ESRI Conference at PSU

So, last week, just before I caught the plague, I was lucky enough to attend the ArcGIS 10 user conference held on the Penn State main campus.  We arrived fashionably late, sat in the back of the ballroom, and were therefore first in line for the buffet.  I became violently ill that very evening, so I would like to take this opportunity to publicly apologize to the 150 people who touched the salad tongs after me.  Also, so sorry for anyone who voted at the far left voting booth at the Penn Township Municipal Building after 4pm.  Ahem.

There was no name tag printed for me, and I have to say, my one regret about the day is that I lacked the courage to steal another person's name tag.  Said person registered for the conference and did not show up.  Said person was named "JingJing Wang".  Holy God.  I think JingJing Wang was too busy being awesome to attend.  And so nameless, I attended the conference.  Damn.  I can't believe I was too chicken to become JingJing Wang.  I guess I'm not ready to be that awesome.

Really, the main thing that I got from the conference, to distill down to a nice blog-bite, is that ArcGIS Online is pretty freaking rad.  Sure, it's no ArcGIS 10, or anything, but then again it's free.  Just make an account (I am ArnoldJudasRimmer*, because I am a colossal geek) and you can make, post, share, and edit maps online.  For FREE.


View Larger Map

Above is a super simple map of my old neighborhood with a subway overlay that took me about 2 minutes to make.  Just zoom to location, add basemaps (same ones we use with ArcGIS 10) and any layers you would like to add, from ArcGIS Online or elsewhere.  Simple and easy to share.  I'd really recommend starting an account and playing around with the website.  It's pretty nice.

And you can also make presentations.  Here is a particularly nice one by "bszukalski" showing more of what can be done using ArcGIS Online.

View Larger Map, click "Start Presentation" to view






*

Lister and Rimmer
"It's cold outside, there's no kind of atmosphere..."