GISWORX’11 – Continually updating GIS knowledge in UAE

GISTEC, through its division TIEM, organised GISWORX’11, the GIS workshop and exhibition for Esri users in the Middle East, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on March 14- 16, 2011. “The United Arab Emirates is a place of opportunities, growth and success. I thank UAE for unparalleled GIS adoption in the government, 20 years of success in GIS, and the 6th annual GISWORX,” said Eng Mohamed Abuziad, CEO, GISTEC, while welcoming the audience.

In the plenary session, Dean Angelides of Esri observed that it is possible to take a technology that was just a research tool, to everyone and in everyday lives. According to him, what is allowing us to have a collective geographic understanding is convergence of forces like computing and networks, measurement, GIS software, geographic science and open data policies. This is enabling a pervasive geospatial platform. Another key factor contributing to the all-pervasiveness of GIS are the integration of crowd sourcing and social media giving rise to new sources of geospatial information, as seen in recent natural disasters. Abdul Karim Al Raeisi, ADSIC informed the participants about Abu Dhabi’s SDI initiatives. According to him, Abu Dhabi Spatial Infrastructure Program (AD-SDI) has grown from the institutional stage and into galvanising a Geospatial Information, Technology and Services (GITS) foundation towards a geo mature Abu Dhabi. Mansour Raad of Esri gave the audience demonstrations related to ArcGIS Viewer for Flex Viewer. He built a live application before the audience to demonstrate how to build an application without resorting to XML. While aerial and satellite imagery is increasingly becoming core to the geospatial industry, its effectiveness depends on the quality of imagery used in any application. Brad Schmidt of PCI Geomatics highlighted the factors that can lead to less than perfect imagery to work on and how to extract the maximum value from imagery.

Mobility is becoming an increasingly important aspect of GIS. Osamah Hamdan of Samsung illustrated how the company’s Galaxy Tab is fitting into the GIS ecosystem, with the company’s emphasis on strong B2B approach and utilising its smart products in the process. Hozefa Saylawala of Motorola emphasised that the three elements in enterprise mobility are seamless connectivity, real-time information and devices which support these.

Tracking the evolution of GIS, Tom Counts of 3-GIS observed that desktop has long been the king and has also been very expensive. Tom shared with the audience the cost benefits of Web-based computing. Ron Lake of Galdos Systems shared with the participants how to maximise value in intelligent 3D city models. He raised the issue of urban challenges in the 21st century and observed that the problems are urgent and involve complex feedback. In such scenario, intelligent city models can play a significant role. John Ellenberger of Space Time Research shared the evolving trends in data dissemination vis-à-vis data volume. He observed that the advent of electronic publishing has led to exponential data growth. Volume may lead to missing out on important data. This is necessitating the need for a new way of data dissemination which offers low cost of production, zero marginal distribution cost, unlocks as much data as possible, scales easily, provides insight and allows for end-user guided self-service.

Technologies galore
The plenary session also featured an update on ArcGIS 10 and features of ArcGIS online. The exhibition witnessed participation from leading IT and geospatial companies active in the region. The three-day event witnessed a range of workshops being conducted for GIS users and enthusiasts, ranging from defence, public security, utilities, imagery data integration and government solutions.

Awards
GISWORX’11 also honoured excellence in GIS implementation in UAE during EGI Awards. The award winners are: