostatistical extensions for no additional fee. Finally, to give users more flexibility in their configuration of ArcGIS Server, the Web Application Development Framework (ADF), Web Service Handlers, and Server object Manager can be deployed on multiple machines without paying an additional deployment license fee.

Resources to Help You Get Started

New sample viewers and templates are available on the ESRI Resource Centres Web site at resources.esri.com to help users get their applications up and running more quickly. To learn more about ArcGIS 9.3.1, visit www.esri.com/whatsnew.