new jersey geographer » ESRI

Map Maker for carto-masochists, part 1

John Reiser — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:00:07 +0000

I originally wrote the following approximately two weeks ago and it has been lingering as a Draft until now. I decided to wait until the start of the Esri International User Conference to publish this post. The UC has several events planned for their community mapping offerings, here’s my take on how Google’s approach has been less than impressive. Part 2 ~~to follow~~ available here.

Way, way back in March of 2010, I contacted Google through their Map Content Partners form to submit Rowan University’s GIS data to be included on Google Maps. I heard nothing from them – not even an automated response – for several months. In August of 2010, someone in Administration noticed that Google had relabeled Rowan University as Glassboro State College, a name not used since 1992. I was instructed to try and remedy this as soon as possible. I explained that Google had given me the cold shoulder, but I would try some different avenues. The “report a problem” feature in Google Maps did get “Glassboro State College” off the map, but Rowan remained a featureless blotch within Glassboro.

After giving up on contributing data to Google Maps, I was finally contacted by “Brandon” from the Cities in 3D Team. Brandon requested a sample of the data for review. “Finally!” I thought, “now I can submit our data for Google Maps!” I’ll admit, I got excited. In hindsight, the excitement was premature and irrational. OpenStreetMap has been updated to reflect the campus since June of 2009, when I used my Export to OSM script to dump the facilities data into .osm files. I should be focusing my efforts on a custom, Mapnik-rendered set of OSM tiles that look good on top of aerials, a “Google Maps Hybrid” layer of my own. I can then sandwich in custom tiles instead of overlaying my data on top of the annotation. (Compare anno-on-top to data-on-top.)

Anyway, I eagerly await word back from Google that our data will appear on Google Maps. The notice I receive was far from what I wanted to hear. Instead of accepting the data, I’m instructed that due to the small number of objects to be added, I should use Google Map Maker instead. I was pissed.

I find Google Map Maker to be an incredible disappointment on two major fronts; first, I refused to use the service as I felt Google was in the wrong for keeping VGI-sourced base map data under lock and key. The second, which I will elaborate upon tomorrow, involves the Map Maker tool itself. For a company such as “do no evil” Google to create a framework where users can volunteer time to build its GIS repository with no compensation – not even data retrieval – I find completely unconscionable. Compare their data download form with getting data from OpenStreetMap. To non-techies, OSM’s XML format might be intimidating, but it’s data – no forms to fill out or licenses to sign. Sure, it’s not a shapefile… but you can get them too, without signing any agreement. I loved hearing how a group of OSM mappers hijacked a Google Mapping Party (the concept itself lifted from OSM) and got the assembled group to work on OSM. Many others have asked “why Google, why not OSM?” The common thread to most Map Maker criticism and OpenStreetMap’s major issue with Map Maker is regarding access to the data that has been contributed. Why make data created of the third world (and likely by individuals in the third world) a for-sale product for a first world company? Even within your own neighborhood, why volunteer your time if you can’t reap most of the benefits?

Back from ideology to practicality, I wanted the University on Google, solely because Google is the new Mapquest; it’s the go-to map service for the average person. (Quick aside, Mapquest has Rowan University completely mapped out through its OSM-sourced open.mapquest.com.) Brandon’s earlier suggestion of Map Maker wasn’t acceptable because of my open-access advocacy leanings, it was out of time constraints. “You want me to redraw everything?” That wasn’t going to happen and I let Brandon know:

Brandon,

Thanks for the info. My major concern has been getting an “official” set of data on to Google Maps. When Google switched to their own data and pulled place names from GNIS, Rowan University reverted to Glassboro State College, a name last used in 1992. As “the map guy” for the University, I was asked by several offices within Rowan to “fix Google.” While reporting the antiquated name as a problem did get “Rowan University” restored on Google Maps, it brought the lack of campus data on Google to the attention of many in the University community. It has been frustrating for me, as I have attempted to contact Google to provide official data for use on Maps for a considerable time, while also attempting to squash bugs in the Google Maps data on our campus. Being a University, there have been “creative” additions to the campus on Google Maps, such as the fact that one of our largest academic buildings appeared as a Bed and Breakfast for about a month.

I would like to provide Google with a set of data out of our Facilities GIS DB that is the same source for our printed campus maps. The previously sent data, reformatted to match your requested schema, is from either survey data or from a 3″ planimetric image. The address information included in this layer matches Gloucester County’s 911 data. This is as official as it gets.

Google Map Maker is not a viable option for me. The data for Rowan University that is available through OpenStreetMap was generated through an export utility that I wrote. It is the same source as I emailed you previously, except that it dates from the summer of 2009. Very little of what is on OSM was hand redrawn. Not only would it be a considerable time sink for me, the tools in Map Maker would not be able to reproduce the high quality data that already exists.

Through the Geovisualization course I teach, we are offering students the opportunity to build SketchUp models of the campus as a final project. Several of the buildings have been completed and I will be uploading them soon. The entire campus is not complete, so if you would like a shapefile with extrusion data, I’d be happy to resubmit the data with those additional attributes.

Again, I would like to thank you for taking the time to respond to me. I understand that the Cities in 3D team might not have the 2D maps as their major focus, but if you could direct my request to the correct group, I would be incredibly grateful. I initially filled out the Data Provider form in March 2010 and have resubmitted the form several times after receiving no response. I even pestered Ed Parsons over Twitter to no avail. So, I am truly appreciative of your assistance in this issue.

Thanks,
John

Brandon responded with two points that made me bristle. First, Rowan was too small for Google: “the number of buildings on campus provide a relatively low priority for Google.” This is a 215 acre campus with 50+ structures, it’s not huge, but it’s also not insignificant. Second, I was encouraged “to do as much as you can on your own, or as part of
your class with the students help.” No one volunteers my cheap labor for projects other than me, buddy.

Through the reconfiguration of our program offerings, Geography and Environmental Studies students are required to have an internship or directed study as part of their capstone research experience. I was able to find a student that really excelled at contributing to OpenStreetMap and asked him if he would be interested in working on updating three map services: Google (via Map Maker), OpenStreetMap (via JOSM) and ESRI’s Community Base Map via (ArcInfo for Advanced Desktops). He agreed and began working on updating Google Maps. I finally bit the bullet, signed into Map Maker and started working with him on some of the edits.

Tomorrow, how Map Maker can only make bad maps.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2011. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Google Map Maker, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap

ArcGIS: strong enough for Server, pH balanced for Desktop

John Reiser — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 03:31:54 +0000

James Fee pointed out how ArcGIS is undergoing minor rewording as part of the changes coming to the software at version 10.1.

Those were the good ol' days

One thing to note is that the ArcView license level is now Basic, while the ArcEditor level is Standard. While this brings ArcGIS (for) Desktop in line with the terminology used to describe current ArcGIS Server licensing (Basic, Standard, Advanced), something about ArcEditor being Standard strikes me odd. Perhaps it’s part of being in academia too long, but it seems like ArcEditor isn’t a big seller for ESRI. To me, those looking for the additional functionality over what is offered with ArcView would opt for ArcInfo, completely bypassing Editor. Also, we have (almost) always had ArcInfo licenses for the computer labs, while the Educational Time-out discs provided to students would have the ArcView level license. This two-level mentality must resonate with more people than just me. A recent change is that the last time I requested discs for ArcGIS 9 at the beginning of 2011, ESRI sent us 9.3 ArcEditor-level educational discs. And the ArcGIS 10 education discs I recently received are ArcInfo level. So is ArcView going to be phased out as the “entry-level” ArcGIS? And is ~~ArcEditor~~ ArcGIS for Desktop Standard going to see a decrease in price?

While I personally will miss the quirkiness of ESRI’s licensing terminology, I can see why it is being done. The progression of Basic, Standard, Advanced is clear while View, Editor, Info is not. Especially with the fact that some people are still using ArcView 3 (uninstall, already!) which is completely distinct from the ArcMap program in ArcGIS (for Desktop) 8.x and later.

What’s still unanswered for me is what happens to some of the other “ArcGIS” products. ArcPad? ArcGIS Explorer? ArcReader? They don’t get fancy new names?

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ArcGIS, ArcGIS Server, ArcPad, ESRI, James Fee, rebranding

Some thoughts on the ESRI DevSummit

John Reiser — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 03:29:16 +0000

I’m back from the sixth ESRI DevSummit. It was a great event full of informative sessions, socializing and networking. This was one of the first conferences in a while where I did not participate more than simply attending. The DevSummit is truly for devoted developers and while I do some development, it’s nowhere near what I could call full time. Many of the user presentations were incredible displays of GIS geekery and I’m still in awe with what some people are doing with the software.(...)
Read the rest of Some thoughts on the ESRI DevSummit on my blog.

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Post tags: ArcGIS, Development, DevSummit, ESRI, GIS, mobile, Software

Repetitive tasks are what computers do best.

John Reiser — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 03:50:33 +0000

James Fee recently noted that 2011 will be the year of scripting GIS tasks using Python. I’d like to share a few thoughts I had while reading his writeup.

Back in 2003, when I was learning GIS using ArcGIS 8, I wanted to put together a map of lottery winners in New Jersey by ZIP code. (I’ve since recreated the map as a set of interactive web maps.) I wrote a quick and dirty script in Perl that hit the State Lottery’s website and downloaded the number of winners in each ZIP code. After I came out of “the zone” and watched the script work away, I thought, “why can’t I do that with ArcGIS?” I wasn’t going to manually type in each ZIP code and insert my findings into a table. Considering it was a “let’s see if I can do it” project, I would have likely lost interest before getting all of my data. I knew better than to go the data-entry route and wrote a script to do it for me. Repetitive, mindless tasks are what computers do best – I was able to have it gather data (tedious, but necessary) to allow me to make the maps (the fun part) in an afternoon. Being able to automate some of the tedious aspects of GIS would be a blessing.

(...)
Read the rest of Repetitive tasks are what computers do best. on my blog.

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Post tags: AML, ArcGIS, Avenue, ESRI, python, scripting

ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap

John Reiser — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:58:14 +0000

ESRI has just released an add-in for ArcGIS 10 allowing ArcGIS users to download data from and contribute to OpenStreetMap. Marten Hogeweg announced the tool and news spread pretty quickly. While I agree with the favorable reception the tool has received, it’s still in need of work. Having said that, I must also say that this is the first tool I’ve come across that reliably downloads OSM data into a geodatabase based on a user-defined extent. Coupled with a basic symbology tool, it provides very easy access to OSM data. The average GIS user is not one that is necessarily comfortable with XML-formatted data; they want “a shapefile” and this tool delivers that. The retrieval by extent functionality is very important – in a state like New Jersey where we have 566 small municipalities, a GIS user in a borough or even a county would be inclined to download just their area of interest. The statewide shapefile downloads provided by CloudMade left something to be desired.

While the download functionality is pretty straightforward, the workflow to contribute edits back to OSM is a little convoluted. I’ll take you through the process as I downloaded a portion of Rowan University’s campus and updated OSM with some recent changes on campus. First, I opened a new map document, added in the 2007 aerial photography (for reference) and set my coordinate system to NJ State Plane in feet.

Getting Started

Starting out with the bare minimum is worth commenting on. All you need to get started is a geodatabase. The tool will even create the feature dataset in which the point, line and polygon feature classes are stored. I created a file geodatabase and started the “Download and Symbolize OSM” model, which does pretty much what it says.

Download and Symbolize OSM Data

With both the Download tool and the Download & Symbolize model, you can specify an extent and the tool will only retrieve data intersecting or contained by that bounding box. The script allows you to work in your native projection system, as the extent values are converted into WGS 84 coordinates. You then specify a name for your new feature dataset (different from most 9.3 tools, where the tool expects it to already exist) and the names for three symbology layers.

(...)
Read the rest of ArcGIS Editor for OpenStreetMap on my blog.

ArcGIS available on the iPhone

John Reiser — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:34:04 +0000

ArcGIS on the iPhone

ESRI has released ArcGIS for iPhone. It’s now available through the App Store. It’s an iPad/iPhone app, so it should work well on both. I just tried it out on my iPhone, and it’s pretty snappy. The data loads quickly and the interface is clean. There are many layers already available through the app, such as OpenStreetMap.

I like the support for ArcGIS Server, as we will be able to provide our local data to iPhone users. I hope that a later revision will also support WMS, as there are many more free and useful WMS-based services out there than ArcGIS services. Greater support for GPS would be useful. ArcGIS for iPhone can locate you using the embedded GPS, but I don’t believe you can use the GPS to record features. I believe these features will come. James Fee points out that ESRI’s response to the UC FAQ regarding iOS support is positive, claiming that updates will feature editing and geoprocessing. As much as I prefer to edit on a big, widescreen monitor, it would be nice to update my data on the go.

If you have an iPhone or iPad, download it for free from the App Store and check it out.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: App Store, ArcGIS, ESRI, iPhone, OpenStreetMap

Script: Geotagged Photos to GIS

John Reiser — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:49:33 +0000

One of the data deliverables to the NJ National Guard as part of our GIS Internship program is photo and video documentation of the state’s Readiness Centers. There’s even a SDSFIE (a somewhat complicated, cumbersome data schema) entity type specifically for the location where photographs were taken. (Aside: it’s not surprising that “photograph_location_point” is in SDSFIE, because it seems like everything is in SDSFIE.) We have some cameras that have integrated GPS, so we’ve used them for documenting the field work. The problem was, “how do we get geotagged photos into GIS?”

I think it’s somewhat ridiculous that ArcGIS Explorer has the ability to add geotagged photos to the map, but ArcGIS Desktop doesn’t have a built-in means of recognizing geotagged photos. ArcCatalog already examines JPGs it finds for additional information in the case that the JPG is a spatially-aware aerial photo or a rectified map. Even a tool for creating a feature class out of geotagged photos would be great.(...)
Read the rest of Script: Geotagged Photos to GIS on my blog.

© John Reiser for new jersey geographer, 2010. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ArcGIS, geotagging, National Guard, python, scripting, SDSFIE

Google making Map Maker data available for download

John Reiser — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 03:58:31 +0000

Starting with Kenya, Google is allowing users to download the base data collected through the Map Maker service, as either KML or Shapefile format. Google’s licensing allows for only non-commercial use. Hopefully, this data will support some of the non-profit mapping efforts taking place on the continent. The license also restricts (or at least, severely limits) competition with services provided by Google. This puts OpenStreetMap in an odd position – OSM is restricted from incorporating the data into its own service. Considering OSM has been around since 2004 and Map Maker only 2008, and seeing how many people in over 100 countries have been offering Google data, OSM needs to better align (or contrast) itself with the work Google is doing. One of the reasons I believe Map Maker has gathered the amount of user-generated content in the past year is that Map Maker is incredibly easy to use and if you do run into issues, there is clear and concise help. This is compared to the OSM Beginner’s Guide. Now, I understand that OSM is geared towards a more technical audience than the Map Maker service, but OSM needs to spend more time fostering a community outside of the devoted submitters. What is going to prevent Google from offering up a GIS service akin to the Virtual Earth on ArcGIS platform currently being offered by ESRI and Microsoft? A service built on TA/Navteq data, enhanced with local knowledge? A service that is available now from OSM, but much easier to use? Providing base data for Kenya is just the beginning.

Mikel Maron has some more thoughts about OSM and Map Maker, as well as some comparison screenshots. (Via Mapperz)

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Post tags: ArcGIS, Google Map Maker, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, Virtual Earth, Volunteered Information

MapMPG, ESRI’s practical BusinessMap demo

John Reiser — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:07:17 +0000

ESRI recently unveiled MapMPG, a demostration site using BusinessMap and ArcGIS Server with a Flex front end. It allows you to choose a point and visualize the range two different car makes could travel on one gallon of gas. It’s fun to compare your car to a gas-guzzler like a Hummer or Bentley, or to a dainty sipper like the smart fortwo or the Honda Insight.

The application should be beefed up with additional information on the technology behind it. I assume that if you’re reading this blog, you have an understanding of how the various components come together to give you the map and gallon ranges. The average person, however, doesn’t understand how much more involved this application is compared to something mapped using Google’s My Maps. ESRI needs to capitalize on the fact that they’ve got an attractive – and more importantly, relevant – example of the importance of GIS in daily life.

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Post tags: ArcGIS Server, BusinessMap, ESRI, Web Mapping

ArcGIS 9.3 now shipping

John Reiser — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:48:15 +0000

ESRI’s ArcGIS 9.3 has now been released and should be arriving soon if you’ve kept your ~~tithing~~ maintenance up to date.

Post your hopes and expectations of 9.3 in the comments below.

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Post tags: ArcGIS, ESRI, Updates