When I worked at Esri, I'd print out the Esri UC Q&A and read it on the plane to California for the event. When I joined Directions Magazine, we'd do a podcast highlighting what we found interesting in the Q & A before the conference (2013 edition). Now that I'm on my own, I'm gathering what I found interesting in this blog post.
This year's document is a 169 page PDF and a webpage.
Required Reading
The ArcGIS Book: 10 Big Ideas About Applying Geography to Your WorldActually, the interactive website is
This book is an interactive website that will be available soon (expected by July 15, 2015). Today, you can download The ArcGIS Book as an interactive PDF (70 MB).
I had a look at the PDF (156 pages, almost as long as the Q&A!) which includes links to videos (Jack Dangermond, Jim Herries, and Allen Carroll make appearances), Learn ArcGIS lessons and in the later chapters projects with ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro.
It's interesting to me that the book is hosted on the Learn.ArcGIS.com website and I'm guessing was produced by that team. I wrote about Learn ArcGIS last year; it rolled out at last year's User Conference.
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| Familiar graphics populate The ArcGIS Book. |
There's also a document (from May) for championing GIS within an organization: Launching Your Location Platform: The Esri Guide.
The Q&A document also points readers/users to use the "new" social platform, GeoNet, which was launched at last year's Esri UC.
If you have additional questions, I encourage you to join our new community, GeoNet, where you can share, chat, and collaborate on all things “geo” with other geospatial enthusiasts around the world.That made me smile since I read it just after seeing an Esri staffer retweet a user's tweet about using ArcGIS on a Mac rather than pointing her to GeoNet.
MOOCs
I cover Esri's and other organization's GIS-related MOOCs closely. I noted hearing about a third Esri MOOC tentatively titled ""Building Geoenabled Apps" expected this fall. It seems things have changed.
Two things pop out of that paragraph for me. The first is that the new course is aimed at "young professionals." I wonder why Esri is positioning the offering that way. The second is that MOOCs seems to place the MOOCs in special place between the education team and the training team.Now we’re developing a third MOOC that’s tentatively titled “Geoenabling Civic Apps.” The core audience we have in mind are young professionals who want to build innovative apps that realize the value of open civic data, make their communities smarter, and create opportunities for economic development. We hope to debut this MOOC early next year. In 2016 we’ll offer our three MOOCs two times each, so there will be an Esri MOOC running nearly year round. Our MOOCs program complements the many online and on-site learning opportunities provided by Esri Training.
ArcGIS Pro
Esri is working hard to distinguish ArcGIS Pro from ArcMap. Here are three different questions that address the topic.
Esri is announcing a new field worker solution.
What is Workforce for ArcGIS?
Workforce for ArcGIS transforms your mobile operations from the ground up. Using Workforce for ArcGIS, mobile workers will be safer, more productive, and better connected than ever before.
It will be introduced at the plenary; beta is exptected at the end of the year.
Esri Labs is Busy
Esri Labs apps are developed by Esri employees and are inspired by our direct interactions with ArcGIS users. Esri Labs apps are free to use and often awesome, but are not official Esri products, so they are not holistically tested, documented, or supported by Esri technical support.