Hello once again!

When I concluded yesterday’s report I immediately raced off to a meeting with Roger Tomlinson.

I’m not going to go into too many details at this time, but I will say that I had a very captivating hour and a half discussion with the man who’s ideas, theories, and dedication to the field of geography gave root to what we now refer to as GIS.

He walked me through a timeline of GIS, commencing with the work he did in the 60’s establishing a digital land base in Canada known as the Canada Land Inventory. He shared stories of his experiences consulting on GIS projects in many parts of the world, including South America, Australia, and the US.

Dr. Tomlinson was very excited to discuss GIS in education, particularly regarding the mandatory GIS curriculum that now exists in the Ontario school system. He made a point of making sure that I understood that he sees geography not merely as a discipline, or science, but that it is an idea...

But, enough for now. I’ll be summarizing my entire fascinating discussion with Dr. Tomlinson in a "feature" article at a later date.

After discussing the past history of GIS with its founder, ironically, I then proceeded to a session dedicated to the FUTURE of GIS.

ArcPad 5

Shane Clark, ESRI’s ArcPad product manager hosted an intro to ArcPad 5... a product that he billed not as stand alone product but an extension to ArcView, ArcInfo, and ArcGIS.

The product is designed to meet the needs of those who require real-time data capture capabilities, as well as the ability to edit, update, and query GIS data in the field.

ArcPad has been developed for the non-GIS end user and thus, offers a very easy to use interface that users can quickly get up and running in the mobile and wireless computing environment.

ArcPad took it's roots from a product developed in 1995 known as MapPad. The first version actually ran on the Apple Newton platform and was subsequently ported to the Windows CE environment in its third version released in 1998.

ArcPad runs on Windows CE devices. Clark gives the following reasons for selecting the Windows CE platform, which reportedly has no more than 20% of the market share:

• 32-bit multi-tasking
• Fast CPU processing
• 32 MB on board memory
• Good screen color and size
• Compact flash card
• Similar interface to Windows

Windows CE devices that support ArcPad include:

• Palm size devices
• Handheld PC’s
• Ruggedized PC’s
• Laptops
• Pen tablets
• Field PC’s
• Cell Phones

ArcPad requires Windows CE 2.1 or later and reads SHP formatted vector data (points, lines, and polygon data types are all supported), as well as MrSID, JPEG, BMP, and CADRG raster data.

It should be noted that raster data must be referenced using a World file and must be either 8 or 24 bit data. This version does a good job supporting multiple map projections and also has some built in metadata management capabilities.

For real time data capture, ArcPad supports GPS receivers that follow NMEA, TSIP, or Delorme Earthmate protocols. In the US, this means you can use TSIP, Ashtech, or Magellan GPS units. ArcPad will interface with your existing systems using a cradle, modem connection, or LAN card.

To export existing data from ArcView, an extension known as ArcPad Tools is available. Users can easily select data from SHP files (or entire PRJ files) and export to an APP project, which can then be accessed from a Windows CE device running ArcPad.

ArcPad Tools also enables form creation so that field users can easily enter data without fussing about database design.

New features to come in ArcPad 5.0.1:

• Free upgrade for existing users
• Support for pocket PC
• Enhanced GPS support
• Improved form and find tools
• Longer evaluation time

The upcoming version 5.1 promises to include an application builder, enabling developers to customize ArcPad using plug in dll’s. The ArcPad Beta program will commence this August. The final release for ArcPad 5.1 is tentatively set for late 4th Quarter 2000.

Clarke left off by encouraging wireless developers and business partners to develop add on products and extensions for ArcPad. All in all, I found ArcPad to be very simple to use and I can confidently state that I could immediately return to the office tomorrow, get my ArcView data onto a CE handheld device and take it into the field!

I was very interested to find out that ArcPad actually takes it roots from a company in Australia known as R.I.A TerraSystems. I met the development crew from R.I.A and they graciously filled me in on the history of their company and road they took to make ArcPad a reality. The guys from down under were a real pleasure to talk to and I had a great time discussing the mobile computing business with them as we took in the festivities and a couple of beers at a corporate party on Wednesday night.

The rest of my day was spent meeting several hundreds of people at our booth and distributing the ever-popular GeoCommunity T-shirts to the swarms of people crowding around our booth. No doubt, we definitely have the most popular freebie once again!

Also, the crew at Lizardtech gave me the low down on their free image viewing software and their latest product called DjVu (pronounced deja view). DjVu was very cool and is an excellent must-have tool for engineering companies, local government, and other users who need to web-enable vast quantities of plans, maps, or other scanned documents.

A special thanks to Lizardtech also for the excellent hospitality they showed us and a couple of hundred others at their corporate bash yesterday evening. The party was well coordinated and held on the deck overlooking the beautiful harbor.

Some more noteworthy personal observations, or "Letham Awards!"