00:01My name is Jack Dangermond, and on behalf of all of my colleagues at Esri, I want to welcome you.

00:07Thank you very much for coming this morning. You’re a special group of people.

00:13This is a meeting that we’ve held, now, 16 years. It’s quite an extraordinary meeting.

00:19This year, we’re going to have about 3,500 people that come. This meeting started with just a handful of people saying…

00:26…we’d like to come and share among ourselves what we’re doing.

00:31Share our work, learn from each other, build some new relationships, and maybe have a little fun.

00:37And that’s the purpose of the meeting today and tomorrow and the next day, is for you.

00:43The meeting is really all about you and your work. I’d like to take a minute and tell you a little bit about who you are.

00:52You come from virtually every different federal agency in government.

00:57Also, lots of private-sector people that support these agencies and some NGOs and, particularly…

01:02…in conservation and humanitarian activities. In this room is just a huge amount of experience and knowledge about…

01:10…how to make GIS work both in the mission areas and also in building it as infrastructure.

01:16This is one of the themes that we’re going to be talking about today, is application.

01:23Today, our world is changing rapidly. Each of you understands this in the context of your own organizations…

01:31…and these challenges that are occurring all the way from loss of biodiversity to national security…

01:38…are sort of rocking many of our ideals as Americans.

01:43Our country is confronted with issues that we’ve not had before, and now, coming out of this recession…

01:49…at least we’ve handled some of that.

01:52But now we’re confronted, several years down the line, with even more daunting…

01:58…sorts of issues that we have to work on. GIS has a play here. It helps us build intelligence and understanding…

02:07…about our world, about our country, about the discipline areas and issues that you’re working on.

02:14Geospatial systems, your field, is helping in a lot of ways in a lot of subject areas. I like this little slide.

02:21I wanted to share it here for you the first time. It’s intriguing. It’s kind of a play on this whole idea of wisdom.

02:31You know, data, knowledge, all that stuff. But interpreted for geospatial. If we take raw data…

02:39…we can turn it into information by mapping it. This is part of the reason why it’s so exciting to look at maps.

02:48By integrating maps and geospatial information, we can turn it into knowledge. We can do crosscutting…

02:54…looks at the same information and derive patterns and relationships between…

02:59… and among our various sciences and activities.

03:03And now, with the dawning of the web, cloud, web world pattern for GIS…

03:10…we’re seeing increasingly how we can share…

03:13…this knowledge and, as a result, create better understanding. I like this idea because GIS drives understanding.

03:17And in the words of a good friend of mine, Richard Saul Wurman, “understanding precedes action.”

03:30And if you look at your own personal life, this is the way the world works. You understand and then you act.

03:37Okay, some of us act and then understand the consequences!

03:41But usually, the logic tells us that this is the way things actually work.

03:46Your systems in projects, in missions, and across organizations…

03:53...are already very successful in dozens and dozens of application spaces.

03:58And I like to start this meeting by sharing a little bit of your work.

04:03Many of you shared, sent me e-mails of maps that you’ve been working on, and I’ll share a few of them.

04:09Some of you are working in managing natural resources, and these examples make it clear…

04:15…from agriculture to energy resources to hydrologic analysis to forestry…

04:22…your work is stellar. Some of you are moving GIS into the oceans and marine science, all the way from…

04:30…navigation charting in an automated environment to marine spatial planning, understanding…

04:37…the dimensions of the ocean are a new frontier. Others of you are assessing, like the census, counting…

04:45…population and using it for issues like social issues, housing issues…

04:51…even demographics and the allocation of districts for mailing.

04:55And others are supporting humanitarian activities outside the US, around the world, in conflict-monitoring…

05:03…human rights issues, and polio eradication in Nigeria.

05:09Others are working on conservation and environmental assessment.

05:14I particularly want to draw your attention to the map in the lower right.

05:18This map was just made. It’s a database done by Woods Hole Research Center.

05:23It’s the first global dataset of biomass measured in full at the 30-meter resolution…

05:31…and it’s now up on the web, available as web services.

05:35It’s going to change through time how we see the world and what we’re doing to it.

05:41Some of you are working on assessing renewable energy. These maps show where we’re making investments.

05:49And in the science front, the map in the lower left shows the relationship between hydrology and biofuels.

05:56Very intriguing set of patterns.

06:00These maps share human health, the spread of diseases, and also the map in the lower part…

06:07…physician visits. What are we doing about health care? And also, tracking imports, where products move.

06:19These maps show planning for and managing emergencies--disasters, some of them natural like flooding…

06:26…and earthquakes and hurricanes, and some of them human caused. Evacuation planning…

06:33…the whole cycle of disaster management is being used, using maps and geographic information.

06:39And others of you are supporting defense and national security. These examples show the whole spectrum from…

06:47…intelligence analysis to operational support. These maps show planning and managing facilities…

06:57…a sort of micro-GIS inside of buildings, like optimizing space, a new frontier that NASA has been pioneering.

07:07And looking at urban design, like here in the district, and whole-campus management.

07:16Transportation management and planning is another activity, all the way from tracking trains to airport management…

07:23…to roads and highways to making the information available about transportation alternatives.

07:30Our US DOT is very active in this area. Well, these are a few examples. During the week, there’ll be hundreds of papers…

07:39…presented that I want you to visit and see, hear from each other, in virtually, as I mentioned, every department.

07:49Your work, particularly your work, is clearly making a difference to our country, and yet it’s only beginning.

07:59Each year, we take a few minutes and acknowledge one person who’s made particularly huge contributions…

08:07…in our field, and this year, I’m very pleased to be able to give the Making a Difference Award to David Schell…

08:15…who’s the founder of OGC. Well, maybe he’s supposed to walk out any moment. I don’t know!

08:21Here he is. Welcome, David Schell.

08:26Hello.

08:29Thank you, David. David has worked for decades in pioneering standards in our field. This is not exactly an easy job.

08:39He’s had to work with vendors like me, my own ideas, trying to organize it, integrate it…

08:47…come up with common standards that actually made technologies work effectively from vendor to vendor…

08:56…and standards within the agencies. So David, it’s a great honor for me to do this, both personally and on behalf…

09:04Esri was instrumental in creating a very large GIS market, and OGC was concerned more with communication and…

09:06…of this community, to give you this award. So here we are. David, you want to say a few words?

09:13Yes, thank you.

09:14Thank you.

09:15…integration of different kinds of information, which was complementary to that market.

09:19Thank you very much, Jack. This is very, very meaningful to me.

09:21And now as the markets have evolved, as the technologies have evolved, the presentation that Jack just gave is possible…

09:25Making a difference is what this is all about, what our business is all about.

09:31The reason I started OGC was that I felt it was more important to make a difference than just to make a product.

09:35…and possible also in the sense that implicit in all of the markets that were listed, that were represented…

09:42And interestingly, interestingly, right from the beginning, when Jack and I first met, it was very clear to me that…

09:48…is the fact that we now have models for communicating between different communities…

09:55…we would be working together on a very important way for the next, some decades, and that’s exactly the way it’s turned out.

11:04OGC has become a laboratory for the integration of diverse complex models and for putting together…

11:14…the information that enables you to integrate many of these markets, many of these technologies, and make…

11:22…better sense of the world. So that makes a difference, and it makes me very proud that that’s what our organization…

11:32…has developed into and what we’re doing, and I think that the future for us now really has to focus on making sure…

11:44…the world understands what these capabilities can do, and that we have the ability to make the people…

11:54…who make important decisions understand exactly what they’re looking at and understand the continuity…

12:02…of the human experience through the integration of these different technologies and communities.

12:09So, again, Jack, thank you very much. This is more meaningful than I can tell you, and I’m very, very grateful.

12:18Thank you. Once again, thank you, David.

12:27David is retiring from the board of OGC but he’s not going to retire from work, are you, David?

12:31You’re going to work in the academy and at the university in Texas a bit?

12:35Well, we’re working, we’re trying to, as I was saying, extend these concepts, and the next natural place to go…

12:46…is academia, and to try to deal with the integration of information in that context…

12:55…to try to encourage interdisciplinary studies…

12:58…and to try to make the academy understand that it’s one world and not many, many, many…

13:06…different, isolated domains. That’s what I’d like to do.

13:10Thank you, David.

13:11And thank you very much.

13:12Thank you. Thank you very, very much. David is an inspiration for us, and he’s one of those individuals…

13:23… who’s, very quietly in the background, touched all of our lives, all of your lives, and made our…

13:32…technologies and our profession so much richer.