In January, ESRI held its 6th Federal User Group meeting in Washington, D.C. According to Jack Dangermond's introduction, the first iteration drew 60-70 people, with about 50% growth each year. This year 1,500 people were pre-registered. One ESRI employee joked that it's probably the second largest GIS conference in the United States. He may well be correct.

In his morning address, Dangermond highlighted many of the ideas from last year's user conference. The new underlying theme, I think, is that we are moving from a "tools and data" approach to GIS into an "intelligent" GIS. That intelligent GIS is built on five key parts and is further along the data € information € knowledge continuum than we've ever been before.

Another key term heard throughout the day was "federated," which I had to look up to be sure I understood. Federated, according to Dictionary.com, means "to cause to join into a league, federal union, or similar association." Or in GIS terms, Dangermond noted, it's a system that's distributed, networked, interoperable (has a "dial tone"), collaborative, and service-based.

In speaking about interoperability, Dangermond highlighted the move from conversion, to direct reading of other formats, to data storage in a standard way in a database (using OGC's Simple Features Specification), to Web Services. I think this is the first time I've seen that technology added to the end of this list, but it seems a logical step.

The View from Congress

Representative Adam Putnam, of Florida's 12th District, chairs the Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations, and the Census. He presented a keynote focusing for the most part on the challenges of knowing how money is spent on geospatial data and how to prevent duplicative acquisition of that data. He noted more than once that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had trouble determining spending on geospatial data. In the end, OMB guessed that spending was $2-4 billion and about half of that spending might be duplicative.

Part of the reason that geospatial doesn't get its due attention on the Hill, Putnam noted, is that some members of Congress are simply not tuned in to technology. As he put it, some of his colleagues "think a Blackberry is what you put on your cereal and that a Palm is state tree of Florida." He got his own sense of the complexity of geospatial issues when trying to retrieve a map from the NOAA website for a fishing expedition. A relatively savvy user, he had a challenging time finding what he needed.

While Putnam noted that progress is being made, he doesn't pretend everything is rosy. We "are not seeing coordinated leadership" he noted. He made it clear that the nation needs someone to answer the question about how much we spend on geospatial data and how to prevent duplication. That's not yet someone's job, he admitted. The next hearing on geospatial, to follow up on the one last June, is already planned for this year.

Putnam wrapped up by making the memorable statement that geospatial technology "challenges our traditional way of organizing our government." I'll suggest that may be another reason for the complexity of moving it forward at the federal level.

The View from the Department of Interior

The final keynote presentation of the morning was from Hank Garie, Executive Director of Geospatial One-Stop. He was joined by Barb Ryan of USGS and Ivan Deloatch new staff director of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), in what was a preview of a session the following day. The goal of the keynote, and the later session, was to help make clear the relationships among Geospatial One-Stop (GOS), The National Map, and FGDC. I was pleased that Garie and the others were clearly listening to the confusion of federal, state, and local organizations on this matter. Garie made it clear that "we" are in this together. I like to think by "we" he means all U.S. federal, state, and local GIS users, though the room held only ESRI software users.

Garie then went on to explain that the three leaders of the programs had come together to clarify roles, leverage collective resources, and convey a clear message. That message in a nutshell, also reiterated in a session the following day on the Future of NSDI, is this: FGDC is charged with creating policy, standards, and training to support NSDI, while GOS takes on providing access to geospatial data ("Gateway to Discovery") and The National Map focuses on "causing the construction" of content. That simple statement is a huge step forward.

Products

The focus then shifted to products, with Clint Brown taking the helm. Brown reiterated some of Dangermond's ideas and recalled a 1980s paper by ESRI Director of Software Development Scott Morehouse, that highlighted a structure for GIS: simple data storage and rich tools. That vision had morphed in time to the object relational model (simple features being abstracted into objects) and the current move to a "knowledgebase."

A demo of some of the new goodies in ArcGIS 9.0 included:

• rasters stored as attributes (raster can just be "put it in the geodatabase"-the example was a scanned well log associated with a well)

• URLs in the database are now "hot" meaning there's no need to explicitly create hotlinks

• a data interoperability extension which embeds Safe Software's 70+ supported formats (some direct, some via import/export, more on that below)

• a "one stop" label manager, and enhanced labeling (via a Mapplex Extension) did an amazing job placing "unplaced" labels by using a series of user defined parameters prioritizing different label placement factors

There was one other impressive labeling feat: masking linework so that the value of, say contours, can be clearly seen.

Another set of tools are the type I'm used to seeing in the CAD world-the ones that "save clicks." In ArcGIS 9.0 you can:

• click the space bar to turn layers on and off

• use the enter key to bring up layer properties

• use a key to "pause" drawing while turning on and off a whole series of layers. Once the new configuration is set, it's time to resume drawing as a single drawing event instead of the very slow process as each layer tries to draw separately. This demo drew considerable applause.

Another goodie available at ArcGIS 9.0 is an enhanced ArcGIS Publisher Extension. Recall that's the tool to make data for ArcReader, the free viewer intended to ease data distribution challenges. ESRI has solved the problem of "where the data goes." ArcGIS Publisher will now automatically package up all the data (from CAD, Web services, raster, etc.) so it can travel along with the PMF (that's the format for ArcReader maps).

What followed was a long look at the modeling tools and the five ways to create models including via a scripting language like Python and via Model Builder, the graphic interface. A group exploring flooding in Texas combined its workflow into a complex model and found that maps that once took a week are now created in two minutes.

ArcGlobe with its 3D rendering might be considered "eye candy." That's not so, says Clint Brown. He positions ArcGlobe as a tool for large global data exploration in an interactive environment. The product, part of the 3D Analyst Extension is delivered with a basic worldwide database. Brown noted that the first iteration of ArcGlobe will be built for visualization. In time ESRI will add cartography and other, more analytical tools.

Developer tools are perhaps one of the strongest offerings in ArcGIS 9.0. ArcGIS Server provides a multi-user server solution, simplified management on a single machine and lower cost of administration and I believe, licensing. ArcGIS Server offers complete GIS functionality (that is, all of ArcGIS) and clients can be fat desktop ones or thin Web ones. Engine and Server will run on several platforms including Solaris, RedHat Linux, and Windows. Developers can use .NET, C# or Java for their work.

ArcSDE retains its role as the "gateway to multi-user relational database management systems" and keeper of long transactions. What's new? Down the road expect support for open source databases. MySQL and PostGres were both mentioned.

The final discussion addressed ArcIMS, clearly defined as a tool for GIS Web publishing and Web services. Brown went on to say that it was the "primary publication technology in use today [in GIS]" with some 25,000 implementations. For many users, he noted, it's the first step toward an enterprise implementation. There are four new ArcIMS extensions in the works:

• Data Delivery-which integrates Safe Software's SpatialDirect and allows "clip/zip/ship" functionality in many formats

• Portal Extension-to build custom Geospatial One-Stop-like portals

• Route Server-to allow routing

• Tracking Server-for the display of live data feeds ("Tracking Analyst for ArcIMS")

Instead of new flashy demos, we saw some real federal uses of ArcIMS from the Federal Aviation Administration, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and United States Postal Service.

For those who want to add it their calendars, Dangermond said ArcGIS 9.0 would probably follow this release schedule. After a solid third beta, the software would be "gold" (that is, ready to go to manufacturing) in March with release to customers in April. Remember, he said probably.