Recent Darpa Red Balloon Challenge brings online coverage for SCGIS 

1/6/10

12/4/09

Help the SCGIS Team locate 10 RED Weather Balloons THIS Saturday Dec 05, 2009. This is a one day event and all we need are your eyes…..We do NOT need individuals to drive all over the country side, we need increased numbers of observers… if you forward this link (http://www.edc.uri.edu/scgis/) to ALL individuals on your contact list we have a greater chance of winning. The only way we can possibly win this challenge is to have thousands of eyes looking for these red weather balloons located throughout the United States. You do NOT have to be a “geocacher” or own a GPS to participate, we need all eyes. This money will be used to help conservationists world-wide to gain the skills they need to conserve the environment, indigenous tribes, local communities….

DARPA Network Challenge Celebrating 40th Anniversary of the Internet
Saturday, 05 December 2009
https://networkchallenge.darpa.mil/default.aspx

DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has offered this prize
to highlight social networking skills.

Please, forward this link (http://www.edc.uri.edu/scgis/) to your contacts via LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, etc and extend the knowledge about the SCGIS efforts. 

Let's take the challenge! Get the details here: http://www.edc.uri.edu/scgis/ 

8/28/09

ArcGIS Explorer is now available for download:

www.esri.com/news/releases/09_3qtr/arcgis_explorer.html 

ESRI's newest release of ArcGIS Explorer became available for free download last week, providing a highly visual and intuitive way to explore, share, and present your geographic information.

It is an ideal means of making your authoritative geographic information system (GIS) data available to people who are not GIS experts.

Download here: www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/index.html

More resources here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisexplorer/900/index.cfm?fa=home 

ESRI has released Web mapping APIs for free

http://www.esri.com/news/releases/09_3qtr/mapping_api.html

ESRI announces that its popular Web mapping APIs are available at no cost to users who are building applications for use in internal and noncommercial environments. ArcGIS Web mapping APIs have always been free for licensed ArcGIS Server users.

Now government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and educational institutions can take full advantage of fast, high-quality mapping applications built on top of ArcGIS Server without additional costs or licensing.
 
ArcGIS Web mapping APIs include the ArcGIS API for Flex, the ArcGIS API for Microsoft Silverlight/Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and the ArcGIS API for JavaScript. To access downloads and get more information about ArcGIS Web mapping APIs, visit www.esri.com/apis.

Find more resources here: http://resources.esri.com/arcgisserver/index.cfm?fa=applications 

ArcGIS Online has been greatly enhanced with:

ArcGIS Online Sharing

An SCGIS group has been created on ArcGIS Online that is open to the public. Visit CGIAR create a community for data sharing on arcgisonline.com as well.* 

ArcGIS Online Map Services

Free Maps – including world basemaps and imagery.

This content is free for non-commercial and internal use. http://resources.esri.com/arcgisonlineservices/

More on using the free maps: http://resources.esri.com/help/9.3/arcgisonline/about/start.htm#map_types.htm

ArcGIS Online Task Services

Some great tasks such as a world place locator service

ArcGIS Online Web Mapping APIs

See above!

For more information: www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline/index.html

LEARN ABOUT COLLABORATIVE GIS TOOLS

8/28/09

Building powerful spatial analysis and mapping capabilities takes time and effort, things often in short supply at non-profit organizations. An important recent development has been online collaborative GIS tools and platforms, allowing users to share spatial data and share GIS tasks and projects without having to own or manage very much in terms of GIS technologies or tools. Projects and resources for collaborative GIS are listed at: http://www.conservationgis.org/technology/index.html.

2009 GLOBAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM AWARDEES

4/13/09

Due to reduced capacity compared to previous years, the Scholarship Program currently limits its support only to the regions where SCGIS international chapters and informal conservation GIS communities affiliated with SCGIS are growing or emerging, to promote further growth of these chapters and communities.

In 2009, the Scholarship Program announcement was distributed to the leaders of such chapters and communities, and these leaders were delegated the responsibility to distribute the announcement locally, and to collect and pre-review the applications in their respective regions: Brazil, Cameroon, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Latin America, Madagascar, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, South Africa (as a region), and Uganda. After a careful review of the applications we received from these communities, the following applicants were awarded scholarships: