WOW Technologies and down-right cool stuff on the floor at the 2008 ESRI UC

[ Quite an extensive blog posting on a number of the vendors and their displays at ESRI UC 2009. Be sure to go look at the posting as there are numerous photos and even videos to view along with all the descriptions. From GIS User.com ]

Written by Glenn Letham

Tuesday, 26 August 2008
On the floor at the ESRI user conference. It’s always a flurry of activity and it’s always one of my favorite things to do at the UC… browse the exhibition hall floor and see all the great new apps and gadgets, while getting the low-down straight from the ESRI partners and solution providers. Read on for details of just a few of the great things we found on the floor at the 2008 International ESRI User Conference.

The gang from Avenza had announced some new features planned for the next release of MAPublisher so I had to stop by and see for myself. Turns out the news was big… very big for MAPublisher users and pretty much anyone that’s interested in creating high-quality cartographic output and then export the output to the web via intelligent, data-rich Flash SWF files. The MAPublisher 8.0 export to Flash capabilities will enable users to export complete Adobe illustrator map documents to Flash without any additional coding or software needed… NICE! The app also enables embedding of attributes, creation of rollover effects and pop-ups, embed images, weblinks, and other custom information. Look for MAPublisher 8 in the not too distant fall season. Oh,and to give you an idea what you can accomplish with MAPublisher… Avenza customer National Geographic used the application to produce it’s award winning Atlas of China (http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/product/202/2981/114.html)  – see www.avenza.com

One thing I always do at most shows is to stop and watch a large-format plotter grind away and check out the output… after all, I used to babysit a plotter for hours on end when I was in College so I find it amazing to watch how the technology progresses (I’m sure nobody misses the old pen plotters!)  I wrote a month ago about Oce and their sweet new ColorWave 600 plotter and incredible new inkless technology, well, unfortunately Oce didn’t have a unit with them (that’s how much in demand they are, even they can’t get one) but no worries, the team was touting the popular TCS300 and TCS500 plotters – these are true CAD/GIS plotting workhorses, fast, efficient, and produce amazing output. The company was even passing out $1500 discount vouchers – you can get one by visiting www.esri.com/oceoffers and be sure to tell em Glenn sent you ;0) If you happen to be from a shop that does relatively large volumes of output (say 10,000 square ft+ per month then you might want to check into the ColorWave 600, an affordable solution ($2500 mo. Lease option) that can handle 6 rolls of media, keep cranking for days solid, and generate high-quality, high-res output in a “green” environment (see article) - see also www.oce.com

I bumped into a colleague form New Jersey on the floor and he shared details of the NSDmaps data product with me. Developed by datamapi, the data provides the latest housing developments and n ew construction along with a number of attributes including: builder info, year of development, home age, numbers, development address, and more. These data are provided as SHP files along with the newly created street segments, cul de sacs, street center lines, and address ranges. See nsdmaps.com

Chuck and Matthew from TDC Group were on hand showing off the latest in Freeance - simply put, this solution enables ArcGIS users to extend the Geodatabgse to the field using Blackberry devices (like the new Blackberry Bold). Given Blackberry's penetration into the entrprise space this is a natural fit! Using Freeance, enterprises can now use data from their enterprise GIS and back office databases in mobile applications on BlackBerry smartphones. Mobile workers in government, utilities and business can now easily update their databases for uses...

... follow the link below to read the entire post!...

WOW Technologies and down-right cool stuff on the floor at the 2008 ESRI UC