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This blog is for spatial analysts be they professionals, student, academician or just curious about spatial technologies. Spatial technologies include Geographic Information Systems, Remote Sensing, Global Positioning Systems, mobile spatial devises, and other spatial related programs (i.e., Google Earth.)

Thursday, August 23, 2012

A Sampling of Opinions concerning ArcGIS Online


Here is what others online have stated concerning ArcGIS Online:

One the website, People.Partners.Projects., associated with Towson University (Maryland), Michael Bentivegna comments that:

In the world of media mashups, the publishing of new GIS data and applications is expected in a few weeks, if not days, and updates are expected to be nearly instantaneous.
For GIS professionals, Esri’s ArcGIS Online comes to the rescue or further enables this trend (depending upon your perspective). This platform enables the discovery, sharing, and display of GIS data in a free cloud-based software-as-a-service, social GIS ecosystem. In plain speak, it allows you to create map data mashups with great Esri hosted/developed basemaps and lots of national and global scale GIS data. http://tuoutreach.com/2011/12/13/guest-blog-a-time-to-give-arcgis-online-research-leads-to-volunteerism-mapping-application/
(Published 13 December 2011)

-On the blog, AnyGeo - GIS, Maps, Mobile and Social Location Technology, it is stated:

ArcGIS Online (AGO) is a ready to use, simple, cloud solution and is the ideal way to reach your users and potential users. AGO provides users and web administrators with effortless sharing via the web, mobile Internet, and even social media.
 http://blog.gisuser.com/2012/07/28/arcgis-onlin1e-at-the-2012-esriuc-and-geography-as-a-platform-top-features-from-esriuc/
(Published  28 July 2012)

Thomas Fisher, Professor and dean, College of Design at the University of Minnesota in stated in his his blog post  titled “Mapping Our Future” in the Huffington Post stated:

The world's largest data mapping company --Esri -- has recently made its databases and mapping software available online and accessible to the public, and our politics will never be the same.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thomas-fisher/mapping-our-future_b_1731067.html
(Published 2 August 2012)

A somewhat different view of ArcGIS Online is presented on the blog, Spatially Adjusted:

Basically Esri’s ArcGIS Online is Google My Maps, but with $10,000 client software. Creating a map to share with Esri’s online APIs doesn’t make it content management. There is no geneology of data, no lifecycle to the product. Just some simple polygons or pushpins on a map that at its core isn’t what customers want. The biggest reason why Esri is pushing ArcGIS Online so much is that Google Earth Builder is a direct play toward some vision that Esri has to where GIS may go in 2012/2013.
(Published  6 January 2012)

From this cursory sampling of the content on the Internet, the reviews of ArcGIS Online are very positive as its use as a vehicle for sharing of spatial data.  The only critical review is the last one which notes that ESRI is in competition with Google Earth to provide maps ‘on-the-fly’ and is lacking many features of good content management.  For my earlier ‘rough’ review on ArcGIS Online, go to http://geographicinformationscience.blogspot.com/2012/08/arcgis-online-rough-review.html

Does ESRI or other GIS software developers have the ability to create a fully functional online GIS? I don’t think it is a question of ‘Is this a possibility?’, but ‘When will it happen?’ Is open source GIS software and spatial databases ‘in the cloud’ a possible trump that will send all GIS software companies into panic?

2 comments:

  1. I've used the API and it's fantastic. Very powerful, very simple. Haven't posted any of my maps or data to their service, but have used the ArcGIS World imagery and shaded relief. The data that is their and provided is quite interesting and easy to use. I say ESRI has created a great framework for mapping, but content still needs to expand.

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  2. A complete review and comparison with Google Maps API and Bing Maps API can be found here:
    ESRI ArcGIS Online - http://www.georelated.com/2012/10/cloud-web-mapping-service-api-review.html
    Bing Maps API - http://www.georelated.com/2012/02/cloud-web-map-api-services-reviewed_19.html
    Google Maps API - http://www.georelated.com/2012/02/cloud-web-map-api-services-reviewed.html

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