This is the very beginning of the #ama-esri-20160419 channel, which was created by @gisdev-km on April 19th. Purpose: AMA w/ Andrew Turner and John Gravois of Esri. Andrew and John are some of the top technical talents at Esri and help Esri contribute to open source projects and open data initiatives. Feel free to ask your questions ahead of time!
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gisdev-km [9:50 AM] Hi everyone, thanks for joining today's AMA with Esri's own @ajturner and @jgravois. We will be starting at 11AM Pacific! 1
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langdon [10:00 AM] Hello Andrew and John, can you provide a quick overview of your role at Esri and couple projects you are currently excited about? Thanks 2
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gisdev-km [10:05 AM] What is the biggest challenge you see regarding all things "open"? What can we as a community do to help improve that? 1
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manny [10:06 AM] :wave: @jgravois!
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mikedmapper [10:17 AM] Hi Andrew, Hi John - I’m a developer who is actively using the runtime SDK to deploy enterprise mobile apps for field data collection. So far we are really impressed with the functionality and capabilities it provides.
I’m curious if ESRI has any plans to release these capabilities in a more “consumer friendly” way? By this I mean a license with a cost structure similar to other large complex SDKs like the Unreal engine rather than being tied to AGOL logins or single use runtime codes. (edited) 1
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ajturner [10:27 AM] @langdon @gisdev-km @mikedmapper I think we officially start in about 30 mins. And these are great questions. thanks for starting with them
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ldanzinger [10:35 AM] @ericbader:
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dmfenton [10:38 AM] :wave:
gisdev-km [10:39 AM] @here Feel free to ask questions ahead of time! Past AMA experiences have seen a fury of questions!
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willcadell [10:54 AM] @esri is a super big company with lots and lots of opportunity, how do you guys keep a sense of focus? 3
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rene [10:58 AM] Have you guys seen my pen? It’s a really nice pen. 1
jgravois [10:59 AM] happy earth week y’all! looking forward to this thing 4
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julien [10:59 AM] Hey everyone. Let’s welcome @jgravois and @ajturner to the AMA. I’ll let them introduce themselves a little bit, and feel free to upvote any questions!
willcadell [10:59 AM] yay!
jgravois [11:00 AM] so my unofficial made up title is ‘developer advocate’. 2
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bddavidson [11:00 AM] Welcome!
jgravois [11:00 AM] im a geographer by training, but these days i write a lot more JS. mostly cause i was never good at making maps to begin with
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jgravois [11:00 AM] i work on lots of different open source initiatives at Esri
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jgravois [11:00 AM] as well as collaborating with folks like Code for America in the civic transparency space 1
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ajturner [11:01 AM] Hi - I’m @ajturner - I help run the Esri R&D office in Washington, DC. 4
jgravois [11:01 AM] this is the first time ive been on the hook to answer questions from @steveoh since back when i worked in tech support 1
ajturner [11:02 AM] I was CTO of GeoIQ, which was acquired by Esri in July 2012 - that formed the new R&D center here. We’re mostly focused on open data, open source, and Web GIS technologies as well as developer engagement 2
[11:02] @mikedmapper: you had a good question earlier about “consumer friendly” licensing of our mobile Runtime SDKs. I’m curious to learn more what you mean
jgravois [11:03 AM] :wave: @manny
[11:03] and all the other good folks out there
ajturner [11:03 AM] @gisdev-km: you asked about “biggest challenge you see regarding all things "open"? What can we as a community do to help improve that?"
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ajturner [11:03 AM] honestly, the biggest challenge is defining and scoping “open" 1
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ajturner [11:04 AM] 4 years ago - Esri had a few open source projects on Codeplex and Sourceforge (remember those) and a scattering of other places. We decided to consolidate everything to GitHub and improve our processes and guidance for how more teams can be building and releasing open-source projects as a matter of their core job responsibilities
steveoh [11:05 AM] @jgravois: if you could change one thing about the company you work for what would it be?
jgravois [11:05 AM] @mikedmapper we definitely know that we’ve got some work to do in order to introduce viable consumer licensing.
steveoh [11:05 AM] oh and when did you get your first tat?
jgravois [11:06 AM] @willcadell: there are definitely wranglers, but i think the great thing about Esri is that we have so many folks working on so many different passions
gisdev-km [11:06 AM] How has the transition to consolidating everything to GitHub worked out? Have there been any intenral workshops in regards to introducing everyone to git?
ajturner [11:06 AM] steveoh: personally I would move Esri HQ to DC :simple_smile: 1 1 1
jgravois [11:06 AM] our user community is the same way. just because two different folks use our desktop software all day doesnt mean they are touching remotely the same things
ajturner [11:07 AM] @gisdev-km: it’s been an ongoing process for GitHub-ification. There was always a culture of code sharing in the company - but there are mechanics to Git, as well as GitHub specifics like PR that are documented, and @jgravois is doing training
jgravois [11:07 AM] trying to maintaining vision and direction, as well as keeping up with technology changes without alienating folks that are behind is what we’ve been doing for a long time. 1
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ajturner [11:08 AM] we also chose to use GitHub enterprise for all of our projects - so nearly every team in Esri now uses Git + GitHub for their daily work. we did that to remove any process burdens when working between entirely open-source and non-open source projects
zia [11:08 AM] Why there is no ESRI for Linux? 😞
gisdev-km [11:08 AM] Well... there is the Runtime SDK for Qt 1
steveoh [11:09 AM] @ajturner: if you could change something about a product you ship or try to ship what would it be?
zia [11:09 AM] ArcGIS Desktop
jgravois [11:09 AM] @zia weve had Esri for linux for a long time with ArcGIS Engine
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jgravois [11:09 AM] and more recently, in runtimes
steveoh [11:09 AM] @jgravois: why do you smell like curry?
robodonut [11:09 AM] Can you clarify what ESRI means when they say _Open Source_ . I've heard folks bemoan ESRI's use of the term
zia [11:09 AM] oh
jgravois [11:10 AM] (i know there are esri folks out there with more domain knowledge than me on lots of these questions, so please jump in if im botching anything)
gisdev-km [11:10 AM] @jgravois's coworkers are just sitting back eating 🍿, watching him sweat 4 1 1
yann [11:10 AM] yep
ajturner [11:10 AM] @robodonut: when we say _Open Source_ we mean _software source code that is publicly available for anonymous people to access and use without constraint_ (edited)
ericbader [11:10 AM] @gisdev-km: @zia Linux is alove and well here at Esri. Sorry for not making that more transparent, we will work on that for you. Runtime Qt and Java support Linux: RHEL, Ubuntu, and we continue to investigate more, like SuSE 1
rene [11:10 AM] :popcorn:
ajturner [11:10 AM] @robodonut: our default license is Apache 2.0
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jgravois [11:11 AM] @steveoh i think everyone knows my stock answer is to open source pretty much everything, but i genuinely like having a more nuanced discussion, both within the company and out here in public 1
ericbader [11:11 AM] alive. Sorry. I need my glasses
jgravois [11:12 AM] shameless shoutout, but i want to remember to say THANK YOU to the folks at Maptiks (in our startup program) and the other admins in this Slack for all the work they dedicate to this resource 1
[11:12] https://developers.arcgis.com/startups/ Esri Startup Program | ArcGIS for Developers Enables startups to build mapping and location analytics capabilities into their product 3
gisdev-km [11:12 AM] I think the real hero is giphybot. 1
ajturner [11:12 AM] @zia: ArcGIS Server also runs very well on Linux - so perhaps you mean something more specific? 1
steveoh [11:13 AM] he was talking desktop/pro 2
jgravois [11:13 AM] a link to an hour of my wretched voice talking about the basics of github to esri folks in a training session can be found here: https://esri.box.com/s/x4ncpn6lcnu5f91x5yoryvtpkuv9iibr 2
ajturner [11:13 AM] @robodonut: I’m curious what you’ve heard about Esri’s open source efforts. We always want to know where there are misconceptions or improvements that we can make
mikedmapper [11:14 AM] @ajturner: the runtime licenses (at the standard level) seem to be tailored to support apps that operate in an enterprise ecosystem, either “authorized” by an enterprise AGOL account, an on-premise ArcGIS Portal, or using license codes that have to be purchased in packs of 25 for a few thousand $$.
This is fine for large orgs that have ELAs, but if we were looking to release an app for public use - say for a citizen science type application - and wanted that app to include functionality from the “standard” license level it would be not only extremely cost prohibitive, but also impossible to budget given an unknown level of public use.
Other complex SDKs like gaming engines go for a flat fee or % of revenue model that is much more accommodating to consumer apps 1
jgravois [11:15 AM] @steveoh smelling like curry is a lot better than my pants smelled before i can tell you that
gisdev-km [11:15 AM] @jgravois: what hooked you with Leaflet vs jumping on board the Esri JavaScript API team with @yann, @rene, @khutchins and so forth?
[11:15] Was it the lack of tattoos? :simple_smile:
jgravois [11:15 AM] @gisdev-km: its definitely not an either or. ive been helping with the JSAPI for a very long time 1
steveoh [11:15 AM] do you think esri is spreading themselves to thin on the platforms and products they create? Might this cause each product to not get the focus that it needs to succeed? Will we see this shrink to a more possibly sustainable group of core items? 4
julien [11:16 AM] @steveoh: asking the tough questions
jgravois [11:16 AM] but i love working on leaflet too. to be honest, i got excited about it at the time because i was looking for an excuse to learn about git and to learn about leaflet for the first time.
ajturner [11:16 AM] @steveoh good question - fortunately everything across ArcGIS ties back to a common information model
steveoh [11:16 AM] i’m mixing it up, i asked why he smelled like curry a minute ago :simple_smile: 1
ajturner [11:16 AM] I didn’t understand this before joining esri - but it’s an extremely elegant design that makes it far easier to scale
steveoh [11:17 AM] was it tough to adjust to the esri culture given where you came from?
ajturner [11:17 AM] everything we build needs to work with that information model - FeatureServices handle vector data. Same API across millions of datasets. WebMaps are arrays of FeatureServices + Styling. they power cartographic displays as well as Apps - even if they don’t have a map
jgravois [11:18 AM] if theres one thing ive learned in my years here, is that esri is relentless about trying to accommodate the requests of our users. to be honest, that makes things complex sometimes.
[11:18] but i love seeing Esri pivot and do the right thing, even though ‘steering the big ship’ often takes time
ajturner [11:19 AM] @steveoh it was difficult to adjust to the size, but not the fundamental culture. At my previous companies + startups you could look around a lunch table and talk with all the 'decision makers’ and probably every employee. At Esri we have flexibility to drive our own projects - but there are a lot of teams to coordinate with
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jgravois [11:19 AM] @steveoh, i think that spreading thin and having lots of different offerings is a better paradigm than one big monolith thats supposed to work for everyone
gisdev-km [11:19 AM] With other large tech companies, the employees kind of get to choose the projects they work on, is that the same sort of culture at Esri?
steveoh [11:20 AM] @jgravois: spaces or tabs?
jgravois [11:20 AM] this is why task oriented simple web applications work so much better than trying to recreate ArcGIS Desktop in the browser. (edited for clarity) (edited)
[11:20] spaces, tabs, semicolons, no semicolons
steveoh [11:20 AM] haha
[11:20] ok i’ll stop now
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ajturner [11:21 AM] @gisdev-km: definitely. I feel that even internally esri is like working in open-source communities. New projects start up all the time. They try to coordinate with other teams to get mindshare and code sharing. It’s hard to track everything but Pull Requests are generally accepted to any other project across the platform
robodonut [11:21 AM] @ajturner: there was a reddit post (https://www.reddit.com/r/gis/comments/3tturv/esris_commitment_to_open/) a while back that linked to this video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCmSrjj0q94) and folks were bemoaning there and there have been comments in the twitterverse
reddit Esri’s Commitment to Open • /r/gis 4 points and 16 comments so far on reddit YouTube esritv Esri’s Commitment to Open
2
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ajturner [11:21 AM] and there are definitely strong opinions like open source communities.
jgravois [11:22 AM] i dont mind having the ‘is esri open enough debate’ but for the most part i think its bikeshedding
[11:22] ive always been a lot more concerned with furthering the professional development of our customers than FOSS for the sake of FOSS 1
ajturner [11:22 AM] @robodonut I think you’re referring to the difficulty of “open” in general. It’s a fuzzy term that is more a culture and intent than a binary
jgravois [11:22 AM] dont get me wrong, i LOVE open source, but when someone says that an Esri web template on github isnt open source because you need services behind it, i disagree 1
[11:23] because for folks like me trying to learn a little JS in the evenings when i was a GIS analyst, it was incredibly valuable 5 1
[11:23] and it helped me learn about JS and AJAX and REST and event listeners etc. etc. etc
[11:24] and i had no interest or need at the time to also be a database administrator and to write my own server side code
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gisdev-km [11:24 AM] Favorite project of your career? 1
steveoh [11:24 AM] if you could change something about a product you ship or try to ship what would it be?
jgravois [11:25 AM] @gisdev-km: i honestly dont get too attached to them. i love the fact that i can jump from the JSAPI to koop, to esri-leaflet to terraformer to node-arcgis 2
[11:25] and find things in common and things that are different
robodonut [11:26 AM] thank you both. I'm just wanting to understand the different perspectives of the discussion!
ajturner [11:26 AM] @steveoh there are a few paradigms that worked a decade ago on desktops or servers that we are re-architecting to align with web-future methodologies. 1
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ajturner [11:27 AM] take for example - the shapefile :simple_smile:
[11:27] h/t @dmfenton
jgravois [11:27 AM] @robodonut oh for sure! i think its a valuable discussion to have
[11:27]
With other large tech companies, the employees kind of get to choose the projects they work on, is that the same sort of culture at Esri?
[11:28] @gisdev-km: my experience has been that everytime ive been able to identify a job that needed done that sounded interesting to me i was able to get myself up to speed and take a stab at it if i could be self directed
ajturner [11:29 AM] @here what are ideas you have for us at Esri or ArcGIS? what are painpoints that could be smoothed out?
mikedmapper [11:29 AM] There is a big push for 3D globe-type interfaces from ESRI right now… what do you feel are the markets/applications that will benefit from this?
willcadell [11:29 AM] oh! geotriggers are only in java 😞
jgravois [11:29 AM] @ajturner i was getting ready to flip things too
steveoh [11:29 AM] you would pull the swap-a-roo on the ama :simple_smile:
jgravois [11:29 AM] what do y’all want to see more of? what should we be dedicating resources to? 1
robodonut [11:29 AM] Charting in JS. Cedar is nice but i want so much more (edited) 1
steveoh [11:30 AM] i like the idea of having a core lib for the esri js api 1
ajturner [11:30 AM] @mikedmapper: 3D is not most useful as a Globe - it’s in the immersive portrayal of the real world and potential world
gisdev-km [11:30 AM] I'd like to see licensing smoothed out a bit between standard and advanced. I almost feel like advanced should be elevated to specific SDE administration tasks but things like the 'Near' tool can be ran at Standard 1
ajturner [11:30 AM] @robodonut PR accepted! 😉 1
jgravois [11:30 AM] @robodonut: this is a good one for charting that you may have already seen https://github.com/Esri/cedar
GitHub Esri/cedar cedar - Charts for ArcGIS GeoServices 1
ajturner [11:30 AM] @robodonut but seriously - what else do you want in it?
dmfenton [11:30 AM] real estate (and related industries) is a market that benefits a lot from 3d
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mikedmapper [11:30 AM] spell check - how do we not have this in ArcGIS yet? 1
jgravois [11:31 AM] im not sure if you’ve heard, but the JSAPI is planning on open sourcing its widgets at 4.x. im really excited about that! 3
mikedmapper [11:31 AM] also - transparent PNG support in layout view 1
jgravois [11:31 AM] theyve worked really hard to refactor the API and if you havent used the Beta yet, it shows 3
[11:31] https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/beta/
mikedmapper [11:32 AM] also a “convert runtime to geodatabase” tool that works with source files that are located somewhere besides the C drive
jgravois [11:32 AM] does everyone know that they can sign up for a free developer account for R&D?
ajturner [11:32 AM] @mikedmapper: good question. One fun, probably not well known fact, is that all our products support ~28 languages
jgravois [11:32 AM] https://developers.arcgis.com/ ArcGIS for Developers Learn how to leverage powerful ArcGIS features and services for your applications. (107KB)
1
steveoh [11:32 AM] /points @yann +100 js 4
Point Bot BOT [11:32 AM] steveoh has awarded @yann 100 points
jgravois [11:32 AM] that it allows you to publish services for free
mikedmapper [11:33 AM] @ajturner: I assume all 28 languages have dictionaries available?
gisdev-km [11:33 AM] /points @rene +100 js 4
Point Bot BOT [11:33 AM] gisdev-km has awarded @rene 100 points
steveoh [11:33 AM] how do you think pushing portal on all of your customers is going to shape the future? 1
jgravois [11:33 AM] and that we have a program to give away software for free to non-profits?
[11:33] http://www.esri.com/nonprofit Take your mission to the next level with Esri's program for nonprofit organizations Nonprofit Organization
gisdev-km [11:33 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. john gravois jgravois ArcGIS for Developers https://developers.arcgis.com/ April 19th at 11:32 AM
gisdev-km [11:33 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. john gravois jgravois Esri/cedar @robodonut: this is a good one for charting that you may have already seen https://github.com/Esri/cedar April 19th at 11:30 AM
gisdev-km [11:33 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. john gravois jgravois Esri Startup Program | ArcGIS for Developers https://developers.arcgis.com/startups/ April 19th at 11:12 AM
gisdev-km [11:34 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. john gravois jgravois Take your mission to the next level with Esri's program for nonprofit organizations http://www.esri.com/nonprofit April 19th at 11:33 AM
ajturner [11:34 AM] @steveoh Portal provides a much more integrated administrative and content management experience than manually dealing with dozens of individual servers
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ted_chapin [11:34 AM] How long do you think before we have an all "Pro" desktop experience?
jgravois [11:34 AM] and that im hooking up Maptimes and Code for America Brigages working on social environmental justice projects (and education) with voucher codes for free credits? 2
zia [11:34 AM] @ajturner: During my whole university life, just like most of the universities out there, I learned ArcGIS. But the moment I passed out I found it expensive to buy and eventually started using QGIS, OpenJump and other open tools 😞 It was sad.
antoniolocandro [11:34 AM] I would like ESRI to release basic as a community edition, after all it's really so basic to be actually useful without extensions or things you can use in standard or advanced
dmfenton [11:34 AM] there is ArcGIS for Personal Use (edited)
ajturner [11:34 AM] @zia: there’s always $100 ArcGIS http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-personal-use ArcGIS for Personal Use Program | ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced for Personal Use The ArcGIS for Personal Use Program is an affordable way to access ArcGIS for Desktop Advanced including ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online for personal use. 1
tmcgee [11:34 AM] I've had Esri employees reach out to me privately to submit enhancements to the #cmv open source project. They use it for LOB applications but cannot be open about using it/supporting it. As if they are not towing the "Esri line" if they openly promote. Is that a culture of fear or ???
zia [11:34 AM] Is that recent?
robodonut [11:35 AM] hoping for easier brushing, filtering and general connectivity between a service and a chart.
ajturner [11:35 AM] @antoniolocandro: see ^^ Personal Edition
flippmoke [11:35 AM] If we made a drinking game that was drink everytime you heard the phrase "Vector Tiles” at EsriUC how black out drunk would you get? 1
kdanaher [11:35 AM] @ajturner: Since you’re asking… I work in a cartography lab where we are exporting a lot of vector data cuts from Desktop for creating maps in Illustrator. Something seemingly simple that hasn’t been fixed (at least in 10.3) is the scale bar. It can get very wrong depending on projection and extent of the map. I have to manually convert to graphics and correct it based on geodesic measurement. We would love to see this fixed! 2
gisdev-km [11:35 AM] Is Personal Edition licensed as such to be able to particpate in community projects?
ajturner [11:35 AM] also any K-12 school in the US can get ArcGIS http://www.esri.com/connected Esri | Free online mapping for your school Share and Help our children advance with STEM education
willcadell [11:35 AM] @flippmoke: doesn’t that depend on your capacity?
jgravois [11:36 AM] @flippmoke: this presentation provides a lot more clarity on what we’ve been doing. and it would get you civil war drunk: http://video.esri.com/watch/5015/vector-tiles-in-the-arcgis-platform Vector Tiles in the ArcGIS Platform | Esri Video Learn about the work in progress to revamp vector basemaps for web mapping that leverages vector tiling. Some of the benefits of vector tiles include the ability to enable map interactivity and client-side styling, without compromising performance. We will do an overview of vector mapping, demonstrate the creation of vector tiles, examples of apps consuming vector tiles, and discuss plans for enabling this capability throughout the ArcGIS platform.
steveoh [11:36 AM] labeling of vector tile features is not awesome at the moment
ajturner [11:36 AM] @tmcgee: that’s a personal question - not a policy or culture of Esri
flippmoke [11:36 AM] Do you plan on updating to the Vector Tile Specification 2?
antoniolocandro [11:36 AM] @ajturner: personal might be fine in the Us a hassle to buy outside is due to regional partners. Also I believe it has restriction to well personal use
jgravois [11:36 AM] its an AMA andrew
[11:36] im taking underwear questions over here
ajturner [11:37 AM] @steveoh vector tiles rendering is pending some big updates.
[11:37] Remember we’re in mid-Conference season: FedGIS->DevSummit->UC
steveoh [11:37 AM] yup the churn!
[11:37] no one said anything about underwear, just why you smell like curry :simple_smile:
tomwayson [11:37 AM] @tmcgee: I've used #cmv for client projects - in my experience, if it was the right solution, no one has objected
tmcgee [11:38 AM] @ajturner: my impression from them is it was a cultural issue.
[11:38] @tomwayson: good to hear
ajturner [11:38 AM] @antoniolocandro: indeed when going global there are a lot of complications. We currently work in ~190 countries. Always the top of our minds, just rarely a “straight-forward problem" 1
agmapper [11:38 AM] @kdanaher: you might find this interesting: http://www.esri.com/software/maps-for-adobecc Maps for Adobe CC Maps for Adobe CC
antoniolocandro [11:38 AM] Any stuff you see in other software like qgis that you say damn we want that in our desktop product?
rene [11:38 AM] I’ll jump on that one @tmcgee, I’m encouraged to contribute back to any project that’s useful when I can. I’m still _green_, but I haven’t seen it.
jgravois [11:38 AM] there are esri folks in the channel, but im going to try and file some of these enhancement requests and possible bug reports too. so dont worry if i dont reply individually
dmfenton [11:38 AM] same same for me with contributing to external projects
[11:38] its a non-issue
jgravois [11:39 AM] @antoniolocandro: im a hack with QGIS, but i cant say ive ever had that experience using it.
ajturner [11:39 AM] @tmcgee: and like any company there is still “job responsibility” vs “what I do in my spare time”. We support contributing to projects and generally raising the bar but everyone has things they need to ship
[11:39] @antoniolocandro: QGIS has great Mac OS X support! 3
tmcgee [11:40 AM] @rene @dmfenton good to hear. The 2 that come to mind were not US-based so perhaps the culture is different in other offices.
ajturner [11:40 AM] @antoniolocandro: also https://github.com/geometalab/ArcGISConnector-QGIS-Plugin
GitHub geometalab/ArcGISConnector-QGIS-Plugin ArcGISConnector-QGIS-Plugin - "ArcGIS REST API Connector" (alpha) - a QGIS-Plugin which reads "Feature Service" and "Map Service" - aka WFS- and WMTS-alike services - ...
jgravois [11:41 AM] im hearing a lot of questions about an ‘Esri Culture’ and im not sure i agree that there is one 2
ajturner [11:41 AM] @tmcgee: yeah, there are some 50 esri regional offices and int’l distributors located in 130 countries or so? (My numbers are guestimates).
jgravois [11:41 AM] obviously diversity and gender equality in tech are real issues that impact us too, but we have a ton of diversity, both in background and opinion
gisdev-km [11:41 AM] I would like to just provide feedback that my interactions with individual Esri folks have been great. Between Twitter, Slack, the #geodev meetups, DevSummit and UC, its enjoyable to meet with talented individuals across a wide range of skills 2
antoniolocandro [11:41 AM] When will ESRI give us direct postgis read/write not just query layers without need for server? I know probably server will be needed for more advanced stuff like versioning or GDB based on postgis
jgravois [11:41 AM] and that diversity is a strength
gisdev-km [11:42 AM] The only time I digress is dealing with Tier 1 support 😉 1
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flippmoke [11:42 AM] How much geometry is correction is done by ArcGIS prior to it making vector tiles? 1
jgravois [11:42 AM] @gisdev-km: i actually spent more than half my time in tech support as a Tier 1 analyst
[11:42] first in desktop and mobile, and later supporting Web APIs
williamscraigm [11:43 AM] @tmcgee: not sure why someone would need to do that in a hidden way
steveoh [11:43 AM] @jgravois: is there a code word to skip tier 1? I haven’t used it in a long time but would love to know if I could skip it
tmcgee [11:43 AM] @williamscraigm: I can't answer as to the why.
antoniolocandro [11:44 AM] I want to skip local support to just even reach US tier 1
[11:44] :disappointed:
jgravois [11:44 AM] hah. i am immensely proud of the tech support Esri provides. i think its one of our biggest value adds. 3 2
steveoh [11:44 AM] I agree with you. it brought me up to speed as a noob
jgravois [11:45 AM] that said, if you are ever working with someone and having a difficult time getting resolution, and its a time sensitive issue, please feel free to politely request that additional help be found
tmcgee [11:45 AM] I've been working with Esri web GIS for 15 years and I will say that Esri is certainly more open now than in the not too distant past. Encouraging. (edited) 6
mikedmapper [11:46 AM] @antoniolocandro: you can’t do this now with Postgres? We direct connect to SQLServer SDE databases all the time for attribute editing without going through ESRI services
agmapper [11:46 AM] @jgravois: Agreed, there is not just one culture. There are lots of flavors between divisions / departments / even between Redlands HQ and regional offices. I will say this: Esri Café culture is great. There is always a table of smart, welcoming people I can take my tray to for lunch. 1 1
williamscraigm [11:46 AM] @flippmoke: geometry correction like fixing ring order etc?
ajturner [11:47 AM] thanks @tmcgee - i’m glad to hear that. we want to keep that up and keep expanding our open source code projects, as well as always adding more standards API and making it easy to integrate with other platforms and projects
antoniolocandro [11:47 AM] @mikedmapper: I believe you can't with postgis you at least need third party plugin like gissquirrel
flippmoke [11:48 AM] @williamscraigm: winding order is one concern, but also fixing self intersections etc
steveoh [11:48 AM] @ajturner: where do you see yourself in 5 years?
jgravois [11:48 AM] @mikedmapper: i think @antoniolocandro is right. ive heard folks ask for it in the past, but i dont believe we are working on it at the moment
[11:49] i know that kind of thing can be frustrating to hear, but we genuinely have a ridiculous amount of diversity in our user community with people asking for a lot of different things
ajturner [11:49 AM] @steveoh in a new house (we’re moving a few blocks over closer to the Capitol Building in downtown DC) 3 1
steveoh [11:49 AM] @ajturner: what is your go to interview question?
jgravois [11:49 AM] so lots of valid requests dont end up with the force behind them that you think there would be
mikedmapper [11:49 AM] any plans for linear referencing-type capabilities in the runtime? By that I mean the ability to say “return point X at distance Y along line Z" 1
dmfenton [11:50 AM] ajturner: is that house painted white?
flippmoke [11:50 AM] @steveoh: "If you were a question would question would you be?" 2
antoniolocandro [11:50 AM] Postgis is being so wildly use it just seems insane not supported out of the box
dmfenton [11:50 AM] large columns in front…big fence?
ajturner [11:50 AM] @steveoh: the one you just asked 😉 also “You spend a majority of your waking hours with us - what do you want to be doing & accomplishing that gets you excited?"
kdanaher [11:50 AM] @agmapper: A couple of our cartographers were invited and attended a workshop on that. We have a great workflow currently w/ ArcGIS Desktop, Illustrator, and MAPublisher, but it’s certainly possible that it could replace MAPublisher down the road for us!
williamscraigm [11:51 AM] @flippmoke: ArcGIS has a fairly strong and well defined geometry model that defines geometry validity. We have tools to repair invalid geometries. We don't auto-run these are part of VT creation, as there is a bit of an expectation that geometries are valid. That said, we do repair a few situations like polygons that aren't closed etc.
flippmoke [11:51 AM] Do you ever see ESRI contributing to non-web libraries such as Boost Geometry etc? 2
dmfenton [11:52 AM] flippmoke the Esri Geometry Engine is open source
[11:52] I wouldn’t call that a web library
jgravois [11:52 AM] @dmfenton i didnt think it was open sourced
agmapper [11:52 AM] @kdanaher: good - glad you are aware. I haven't used it yet but am excited by the possibilities.
jgravois [11:52 AM] but i could be wrong
steveoh [11:52 AM] i think you are right
jgravois [11:52 AM] the Java geometry library is 1
ajturner [11:52 AM] https://github.com/Esri/geometry-api-java
GitHub Esri/geometry-api-java geometry-api-java - The Esri Geometry API for Java enables developers to write custom applications for analysis of spatial data. This API is used in the Esri GIS Tools for Hadoop and other 3rd-par... 1
jgravois [11:53 AM] oh gotcha, thats what he was talking about from the beginning. my bad
gisdev-km [11:53 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. Andrew Turner ajturner Esri/geometry-api-java https://github.com/Esri/geometry-api-java April 19th at 11:52 AM
dmfenton [11:53 AM] yup
robodonut [11:53 AM] I've heard tell that the spatial analyst engine is still the original engine that Morehouse wrote and its just be wrapped a bunch. is this the case? 1
gisdev-km [11:53 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. Andrew Turner ajturner geometalab/ArcGISConnector-QGIS-Plugin @antoniolocandro: also https://github.com/geometalab/ArcGISConnector-QGIS-Plugin April 19th at 11:40 AM
jgravois [11:53 AM] oooh. more weird esri rumor questions, please! 1 1
ajturner [11:53 AM] a few other exciting open source projects:
- LERC for raster compression : https://github.com/Esri/lerc
- upcoming Python Notebook support & SciPy http://4326.us/esri/scipy/#/
- essentially anything from Mansour: http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/
GitHub Esri/lerc lerc - Limited Error Raster Compression Thunderhead Explorer A Blog about BigData, Hadoop, Spark, GIS, ArcGIS
gisdev-km [11:54 AM] Pinned a message. See all pinned items in this channel. Andrew Turner ajturner Esri/lerc a few other exciting open source projects:
- LERC for raster compression : https://github.com/Esri/lerc
- upcoming Python Notebook support & SciPy http://4326.us/esri/scipy/#/
- essentially anything from Mansour: http://thunderheadxpler.blogspot.com/ April 19th at 11:53 AM
dmfenton [11:54 AM] ++ to anything from Mansour 2
jgravois [11:54 AM] @ajturner thanks for plugging those 1
dmfenton [11:54 AM] dude is giving out gold on the weekly
gisdev-km [11:54 AM] I don’t think @mraad is here today.
mraad [11:54 AM] joined #ama-esri-20160419 by invitation from @gisdev-km 2
jgravois [11:54 AM] your wish is his command
ajturner [11:54 AM] _summoned_ 4
agmapper [11:54 AM] wow! that was something.
ajturner [11:55 AM] wonders if @here realizes we are all just Bots
jgravois [11:55 AM] ask @mraad anything
ajturner [11:55 AM] please do
gisdev-km [11:55 AM] I invited him… he’s not here
dmfenton [11:55 AM] scott morehouse writes all the code
gisdev-km [11:55 AM] slack auto joins on invite
dmfenton [11:55 AM] the rest of us are very convincing bots
jgravois [11:55 AM] :frowning:
[11:56] scott morehouse flys by me like a bat outta hell in his falcon when im pedaling to work
ajturner [11:56 AM] Scala vector tiles rendering & server (because we can’t get enough of saying _vector tiles_) https://github.com/mraad/vector-tiles + https://github.com/mraad/vector-tiles-boot
GitHub mraad/vector-tiles vector-tiles - Heuristic Experiment on Encoding Mapbox Vector Tiles In Scala
GitHub mraad/vector-tiles-boot vector-tiles-boot - Minimal Vector Tile Server for Web Mapping applications
jgravois [11:56 AM] i dont know if this is helpful for anybody, but im certainly having a good time
flippmoke [11:56 AM] I am just Mapbox’s fork of cleverbot 1
gisdev-km [11:56 AM] Will “vector tiles” or “platform” win out as the UC buzzword this year? :simple_smile:
jgravois [11:56 AM] hope you are too 2
dmfenton [11:56 AM] https://github.com/mraad/docker-arcgis
GitHub mraad/docker-arcgis docker-arcgis - Run ArcGIS for Server in a Docker container
[11:56] https://github.com/mraad/spark-gdb
GitHub mraad/spark-gdb spark-gdb - A library for parsing and querying an Esri File Geodatabase with Apache Spark.
[11:57] Mansour is one of the more advanced bots written by smorehouse
gisdev-km [11:57 AM] giving away all my ‘secrets’. I just republish @mraad’s work as my own
ericbader [11:57 AM] Look at the hair on that dude
jgravois [11:57 AM] @mraad: is my hero (and the count from sesame street). i love him dearly
ajturner [11:57 AM] ?fact new Esri engineers need to build their own car from scratch: https://www.flickr.com/photos/caseorganic/9244609083 Flickr caseorganic Esri CTO Scott Morehouse drove from... (155KB)
1
mikedmapper [11:57 AM] where are all the devsummit session recordings? Couldn’t make it this year because 👶
jgravois [11:58 AM] @mikedmapper: good question. they will be posted very very soon
gisdev-km [11:58 AM] @mikedmapper: some are published for free, some are for purchase.
ajturner [11:58 AM] @mikedmapper: http://video.esri.com/series/257/2016-developer-summit 2016 Developer Summit | Esri Video 2016 Developer Summit
jgravois [11:58 AM] 50 free videos i believe
mikedmapper [11:58 AM] looking for the iOS videos that were going to be free
zia [11:58 AM] How good are ESRI products in image processing? Satellite images, especially SAR data?
jgravois [11:58 AM] let me try and dig up a link to the blog i saw the other day
dmfenton [11:59 AM] zia: super advanced and awesome
mikedmapper [11:59 AM] have to make due with my pirated “road ahead” phone videos
ajturner [11:59 AM] @ziaI think it’s something we pride ourselves on
jgravois [11:59 AM] https://blogs.esri.com/esri/arcgis/2016/03/03/devsummit-videos-what-you-want-to-see/
dmfenton [11:59 AM] YUGE improvements coming for large datasets with on-the-fly processing
ajturner [12:00 PM] @zia http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisserver/extensions/image-extension ArcGIS for Server | Image Extension Esri is the world leader in GIS (geographic information system) modeling and mapping software and technology. This site features GIS mapping software, desktop GIS, server GIS, developer GIS, mobile GIS, GIS Web services, business GIS, Internet mapping, GIS solutions, GIS training and education, demos, data, spatial analysis tools, consulting, services, partners, customer service, and support.
agmapper [12:00 PM] @zia: Awesome -- http://www.esri.com/products/arcgis-capabilities/imagery
jgravois [12:00 PM] feel free to hit me up on slack or twitter if i didnt answer your question or you want to talk about anything else and thanks so much for coming!
ajturner [12:00 PM] @agmapper++
gisdev-km [12:00 PM] Ok, we are at the hour mark! I would like to thank everyone for coming and a huge thank you to @ajturner and @jgravois. If @ajturner and @jgravois are willing to stick around for a few minutes to answer any questions, feel free to ask
zia [12:00 PM] thx 1
jgravois [12:00 PM] of course
mikedmapper [12:00 PM] thanks for doing this!
willcadell [12:00 PM] woot!
gisdev-km [12:00 PM] /points @jgravois +100 for being awesome
Point Bot BOT [12:00 PM] gisdev-km has awarded @jgravois 100 points
gisdev-km [12:00 PM] /points @ajturner +100 for being awesome
Point Bot BOT [12:00 PM] gisdev-km has awarded @ajturner 100 points
bddavidson [12:01 PM] Thanks gents!
julien [12:01 PM] Thanks guys
tmcgee [12:01 PM] @jgravois @ajturner thank you
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willcadell [12:01 PM] nice work @here!
ajturner [12:01 PM] Fun times - thanks for the questions
gisdev-km [12:01 PM] We will leave this channel up for a bit so everyone can read through it and then will archive it and post it for later.
ajturner [12:01 PM] we’re in #arcgis-web and other channels most days
[12:01] see people at FOSS4G-NA in Raleigh in May? 3 2
geo-nick [12:01 PM] @zia: also join the imagery webinars coming up http://go.esri.com/imageryseries 2
jgravois [12:01 PM] i’ll be in Raleigh. and Tucson before
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jgravois [12:02 PM] and New England after?
dmfenton [12:02 PM] will be at FOSS4G to talk all things Koop
willcadell [12:02 PM] Raleigh? FOSS4G?
agmapper [12:02 PM] @zia The on the fly image processing saves time and $$ since you don't have to store and tile all the intermediate information products you might want to serve out. It is really powerful, really fast.
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zia [12:03 PM] @agmapper: thx. I will check
flippmoke [12:04 PM] @ajturner: will see you at FOSS4G 1
jgravois [12:04 PM] @flippmoke: please hit me up too. if theres anything i can do to help facilitate collaboration, id love to help.
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flippmoke [12:07 PM] @williamscraigm: are you one of the devs working on VTiles?
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jgravois [12:13 PM] @flippmoke: not sure where he went, but craig works on a whole bunch of different projects including our work to cook tiles in ArcGIS Pro
flippmoke [12:14 PM] @williamscraigm: hit me up in chat :simple_smile:
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williamscraigm [1:08 PM] @flippmoke: sorry went to lunch. I'm the product owner for VTs at Esri. Will hit you up on chat.
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