Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Jack Dangermond, Esri President. We discussed how GIS is transforming how the public sector arrives at decisions, and the power behind spatial data. You can view the report below, or download a PDF. Below I have included the executive summary of the report and report highlights.
Nearly 315 years after Columbus set sail, President Thomas Jefferson commissioned explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the American frontier, creating hundreds of maps depicting the land west of the Mississippi. Today, geography continues to provide an increasing awareness of our surroundings, and has evolved far past the rudimentary tools used by Lewis and Clark.
Clearly, geography has played an essential role in increasing awareness and knowledge of our world. Although the field of geography continues to evolve, cartography has always served as medium to tell compelling stories. Geographic information systems (GIS) has not only revolutionized cartography and geography, but has led to new insights and findings in nearly every field of study. As society becomes increasingly complex and dependent on data analysis, GIS now provides a solution to synthesize complex and multivariate data visually through maps. With GIS, organizations can find new efficiencies, improve collaboration, and identify new insights that would otherwise remain unknown without spatial analysis.
In this report, Jack Dangermond, Esri President, provides an overview of Esri’s GIS platform, ArcGIS. Dangermond provides insights on how GIS continues to evolve, and how through emerging technology, such as the cloud, mobile, and location analytics, GIS technology is transforming the public sector. With the release of the cloud-based service, ArcGIS Online, Esri has created a platform that provides the opportunity for both online mapping, and enterprise geospatial content management, reimagining the way the public sector analyzes data to improve decision making.
Through ArcGIS, Esri has created a geographic platform that extends GIS applications beyond traditional GIS users. To improve collaboration efforts, organizations are using Esri’s ArcGIS platform across their agencies. Further, the emerging trend of real-time location analytics has extended the adoption of GIS technology. This report will highlight ArcGIS for three GIS user communities, organizations, developers and location analytics. Dangermond’s interview reaffirms that geography is a science, and through a better understanding of geography, we can gather a stronger understanding of our world and our communities.
