TerraGo Publisher® Enables Cloud-based GIS Portals for the Enterprise

New extensions make it easier than ever for Esri ArcGIS® users to create web-based portals that provide on-demand, customized maps and lightweight GIS applications to all enterprise and mobile users

TerraGo, a pioneer of geospatial collaboration and mobility software, announced today the availability of TerraGo Publisher® for ArcGIS® Server version 6.8. The release provides powerful new features that help companies create map portals and web services that extend the power of ArcGIS to all enterprise users.

For ArcGIS users and developers, TerraGo Publisher includes a new Python package, called PubPy, which exposes TerraGo Publisher functions to ArcGIS’s extension language ArcPy®. PubPy can be accessed from both ArcGIS for Desktop and ArcGIS for Server. This enables the easy creation and automation of portable, interactive maps that are accessible as web services. For end users, this means on-demand, self-service access to customized maps and data. This gives non-GIS users access to the exact map they need, in desktop and mobile environments, in both online and disconnected workflows.

“TerraGo’s new Python functions provide easy-to-use export and configuration capabilities through ArcPy interfaces, which can be published as web services,” said George Demmy, Chief Technical Officer at TerraGo. “PubPy represents a major leap forward in simplifying and automating the creation of free, lightweight GIS applications for non-GIS users.”

With TerraGo Publisher, GIS users are able to create and share interactive OpenGeoPDF maps accessible by any user with universal, free software. OpenGeoPDF is a collection of technologies that combine open spatial database features and application logic within portable, intelligent maps. In essence, OpenGeoPDF is the incorporation of the Open Geospatial Consortium’s (OGC) GeoPackage standard to store feature attributes in a universally accessible PDF container.

About TerraGo
TerraGo develops software applications and mobile apps that make it easy for our customers to collect data, share information and work together anywhere, any time. From sharing feature-rich maps and imagery to deploying on-demand apps for a mobile workforce, TerraGo builds intuitive products that enable collaboration from any place on the planet.

Founded in 2005, TerraGo invented the industry’s most widely adopted geospatial collaboration technology with its innovative GeoPDF products and is revolutionizing field data collection with its TerraGo Edge mobile platform.

TerraGo’s customers include the world’s leading defense and intelligence departments, government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises in every industry, with over 2,000 global customers based in over 70 countries and all 50 US states.

For more information, visit http://www.terragotech.com.

Source

Data versus documents

By George Demmy




An overused, over-abused word we have today is “data”. Often people say they “just want to see the data”, but that is almost never what they mean. What they really mean, is “show me the data in a picture arranged just so that I don’t have to read anything to understand it”. That may sound cynical, and I don’t mean it cynically, but that is my experience. Every now and again you’ll get a scientist or someone with a truly scientific bent who really does want to see the data, but they’re not common, and certainly not as might be implied by all of the Church of Data blog posts and manifestos might have you believe. Now, with GIS and geo-writ-large, the connection to data is explicit and apparent, and some are prone to obsess over data, its forms and formats, interfaces for access and frobbing, to the point of distraction. For some, data is the end, it’s their product. But if it really is data, then that’s only a point, or narrow band, on a wide spectrum spanning from data to information to knowledge to wherever that knowledge might take you: insight, action, wisdom, understanding. That’s the point. While the generation of data might put bread on some analyst’s table, it only does so because that data is part of a larger whole. Yes, carefully designed and developed, high-quality, accurate data sets are valuable, but only for what you can do with them. To that end, it’s very important to make it accessible – the lower the barriers to access data enhance the possibilities for its use. If things are locked up in proprietary systems and locked away behind proprietary interfaces, it’s harder to make use of the data and necessarily limiting its utility and value.



As you move up the spectrum, something interesting happens. The point is not to share data (although that certainly might be part of the process), but to communicate information and knowledge. Knowledge necessarily requires the synthesis and distillation of data into something more general and abstract, and much more powerful. Knowledge and how it’s presented to whom are not portable or skinnable the way that views on data can be. It can be as much of a design process as a scientific exercise, requiring consideration of audience and motivation for presenting the information in the first place. Think about the difference between a sensor, say a recording thermometer, and Edward Tufte. That’s the difference between the generation of data and the generation of contextualized presentations of information for a specific purpose. In general, I’m far more interested in the latter. It’s from the presentation of information perspective that I tend view the world that TerraGo serves.

One of the questions that we hear fairly regularly, is how is your PDF better than someone else’s PDF. Well, it depends, I suppose. Maybe it’s not better for your purpose. If they made it right it conforms to ISO 32000 just like ours do. Maybe theirs is smaller because they haven’t preserved layers for view at different zoom levels, or they just rasterized it all for quick visualization on a handheld, and doesn’t have any layers at all. That PDF actually may be better for that purpose than a full bells-and-whistles GeoPDF document made in Publisher. Naturally, we give you controls in Publisher to configure your GeoPDF to your diverse purposes, which is the whole point. If you don’t care what the users will do with the PDF or what you want to have done with it, it’s hard to argue that one’s better than the other. However, if you want to create location-enabled documents that present GIS-derived information in interactive, intuitive ways familiar to anyone who is familiar with PDF, then we have a matchless system. The interactive features that you get with Reader or any PDF consuming device are considerable on their own (hyperlinks, bookmarks, layering and it’s design and control, etc.), but it’s the dynamic interaction with coordinates, measurements, GeoPackage feature attributes with a client application that free for end users to download and install which makes the experience so rich. The question should not be one PDF versus another, which more often than not is an uninteresting and often nonsensical question, but rather how do you effectively communicate location-based information to as wide an audience as possible? Documents have not outlived their usefulness, and as long as they haven’t GeoPDF will have a role to play helping people understand location-based information more quickly, thoroughly, and effectively.

Source

TerraGo Edge® Combines Smart Forms and Advanced GPS to Improve the Speed and Quality of Mobile Data Collection

Version 3.7 includes new intelligent, responsive forms that dramatically improve the speed, quality and efficiency of asset inspections, land surveys and any location-based data collection project




TerraGo, a pioneer of geospatial collaboration and enterprise mobility software, announces the availability of TerraGo Edge 3.7, which features smart forms as well as new GPS features and GIS enhancements.

TerraGo Edge smart forms can dramatically accelerate the data collection process by automating and accelerating user entries while also eliminating any unnecessary or redundant steps. Smart forms can be completely customized to meet the unique workflow requirements of customers in any industry.

TerraGo Edge delivers the best of both worlds to field operations and GIS departments with its open platform design and integration. With the GIS and GPS enhancements in TerraGo Edge version 3.7, field project teams can rapidly collect data with intelligent, user-defined forms, survey-grade accuracy, and custom basemaps, including real-time, cm-level accuracy and ArcGIS® Online custom basemaps.

New features in version 3.7 include:

• Form groups – new form element to organize multiple related fields
• Conditional fields – new attribute for radio button, combo or checkbox so additional fields appear based on user entry
• Barcode and QR code support – instantly scans standard codes and eliminates manual entry
• Repeating fields and groups – new attribute to dynamically “add another row”
• Expand/collapse – new feature to expand or collapse all groups and repeating fields
• Calculated fields – new form element to define a calculated result using other form field values
• Multiple form attachments – ability to attach two or more forms to a single Note
• High Accuracy CHC GPS integration – X20i (Sub-foot (30 cm)), X91i (Centimeter (8mm))
• Esri® ArcGIS® Online enhancements - access to custom maps

“TerraGo Edge’s new smart forms do much more than just transition data entry from pen and paper to mobile devices with advanced features that improve worker productivity, and make data collection faster and more accurate,” said Dave Basil, VP of Products and Services at TerraGo. “Our new mobile form design takes full advantage of the mobile interface to reimagine and reinvent the field user experience for data collection.”

Try the TerraGo Edge iOS or Android app for free.

Learn more about the latest enhancements in the upcoming webinar on September 15, 2015 at 12:00 PM ET. Register Now.

All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About TerraGo
TerraGo develops software applications and mobile apps that make it easy for our customers to collect data, share information and work together anywhere, any time. From sharing feature-rich maps and imagery to deploying on-demand apps for a mobile workforce, TerraGo builds intuitive products that enable collaboration from any place on the planet.

Founded in 2005, TerraGo invented the industry’s most widely adopted geospatial collaboration technology with its innovative GeoPDF products and is revolutionizing field data collection with its TerraGo Edge mobile platform.

TerraGo’s customers include the world’s leading defense and intelligence departments, government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises in every industry, with over 2,000 global customers based in over 70 countries and all 50 US states.

Source

Democratization of Geospatial Data with Real ROI

By George Demmy



It’s easy to fall into a trap of considering data for data’s sake. Knowledge is power, after all, and by democratizing data; you spread power to more places and more people.

To what end? When an organization considers the means to acquire, analyze and present data, the investment has to be driven by both its cost and its impact on the bottom line. By performance, more than power. In this case, performance means the Return-on-Investment (ROI) in democratized data.

The military faces this challenge regularly in its goal of making personnel “human sensors,” adding what they see on the ground, in front or behind them in real-time, to satellite and unmanned aerial system sensors to provide situational awareness to commanders miles or even continents away who are making life-or-death decisions.

In industry’s case, decisions can make or break a company and careers, and those decisions have a goal. In his blog, Michael McCarthy writes, “investing in democratizing data needs to have a wide range of influence over many decisions across the organization … The objective is to excel at decision-making. The reason for doing this (in business) is to realize revenue growth.”

He adds, “More emphasis needs to be placed on making better decisions faster and identifying the data needed to support those decisions, and not the other way around.”

That’s why TerraGo created OpenGeoPDF – to combine the latest, most appropriate geospatial and IT standards, practices and capabilities to extend the reach of GIS to the widest possible audience. These capabilities include a bi-directional relationship with field operations that can offer decision-makers a better sense of situational awareness than data limited to that normally available at headquarters. It can do so with mobile data input and decision reception from an iPhone or Android device.

This audience can then drive decision-making away from the realm of the “gut” and the limitations of company policy to allow managers to adapt to changing times. Data to support these decisions can be more up to date and adaptable to operational environment ebb and flow. Data behind the presentation maps can drive other decisions, as well as creativity and innovation in areas not imagined when the data was harvested. That’s democratization.

Measuring return on investment in GIS is easy enough if you limit it to reducing time-to-customer and man hours saved with the capability. But what about savings attributable to using data available to a wider range of people within an organization and the impact on revenue and market share growth? On measuring efficiencies vs. opportunities?

On attracting and retaining employees at decision-making and information-gathering levels because they see the “why” in the work they are hired to do, rather than just the less-rewarding and often-frustrating “what?” Those metrics can be softer and more elusive, but they are no less real or of diminished importance in cost-benefit analysis that drive ROI.

Source

TerraGo OpenGeoPDF Products: Version 6.7

By George Demmy



TerraGo has just released the version 6.7 of most of our core products which focus on bringing GIS-Lite functionality to document workflows under the aegis of our OpenGeoPDF initiative. That’s a mouthful, so I guess it wouldn’t be too bad to shorten it to version 6.7 of our OpenGeoPDF products. In this release, we’ve added two functions which significantly enhance the GIS-Lite capabilities provided by the recently-added Identify tool in Toolbar: search and update of GeoPackage feature attributes.

Search
Search has become an essential paradigm. My once punctilious management of email, each incoming message being tagged and routed to its own place based on an arcane library of rules accumulated over more years than I care to admit in Emacs Gnus has been replaced by a couple of rules for alerting me to things of current urgency, but otherwise I just search to find in an sea of unsorted emails Outlook, at least at work. With Toolbar 6.7, you can search attached GeoPackage for features matching what you type in the search field, get a list of matches, and then you can click the match to see where it is on the map. Double click the match and you’ll zoom to that feature. We had to add additional metadata to the GeoPDF documents to make this all go, and that’s some of what went into Publisher 6.7, including persisting the field names that ArcMap thinks is the most useful to identify a particular feature. Again, using OpenGeoPDF to tie Publisher to its client application Toolbar helps illustrate the connection. I hope Esri clones the feature in their Identify tool — it’s pretty damn useful and cool.


Update
Update of feature attributes in a GIS-Lite application is one of those features that perhaps not that many people need, but for the folks that do, it’s essential. They need coworkers, citizens, people distributed hither and yon to be their eyes and ears and share what they see and where they see it. Our geospatial markup we call GeoMarks have been around since before TerraGo, and they’re handy for the ad hoc observation, but they extend PDF’s annotation system which is not well suited for large amounts of GIS data. GeoPackage feature attributes, however, is perfectly suited for large amounts of GIS data in a document workflow context. Load up 15000 telephone poles and out you go to do your inspection. You may not need to go to each pole, but the several that you do will certainly be in there. Ground truthing, inspections, surveys, the applications are myriad. Search and update are two dramatic steps forward for GIS-Lite capabilities in TerraGo Toolbar made possible by our close integration with ArcMap with Publisher. I can’t think of anything that more dramatically increases the audience and utility of an investment in ArcGIS at the price point and ease of use threshold. If you can, please let me know!

Source

TerraGo® Partners with CHC Navigation to Deliver High Accuracy and Improved Productivity to Mobile GPS Data Collection

TerraGo Edge® integrates with high-accuracy, affordable GPS receivers to provide sub-meter and cm-level accuracy to mobile data collection users on iOS® and Android® devices



TerraGo, a pioneer of geospatial collaboration and enterprise mobility software, announces a technology partnership with CHC Navigation that combines the mobile GPS collaboration platform, TerraGo Edge, with CHC’s rugged high-accuracy GNSS systems to meet the needs of the most demanding field positioning tasks.

TerraGo Edge now offers advanced integration and support for CHC’s line of GNSS receivers, including the X20i DGPS and X91i RTK high-accuracy receivers. Bringing cost-effective, half-meter and sub-inch performance to smartphone and tablet users, these compact, cable-free and lightweight units are rugged enough for any field environment.

“TerraGo Edge and CHC are helping lead the mobile GPS revolution with survey-grade accuracy and intuitive workflows at a price point that provides an immediate return on investment,” said Lance André, North American Manager for CHC Navigation. “With our X20i and X91i receivers, users get the accuracy they need with the shortest possible site occupations, making this an ideal high-accuracy companion for TerraGo Edge field users.”
TerraGo Edge meets the needs of GPS users, survey teams and GIS departments while delivering substantial cost savings over legacy technology. The TerraGo Edge app directly integrates with CHC’s GPS/GNSS receivers to give mobile users dynamic monitoring and capturing of high-precision GPS data on iOS® and Android® devices. For GIS departments, TerraGo Edge provides the ability to define minimum accuracy standards, as well as the tools to monitor the data quality while uploading the information to the GIS system of record. Many organizations are able to reduce costs by 90 percent or more by leveraging modern, mobile devices to replace proprietary handhelds.

“TerraGo Edge combined with a CHC GNSS receiver is a superior solution for our customers in utility, energy and other industries that require high-accuracy data collection,” said Dave Basil, VP of Products and Services at TerraGo. “Our integration makes it possible to capture the full fidelity and GPS data record with a user experience and features unmatched by legacy GPS data collectors.”

Try the TerraGo Edge iOS or Android app for free.

All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.


About TerraGo
TerraGo develops software applications and mobile apps that make it easy for our customers to collect data, share information and work together anywhere, any time. From sharing feature-rich maps and imagery to deploying on-demand apps for a mobile workforce, TerraGo builds intuitive products that enable collaboration from any place on the planet.

Founded in 2005, TerraGo invented the industry’s most widely-adopted geospatial collaboration technology with its innovative GeoPDF products and is revolutionizing field data collection with its TerraGo Edge mobile platform.

TerraGo’s customers include the world’s leading defense and intelligence departments, government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises in every industry, with over 2,000 global customers based in over 70 countries and all 50 US states.

About CHC Navigation
CHC Navigation designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of professional GPS/GNSS solutions in more than 70 countries. Privately owned with over 800 professionals and local offices worldwide including a full-service office in the US heartland. For more information, visit http://www.chcnav.com.

Source

TerraGo Launches Affiliate Referral Program to Support Increasing Market Demand for BYOD GPS Solutions

New partner program designed to improve collaboration with GPS solution providers that combine the power of TerraGo Edge on iOS® and Android® with industry’s high-accuracy GPS receivers

TerraGo, a leading geospatial and GPS collaboration company, has launched a new partner program that will benefit GPS manufacturers, partners and ultimately the shared customers that deploy TerraGo Edge® combined with the industry’s most accurate and dependable GPS receivers.

The TerraGo Affiliate Referral Program offers GPS dealers, GIS resellers and consultants the opportunity to partner with TerraGo, the industry’s leading mobile GPS data collection software provider, to gain a competitive edge, drive more product sales and implement more successful customer projects.

In today’s mobile world, more and more enterprises are switching from proprietary GPS handhelds to smartphone and tablets to realize massive cost savings and dramatic productivity improvements. Single-use, GPS devices are increasingly being challenged and replaced with the superior hardware performance and software capabilities of iOS® and Android® devices with TerraGo Edge. Paired with high-accuracy, Bluetooth GPS receivers provided by TerraGo Affiliate Partners, TerraGo Edge can meet or exceed the most demanding user requirements.

“The industry is undergoing a technology transformation, away from outdated GPS devices and towards BYOD solutions like TerraGo Edge which deliver superior performance at a fraction of the cost”, said Summer Benish, VP of Sales Operations and Customer Success at TerraGo. “This program makes it easy to join forces with our partners to give the customer exactly the GPS performance they need with the best receivers and the best GPS collection app available in the market.”

For more information on the TerraGo Affiliate program, click here. To learn more about the program and TerraGo Edge, register for the upcoming webinar, ‘Gaining the Competitive Edge: A TerraGo Affiliate Program Overview’, scheduled for Thursday, August 6, 2015 at 2 PM. Register here.

About TerraGo
TerraGo develops software applications and mobile apps that make it easy for our customers to collect data, share information and work together anywhere, any time. From sharing feature-rich maps and imagery to deploying on-demand apps for a mobile workforce, TerraGo builds intuitive products that enable collaboration from any place on the planet.

Founded in 2005, TerraGo invented the industry’s most widely adopted geospatial collaboration technology with its innovative GeoPDF products and is revolutionizing field data collection with its TerraGo Edge mobile platform.

TerraGo’s customers include the world’s leading defense and intelligence departments, government agencies, non-profits and commercial enterprises in every industry, with over 2,000 global customers based in over 70 countries and all 50 US states.

Source