10 replies to this topic

[pghardy]

Hello folks,

I'm currently "Product Manager for Cartography" for ESRI in Redlands California. I have a role to coordinate developments relating to cartography across the organisation, and try and make sure that the software meets the needs of the cartographic community.

I've also been acting as a software project leader on the development of some exciting new cartographic capabilities under way for inclusion in 'a future release of ArcGIS'.

I don't actually have any formal cartographic qualifications, but I have been in the digital mapping business for 30 years, and have been taught on the job by some of the best cartographers in the industry.

Prior to ESRI, I worked for Laser-Scan in Cambridge England for 28 years. I was Chief Programmer there and was the architect of the LAMPS mapping software suite, which started in the 1970s and was and is still used to create maps in major agencies (Ordnance Survey, UKHO, AA, George Philips, AIDU, ..., INEGI Mexico, CTI Canada, ...). I was also the project leader on the LAMPS2 object-oriented mapping suite that superceded it, and then Chief Product Manager.

See my home web pages at http://www.paulhardy.net/ for more background.

I am a Fellow of the British Cartographic Society and a Member of the British Computer Society, and supposedly can put MBCS FBCartS after my name (but never do!).

As I've been "toolsmith to the mapping industry" rather than a production cartographer, I don't have many maps to my name, but a few years ago I did a map of my village, starting from ground survey with GPS and taking my own aerial photography. See http://www.paulhardy.../comberton/map/.

I'm interested in CartoTalk as a way of keeping up with directions in cartography, and of meeting people who like maps. I liked the definition given at NACIS last week of the NACIS being "a drinking club for people with a mapping problem"!

Although I work for ESRI, any posts here will by my own opinons and don't necessarily reflect those of the company. If you want official pronouncements, look on the esri.com website.

Regards,

Paul.

[Mike H]

welcome Paul! I enjoyed your comments at many of the sessions - and the insights of all the ESRI-ites: Peter, Tim, David, Aileen and Charlie... probably missed a few others... you guys are doing so many neat things it's really hard to stay on top of it all!

[loximuthal]

Welcome Paul. And great job at the Geodweeb Geopardy!

[Martin Gamache]

Welcome Paul,

The large team from ESRI at NACIS was great to see and the perspective you bring is always welcome.

Martin Gamache

[ELeFevre]

Welcome to the forum, Paul! Thanks for the great info at the conference. Thank you also for keeping the conversation alive at the Plenary breakfast. We were sitting at the same table:) Erin

[frax]

great to see you here, and welcome!

I'd love to discuss the future of cartography in ArcGIS more! As you might see here, most of us here just want to get the data out of arcmap as soon as possible (I don't recall anyone active on this board actually making maps in in ArcMap).

My interest in cartography and ESRI also extends to ArcIMS (which has not improved in cartographic capabilities the last versions, in my view)

[David T]

great to see you here, and welcome!

I'd love to discuss the future of cartography in ArcGIS more! As you might see here, most of us here just want to get the data out of arcmap as soon as possible (I don't recall anyone active on this board actually making maps in in ArcMap).

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'll put my hand up - these days, I'm exclusively making maps in ArcGIS. At least, at my day job I do. Even with my freelance business, though, depending upon the job, I may use ArcGIS exclusively for production. Depends upon the needs.

Paul - welcome to the board. Glad to have you here. I was really impressed with the next 'Carto swipe' that's coming in 9.2. Looks really cool, and can't wait to try it out.

[Martin Gamache]

[- these days, I'm exclusively making maps in ArcGIS. 

FPM

you should post some of them in the Gallery

mg

[pfyfield]

Paul,

I really appreciate ESRI's presence at NACIS. In my work (Bureau of Land Management, Oregon State Office), we do all of our printed cartography in Illustrator, but increasingly we are feeling the need to produce more finished maps directly out of ArcMap as pdfs or plots. The UC in San Diego can be a little overwhelming (for you too, I'm sure), so it's good to have the ability to interact with you (and Charlie and Aileen) in the less hectic atmosphere NACIS provides.

[Lori Martin]

great to see you here, and welcome!

I'd love to discuss the future of cartography in ArcGIS more! As you might see here, most of us here just want to get the data out of arcmap as soon as possible (I don't recall anyone active on this board actually making maps in in ArcMap).

My interest in cartography and ESRI also extends to ArcIMS (which has not improved in cartographic capabilities the last versions, in my view)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I too must come out of the closet! Most of the maps I make are done in ArcMap. I attended a sneak preview of ArcGIS 9.2 at the Canadian Cartographic Assoc. Annual Conference this past July. It's getting there... I have recently started to produce our presentation maps in Illustrator.

[pghardy]

great to see you here, and welcome!

I'd love to discuss the future of cartography in ArcGIS more! As you might see here, most of us here just want to get the data out of arcmap as soon as possible (I don't recall anyone active on this board actually making maps in in ArcMap).

My interest in cartography and ESRI also extends to ArcIMS (which has not improved in cartographic capabilities the last versions, in my view)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks to everyone for the welcome!

There are plenty of people producing maps with ArcMap (at a certain level of cartographic quality, or for particular kinds of mapping). However, the whole point of the new representations stuff destined for 9.2 was to let people do much better cartographic quality, for more types of maps, and hence for more people to be able to do the whole job there rather than having to bail out to a graphics package.

Because of my focus for the last year on the ArcMap 9.2 representation stuff, I haven't spent much time with the ArcIMS people, but hope to do more in future.

Note that ArcIMS is (and I think always will be) focussed on high-volume, fast response, relatively simple web mapping. ArcGIS Server is aimed much more at providing full-function web services, and can produce web mapping of much the same quality as the ArcGIS desktop (including using the new cartographic representations stuff of 9.2)

Usual caveats apply - I speak as myself not as ESRI.