Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.7.2, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # High Earth Orbit Personal website of Andrew Turner. Writings on geospatial collaboration, software engineering, Washington D.C., and other individual musings. ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://highearthorbit.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Announcing AI Assistants for ArcGIS](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/announcing-ai-assistants-for-arcgis/) - Last week, I shared our work at Esri adding generative AI to ArcGIS. Over the past year, I've been leading a new ArcGIS Hub AI Assistant in close collaboration with the city of Washington, DC to support easy access and understanding of open data about the city. This work builds from my talk at the - [GeoAI and the Future of Mapping](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/geoai-and-the-future-of-mapping/) - I spoke at the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on the rapid emergence of "GeoAI" and the potential future of mapping. In particular, I focused on "Resiliency through Accessibility" Video Link My primary premise is that AI is not New - but that AI has become a lot easier to use. It - [Back to Baltimore for FOSS4G](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/back-to-baltimore-for-foss4g/) - Baltimore hosted the 2023 Free + Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G) North America conference, a geeky tech gathering focused on mapping technology and an even more eclectic community. While I have attended many FOSS4G events since the first in 2006 in Lausanne, Switzerland it's been a few years. It was terrific to see so many delightful people - [The Hidden Costs of Daylight Saving Time](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/the-hidden-costs-of-daylight-saving-time/) - Most people across the U.S. lost an hour of sleep last weekend. While the reason is the simple “spring forward” to Daylight Saving Time (DST), there are also significant hidden costs to time changes which should make us all lose more sleep. DST is like a bad Product Manager In 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested that - [Highlight Government Hubs at FedGIS 2023](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/highlight-government-hubs-at-fedgis-2023/) - Organizations are using ArcGIS Hub for climate resilience, disaster response, conflict accountability, and local policies. - [Civic Council game](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/civic-council-game/) - In October 2022, Nick Sementelli shared a concept that he and Alex Baca had conceived for experimenting with city council committees. This was a follow-on from our previous project for exploring neighborhood representatives and their stances on various policies. We developed a "Fantasy Council" game. Anyone can design their own Committees, choosing a Chair, members - [Understanding Local Elections](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/understanding-local-elections/) - Interested in knowing who you can vote for in DC's upcoming election? Check out the new GGWash election visualization and how it was built. - [Apple Geo](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/apple-geo/) - There was a lot of buzz yesterday around the not-new, but recently renewed interest in, Placebase's - and more specifically Jaron Waldman's - joining Apple in their "Geo Team". Putting aside the question about whether Apple purchased Placebase, it's more interesting and worthwhile to consider why Apple is interested in pulling in and working with technologists like Jaron - [Crisis Cartography](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/crisis-cartography/) - The technology and methodology of digital interactive cartography is nascent but evolving. The fields of human-computer interaction and GIS are converging from both the consumer market: "where is my nearest good restaurant?", as well as from the enterprise: "where should I open a new restaurant chain?". Designing useful interfaces requires understanding user workflows, iterative development - [Faith in Services, Trust in Data](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/faith-in-services-trust-in-data/) - Earlier this week Google announced Keep, their new service for quickly storing notes from your phone and online. As others have pointed out, it's similar to the popular Evernote. Feature comparisons aside, the launch of new services providing common, even essential, access to my information highlights a disconcerting trend. Faith in Services Underlying these product decisions is the manifestation of the - [Reboot into Action](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/reboot-into-action/) - Reboot into Action So I just finished attending my first Reboot - and as many people tried to explain before hand, "it's weird". Not just European Conference weird with completely different crowd, most attendees speaking in a foreign language (their own, or in English which is foreign to them), varying minor variations on "what matters", - [CrisisCommons and Congress](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/crisiscommons-and-congress/) - A little more than a year ago, a small group of volunteers coordinated to host the first CrisisCamp in Washington, DC. At the time, we just wanted to pull together first responders, technologists, government, NGO, and interested citizens to discuss crisis mitigation, response, and humanitarian relief efforts. The two-day event was a complete success in connecting these - [CrisisCommons at Harvard and Sloan Foundation](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/crisiscommons-at-harvard-and-sloan-foundation/) - Last week, Noel, Heather, Chiara and I traveled to Cambridge to speak at the Harvard Berkman Center. Surrounded by open internet luminaries such as Clay Shirky, Dave Weinberger, Ethan Zuckerman, and many others, we shared our experiences in creating CrisisCamp and growing the CrisisCommons. Our purpose was to gain insight into what has become apparent as a yet - [CrisisCommons receives $1.2m funding](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/crisiscommons-receives-1-2m-funding/) - It is incredibly exciting to announce that today we found out that our grassroots project, which started as an idea and meeting at an open government unconference, is getting some incredible support to grow and sustain over the next few years. I've shared our experiences, and the support that has been growing from academic institutions, companies, foundations, and within our own - [Google Maps Terms of Service and Pay](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/google-maps-terms-of-service-and-pay/) - Today Google announced that they are enforcing free usage limits on the Google Maps API. Beyond the free limit of 25,000 views per day, sites will start having to pay $4 per 1,000 views. They will automatically charge your credit card based on these usage fees and it's not clear if you can set a "cut-off" limit - [2012](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/2012/) - Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.Charles Dickens A Year Changes You A year ago I was helping run a startup, determining how we would sustain and grow our business in a competitive market. At the same time - [Everyblock closes](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/everyblock-closes/) - In 2007 at the beginning of the popular emergence of local maps and amidst a changing journalism industry, an innovative platform was launched that provided a uniquely local and up to date view of cities. Everyblock, a news feed for your neighborhood, was built as an open-source platform that used government open data feeds to - [Quantified Baby](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/quantified-baby/) - As any parent I am constantly concerned about my child's health. With data it is easier to identify emerging problems and also diagnose the underlying problem as a precaution rather than merely reactive. For these reasons we spent the past year on our Quantified Baby project. Throughout the year we have been maintaining various quantitative and - [Codename Farewell or Clone at your Own Peril](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/codename-farewell-or-clone-at-your-own-peril/) - Aaron and I were discussing how the web facilitates inspiration and sometimes even copying of other sites or applications. This is a positive outcome of open access that can create evolutionary improvements. However in my experience I have also seen people clone an interface where they missed the larger context of the interaction, or even worse - [International Cartographic Association in Dresden](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/international-cartographic-association-in-dresden/) - Throughout the conference there were plentiful gems of research and ideas. One of the best talks was by Ian Muehlenhaus on the methodology and rhetoric of the dark side of cartography, persuasive maps. There were other cross-overs from GIS to cartography in particular dealing with the growing amount of crowd-sourced data that may need new uncertainty analysis and types of uncertainty - [The Fourth Screen](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/the-fourth-screen/) - People viscerally engage with their personal technology devices. Recent studies indicate that we spend 6.5 minutes of every hour awake with our phone, and even more time than we do with our partner. Anecdotally I have heard that we have mobile in our hand more often than we are wearing pants. Fortunately we adapt. At least in my - [Bike the District](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/bike-the-district/) - A year ago I decided to become a bike commuter. I live on the east side of Washington, DC and we just opened our new office on the edge of the Potomac river on the west side of DC. Inspired by my colleagues in Portland that constantly tout the wonders of bicycling their fair city, I believe - [WIAD DC Data Visualization panel](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/wiad-dc-data-visualization-panel/) - This weekend I participated in a fun panel on Data Visualization as part of World Information Architecture Day in DC. The moderator was Sean Gonzalez from Data Community DC and included from Amy Cesal from Sunlight Foundation, and Maureen Linke and Brian Price from USA Today / Gannett Digital. You can see the video here. There was a clearly interesting gap between our perspectives as storytellers - [Desire Paths to Open Data](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/desire-paths-to-open-data/) - Last week I made a quick statement sharing my concern for civic organizations promoting ETL - Extract Transform and Load - of open data instead of developing APIs. I felt it warranted a more thorough response than the terseness of microbursts. Desire Lines and Road Surfaces Walk through most parks and any college campus you will quickly - [Professional Civic Engineering](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/professional-civic-engineering/) - "Unruly Nature" Roads are particular engineering feat that deeply affect our regular lives yet pass by largely unnoticed. So effectively designed and implemented, we typically only notice them through relative minor, but annoying, failures such as potholes or flooding. Periodically, a major catastrophe reminds us the nature and importance of these infrastructure components and the - [Charlottesville Data Bootcamp](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/charlottesville-data-bootcamp/) - It was my pleasure to present at the Charlottesville Data Bootcamp this Friday. The town just recently launched their open data site and were eager to teach the community about what was available and hear feedback and ideas on what could be improved and extended. The event hosted about 70 people that varied across disciplines and experience. - [10 Year Esri-Versary](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/10-year-esri-versary/) - After 10 years at Esri, I'm excited about what I've accomplished. And I'm looking forward to many more years. - [Engineering for Birds](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/engineering-for-birds/) - "What it's like to be a bird" is an interesting and well-illustrated dive into the biomechanics of birds. - [So you want to fly spacecraft?](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/so-you-want-to-fly-spacecraft/) - Today's landing of a spacecraft on a comet is truly a stupendous engineering feat. ESA Rosetta spent 5 years, including three flybys of Earth and one of Mars in order to slingshot in order to land a 3-ton machine on a 4-km round rock moving at 135,000 km/hour. (meaning that the comet moves ten times it's entire length every - [The Digital Transformation of Social Impact](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/the-digital-transformation-of-social-impact/) - I spoke at a panel at the 71st United Nations General Assembly, as part of the SDG Live event. SDG Media Zone: The Digital Transformation of Social Impact from GlobalGoalsUN on Vimeo. - [Data Driven Citizenship](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/data-driven-citizenship/) - No one cares about a neighborhood more than the people who live there. People spend their days and evenings along the street, raise children, foster connections with neighbors, build businesses, grow gardens, bike, walk, and live. A few choose to engage with their civil organizations, advocating for positive change, or against negative impacts; they participate - [National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/national-academies-of-sciences-engineering-and-medicine/) - Signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences was formed to 'investigate, examine, experiment, and report upon any subject of science' for the nation, congress and federal agencies. Considering this was the middle of the tumultuous US Civil War government saw the imperative for scientific research and collaboration. The period was - [DHS HIFLD Open: Open Data for Economic Resiliency](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/dhs-hifld-open-open-data-for-economic-resiliency/) - Today at the FedGIS conference in Washington, DC, the US Department of Homeland Security announced that Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) is now HIFLD Open. Security and Safeguarding In 2001, the United States was attacked in a coordinated effort at multiple locations which had devastating impact across the country. We had direct insight into how little - [Open Data needs Local Analysis](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/open-data-needs-local-analysis/) - Open Data exists for a purpose. From point of capture, to publication and analysis, data seek to be used to make better decisions. By making the data open, more people can participate in that analysis and decision making process. Particular to government and community, the more people can understand, collaborate and reach consensus, the better - [Apple Watch - Internet of Humans](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/apple-watch-internet-of-humans/) - The wristwatch was an invention of convenience for extreme conditions. Previously the pocket watch provided an elegant and portable mechanism for discerning the current time. However increasing complexity of military maneuvers in the 19th century and more civilly and popularly with the advent of planes, pilots wanted precise time measurements without getting in the way. So ingeniously they strapped - [Building Better Civil Solutions with Agile Government](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/building-better-civil-solutions-with-agile-government/) - Modern technology has dramatically increased the pace of software application development. Within hours a single person can now conceive, create and distribute an app to millions of people. Thanks to the global internet, access and updating of these apps occurs automatically and constantly. Products can be prototyped, measured, improved and updated many times a day. - [Making GIS a Part of the Open Web](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/making-gis-a-part-of-the-open-web/) - GeoServices provide a common API across all of GIS for users and developers to easily access information.Today is GIS Day, an annual celebration and sharing to our communities about the use of geospatial technology to understand, affect, and engage with our physical world. You can join any of hundreds of local events around the globe ## Pages - [Contact](https://highearthorbit.com/contact/) - This is a page with some basic contact information, such as an address and phone number. You might also try a plugin to add a contact form. - [Government Website](https://highearthorbit.com/government-website/) - All Datasets Documents Apps and Maps View All Results Explore near you Search your DC address Visit OpenData - [Mapstraction](https://highearthorbit.com/projects/mapstraction/) - Mapstraction was an open-source Javascript library that provided a common developer interface to over 14 different map libraries including Google Maps, Yahoo Maps, OpenLayers, MapQuest, Yandex, and more. During the late 2000's there were multiple interactive map libraries developed that required developers to choose up-front which to integrate into their application. As each library was rapidly - [Projects](https://highearthorbit.com/projects/) - A portfolio of projects that I've developed and supported over the years. Mapufacture GeoCommons / GeoIQ ArcGIS Hub Mapstraction GeoPress GeoRSS GeoJSON OpenSearch-Geo PocketMaps - [Redirect](https://highearthorbit.com/redirect/) - [Hi, I’m Andrew](https://highearthorbit.com/about/) - I’m a geospatial systems architect with a passion for civic and humanitarian domains. Currently, I’m the Director and CTO of Esri R&D in Washington, DC developing new technology for open data, civic technology, and geospatial web collaboration. My work focuses on cross-domain collaboration and democratizing data-driven decisions by creating open tools for cartography and analysis. - [Articles](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/) - Articles Recent Posts Tag Cloud - [Blog](https://highearthorbit.com/blog/) - [Sample Page](https://highearthorbit.com/sample-page/) - This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I'm a bike messenger ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/uncategorized/) - [Reading](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/reading/) - General thoughts on books, articles, and other materials I’m consuming. - [Technology](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/technology/) - Thoughts on modern technology, Home Automation, Augmented Reality, mobile devices, etc. - [Personal](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/personal/) - Posts about my family, individual experiences, and non-professional activities. - [Leadership](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/leadership/) - Posts about becoming a leader, managing people, and other thoughts about organizing humans. - [Geo](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/geo/) - Posts about geography, cartography, GIS, and maps. - [Local](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/category/local/) ## Tags - [book](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/book/) - [engineering](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/engineering/) - [birds](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/birds/) - [open data](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/open-data/) - [government](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/government/) - [united nations](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/united-nations/) - [sdg](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/sdg/) - [storymaps](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/storymaps/) - [vision zero](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/vision-zero/) - [DHS](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/dhs/) - [HIFLD](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/hifld/) - [NGA](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/nga/) - [GIS](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/gis/) - [API](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/api/) - [ArcGIS](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/arcgis/) - [conference](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/conference/) - [apple](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/apple/) - [mobile](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/mobile/) - [wearables](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/wearables/) - [space](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/space/) - [civic](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/civic/) - [standards](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/standards/) - [crisiscommons](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/crisiscommons/) - [esri](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/esri/) - [dc](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/dc/) - [election](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/election/) - [code](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/code/) - [ArcGIS Hub](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/arcgis-hub/) - [open source](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/open-source/) - [augmented reality](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/augmented-reality/) - [GeoAI](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/geoai/) - [Generative AI](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/generative-ai/) - [AI](https://highearthorbit.com/articles/tag/ai/)