Launch a location platform that takes off

As we begin a new year, are you thinking of how to communicate the benefits of using location information to get GIS to really take off in your organisation? Have you got your ArcGIS Organisational account ready to go? If so, a series of new publications are now available to help you get the most from your ArcGIS platform.

The Launch Guide shows you how to prepare for and begin using location information. It provides the steps to help launch a location platform for your organisation and a strategy for successfully adopting location technology within your organisation. It contains:

Esri’s Gert van Maren showed us at Ozri how CityEngine is bringing easy 3D content creation to ArcGIS 10.2. The 3D GIS benefits will clearly improve our understanding of environmental analysis and make it easier to communicate and solve 3D problems, seeing as our world is 3D! We can use ArcGIS for:

• Multiscale 3D models from global to building interior perspectives;
• 3D Geodesign;
• ArcGIS for 3D Cities;
• Native LiDAR support;
• Surface modelling;
• 3D analysis;
• Integrated 3D; and,
• Sharing 3D Scenes.

Directions 2013 – Coming of age in our profession

At Brisbane Directions 2013, 260 GIS professionals attended a celebration where GIS came of age. It was a chance to network and celebrate how GIS knowledge holders are being increasingly valued for helping organisations and industries discover business advantages through the use of GIS.

Geography as a Platform

Directions 2013 gave us the opportunity to see the power and customisation of platforms such as ArcGIS Online, Esri Maps for Office and Dekho. These tools allow every user, especially non-GIS professionals, a streamlined front-of-house experience enhancing their current information analysis and data sharing capabilities, anytime, anywhere.

From a hole in the Ozone Layer to a career in GIS

Image source: nasa

Do you remember the ‘hole’ in the ozone layer? Basically, after finding out CFCs were bad we made the change to non-aerosol.  It was a defining moment in my early school days. At the time, I thought the world was doomed.  Then I won the Premier’s Science Award for my year 6 science project – an educational board game about the ozone layer. Coincidently, the game featured points on an image of the globe with associated attributes (trivia) that facilitated a path to save the earth. The message was clear: collect and share information and you will save the Earth!