GIS - Removing The Barriers Of Geography To Open The Corridors Of Knowledge

With ESRI, hosting Dev Meet Ups across the country, I wanted to share why these little events are huge opportunities. An invaluable resource that any developer can acquire is connecting with knowledgeable developers in their field. Unfortunately, there are usually barriers that prevent some developers from accessing them. But even the developers that have access to what is needed to attend events, there is another roadblock that must be addressed. Which events are the best? What event will help me grow in my field and meet others that would be of value to my gowth? There are many questions that can be asked, but the point is; nobody can go to everything and travelling can have a negative impact on the time for which anyone has to gain knowledge.

Now, we have ESRI Dev Meet Ups for the first time, and for many a barrier of meeting fellow developers and ESRI staff has been removed. Don't be too quick to dismiss such an opportunity as something that may not pertain to you or your organization as some of the good things that can be taken away from events never has been, never is, and never will be advertised. Here are a few.

I have had the opportunity to meet the founder and President of ESRI, Jack Dangermond while taking Developing ArcGIS Server Applications with the Web ADF. If you want to know how I got that chance; I will tell you my secret. I walked up to him and introduced myself. He was having lunch with someone at the campus cafeteria, but I enjoy GIS so much that this was not going to  be an excuse not to meet Jack. I am glad to have had the opportunity to meet him and I know from reputation and experience that the GIS community is very important to Jack and what we have to say. If you have the opportunity to meet him; I encourage it.

My Developing ArcGIS Server Applications with the Web ADF in .NET was taught by Rob Burke, the author of Getting to Know ArcObjects: Programming ArcObjects with VBA. He was helpful during training as well as away and I hope that you get the chance to take one of his classes as well. His presentation and knowledge add quality to the course content that can not be purchased.

During the same time period, I went to the DevSummit and met Jim Barry, ESRI EDN Manager. Well, I introduced myself to him to. I had plenty of questions and ideas. He is very interested in listening to what the developer community has to say and meeting their needs as a whole while the individual is also important, they don't take precedence over the community. And Jim will be at most of the Meet Ups. This alone is an excellent reason for all developers that can; to attend a Meet Up in their area. If you have ideas bring them and talk to Jim about them. If there is something that frustrates you or is just a concern as a developer, don't complain to the world, communicate with Jim and your fellow developers at the Meet Up.

I want to thank the City of Decatur for the opportunities that I have had for training, conferences, and other GIS events of which I have had the chance to attend. Because of these opportunities, this is the third year in a row that I have been formally recognized in the field of GIS.

In 2008,  I was the Grand Prize Winner of the ArcGIS 9.3 Release Candidate Incentive Program which allowed for me to donate the prize, an annual EDN subscription saving the city over $1,000 so that they would not need to purchase the software that I used for development.

In 2009, I was published in GIS Notes and online magazine produced by ILGISA, who is having their fall conference next month on October 20-21 2010.

And this year, ESRI asked me to provide a keynote for developers migrating from the Web ADF, an API that is being deprecated by ESRI. I will talk about migrating to the JavaScript API 2.0 and integrating JavaScript libraries, but I have developed in Silverlight as well.

I will be covering new areas that you will not see on ESRI's website including separating content, presentation, and functionality; unobtrusive JavaScript to allow for development in multiple JavaScript libraries and learn how to make the ScriptManager work with the JSAPI so you can use the AJAX Control Toolkit in the .NET Framework 4.0. In addition, I Beta tested Visual Studio 2010.

Finally, I will be sharing a new custom tool that I have created. You may have or might be using this tool, at this time, but the one I will be sharing  will remove complexity be more powerful than many like it. It will be for both C# and VB.NET in Silverlight and the JSAPI 2.0.

Don't forget while you may have started developing in these new API's, this is a good time to make a connection with developers that work in the API of your choice, allowing you to connect after the Meet Up is over when your application appears to be disconnected or simply breaks and it will.

Want to know what the new tool that I spoke about is? I plan on sharing it exclusively at the ESRI Dev Meet Up in Decatur, Illinois on September 16th! So register now and get the word out.Tweet that!

Talk to you real soon. Or do you want to hear more? If you do, check out Part II and learn about how and why the Web Dev Network was created, and why it even surprised me.

Chris