As the week is winding down and you are focusing on overlooked emails or traveling back to home-base from the Esri Dev Summit in Palm Springs, let's take a trip down memory lane. I would like to bundle up the neat articles we came across this week as part of #DailyBrainCandiii as well as our favorite #MapOfTheDay post. Sit back, relax, and enjoy that cup of coffee. It's on us. (Well, not really, but...you know.)
For those who take advantage of base maps provided within the ArcGIS platform, you now have one more option from which to choose. Esri released a sample vector base map designed specifically to create maps related to human geography. Consisting of three separate vector tile layers - Label, Detail, and Base - this Human Geography Basemap looks like that of the Light Gray Canvas map, but offers much more insight to human geographic components.
We would not say Tableau is set to replace ArcGIS in the mapping world. These pieces of software differ greatly in their application and industries after all. We will say, their latest release has seen strides in encouraging support for spatial data and mapping. Wrapped within a slew of other features, Tableau 10.2 now allows for the loading of spatial data via shapefiles (.shp). Although not the full breadth of file support that the average geographer may need, it helps to provide a gateway drug to heavier mapping and analyses practices.
Besides, if you need to visualize more widely used file types like Feature Classes, we do have Integrated Portage to help you out. Converting that data to Tableau Data Extract (TDE) files is the next best thing.
Pop-up shops are all the rage these days. Whether they be based around shopping local goods or crafting terrariums that will just collect dust, people love the sense of community involved with their favorite activities - or just trying something new. Now, thanks to a group in St. Louis, cartography is getting the pop-up shop treatment. Map Room, opening this month, will be hosted in the city for forty days, bringing together groups in the community to make fifty 10 by 10 foot maps, each inscribed with locations, routes, and artifacts of the groups' lived experiences and narratives in the city. Personally, I love this idea and maybe even wish I had thought of it myself. I'm not jealous. You're jealous. It sounds like an incredible project to bolster community participation and geographic awareness, exposing people to experiences they would not normally encounter.
We have shared a few articles centered around Big Data in the last couple weeks. It is always a hot topic. As companies continue embracing it, they need to understand how to get the most out of it. This article lists off a few integration steps to avoid, like neglecting security and not having a clear strategy when approaching data collection. These concepts may apply to any industry, whether it be natural resources, utilities, environmental, health, etc.
"Data by itself is relatively one-dimensional and not at all useful - it doesn't mean much without insight how to best use it."
If you are reading this, you have most likely had to create a map at some point in your professional career. If you have not, this is a great article for figuring out what elements typically need to be included. I would list them here, but you know...there are a few of them. It would not be quite as much fun reading about them without pictures, short attention span or not.
Map of the Day - The World's Largest City Over Time
This week's #MapOfTheDay pick goes to a time-lapse of shifting world power, changes throughout history of global cities with the largest population. The data on which the visualization is based comes from Ian Morris's book Why the West Rules - For Now. The original map and article may be found on our Twitter or on The Australian's website here, but may be behind a paywall.
What Else is There?
Have a few more minutes to spare? In addition to the above #DailyBrainCandiii posts, we also highlighted a couple key products in our spotlights this week.
Fresh on the market, our latest #MarcoMonday post was dedicated to Integrated Marco Pro. An Add-In for ArcGIS Pro, this solution combines Knowledge Management, inventory, and conversion tools previously only present in Integrated Marco Desktop for the ArcGIS Pro environment. The goal of this software is to better transition from ArcMap to Esri's newest platform, complete with the least amount of keyboard smashing as possible.
In addition to Integrated Marco Pro, we also covered Integrated Guardian in our #MeetTheProduct post of the week. Developed in our office in St. John's, this web application helps to view, manage, and analyze the hoards of data that often come with an organization's Environmental Assessment (EA) and Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) programs. It is a handy tool with an even handier interface.
#DailyBrainCandiii and #WeekliiiRoundUp are inspired by brain candiii, a division of Integrated Informatics that develops Geographic Information System (GIS) training for Energy and Natural Resources professionals.