Metaverse One

So I just got back from the ESRI User Conference 2013  in San Diego and wow, what a trip. Founded by Jack Dangermond, ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is an industry leader and international supplier of Geographic Information System ( GIS ) software and geodatabase management applications. The company has an installed base of more than one million users in more than 350,000 organizations, including most US federal agencies and national mapping agencies, all 50 US state health departments, transportation agencies, forestry companies, utilities, state and local government, schools and universities, NGOs, and commercial business. The user conference brought 15,000+ ESRI users from over 130 countries. Keynote presentations included Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information, Infrastructure, and Innovations Sam Pitroda  and an inspiring discussion with pop culture icon Will.i.am. For the record I am a B.E.P. fan but this interview was somethin...

Esri , a software development and services company providing Geographic Information System (GIS) software and geodatabase management applications, announced the availability of CityEngine Web Viewer in their ArcGIS Online product this week. For the double bonus, the viewer leverages WebGL . Yes, this means anyone with a WebGL-enabled browser (Chrome, Safari, Opera, FireFox) can navigate and explore uploaded 3D cities and environments created in CityEngine 2012. CityEngine is the software Esri acquired when they bought Switzerland based Procedural last year. CityEngine allows for rapid creation of 3D city models and is used in everything from movies and games (I first met the Procedural team at GDC ) to architectural and proposed development visualizations. I have watched people create rather detailed cities in a matter of minutes with this powerful tool. Since CityEngine is a desktop solution, these models were only able to be viewed within the software until...

A key element in the Metaverse, the convergence of the digital world with real, is Geographic Information Systems ( GIS ). So this weekend I took the chance to participate in my first OpenStreetMap mapping party. OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free editable map of the whole world that allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth. The data is under a Creative Commons license, contributed by OSM members, and collected by portable GPS devices, aerial photography, and a variety of free sources. Led by Sarah Manley (a great hostess) from CloudMade , the gathering was full of volunteers surprisingly from all around the country. After a brief presentation to OSM, I signed out a Garmin eTrex GPS unit, and hit the town. The unit was set to record my position every second so I became a nerd on a mission. This was my first time with a GPS unit, other than one in a car, and I wanted to collect coordinates on everything of interest around the city. ...