ESRI founder Jack Dangermond gave a keynote speech focused on the multi-disciplined aspects of GIS that cross areas of interest throughout government and business. He highlighted Sacramento County's use of GIS to organize itself around parcel and street geo-codes and Philadelphia's use of GIS in census data that provides age-specific information about populations.
ESRI also presented Al Leidner, assistant commmissioner, (GIS), of New York City's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, with the President's Award. Leidner accepted the award on behalf od the GIS team for the city.
His speech also touched on international applications in economic development, environmental changes and health issues -- such as Kenya's ability to track the spread of AIDS in pregnant women.
Dangermond also said GIS can play a key role for governments in homeland security.
"Geographic information can provide a kind of foundation for homeland security and emergency management," he said. "This requires an integrated approach - an enterprise approach."
Dangermond spoke about the potential of enabling technologies such as networks and Web services that integrate information from disparate sources. He said that GIS software is changing to become more server-centric and that open standards based on interoperability and XML will further enhance the power of GIS.
These innovations will allow users to dynamically access information and share knowledge as never before, he said.
To cap off his presentation, Dangermond conducted a live global, digital tour, demonstrating a GIS view of the earth from space and zooming into specific features on the ground. The technology not only permitted a birds-eye view of the map but also a topographic view that traveled horizontally through land features.
Dangermond's speech also highlighted the role of GIS in sustaining the world and the communities that people live in.
"You and I are having an increased effect on our planet," he said. "Frankly, this is not sustainable. Sustainability means living within the regenerative capabilities of our environment."
GIS, he suggested, can help governments and organizations reverse this trend.
"I believe that geography and GIS provide a promising framework for a process for guiding and integrating our human activities with nature," he said. "This is a very distributed technology that will make a difference."
The conference will continue throughout the week, featuring GIS training classes and special events.
