Worldwide GIS Community Connects Through Esri Virtual Campus Groups

While the Esri Virtual Campus is best known for its GIS education and training on the Web, it has also become a bustling international center for GIS information exchange and networking, with people at the campus 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Members of the campus community can easily locate and interact with others who share their professional interests through a variety of channels, including campus community groups.

The people of the campus represent many aspects of the global GIS community. To date, campus community groups connect over 800 members worldwide from a range of interests and industries—academia, agriculture, Business, conservation, environmental systems analysis, Internet GIS, local government, spatial hydrology, and dozens more. Members can send messages to each other, read and post group messages, view archived information, and view and schedule group events.

"The Virtual Campus offers GIS users the chance to network and interact with other users around the world," says Timothy Lux, Esri Virtual Campus manager. "Groups are much more than a social outlet—they are a place for users who share a common field or interest to discuss ideas, share stories, and work together to solve common problems."

There are two types of groups at the Virtual Campus: open and moderated. Open groups generally address broad topics (e.g., GIS and Emergency Response) and may have any number of members. Moderated groups usually have a narrower focus (e.g., University of Southern California GIS students), have criteria for membership, and may limit the number of members. Everyone is welcome to view group home pages, group descriptions, and member profiles, but only those with a student account can join or create a community group. Those without an account can create a free one when joining or creating a group.

That's just what James Price, GIS coordinator for the City of Gulfport (Mississippi) did. In his position for one year, James created the Local Government community group out of a need to connect and network with other local government GIS users around the world, especially if they are in small to mid-size agencies. Most members face the same challenges where GIS is new to their community such as working with the private sector; streamlining process requirements; obtaining information in digital format; and educating the public and colleagues.

"I created the Local Government group simply because one did not exist," says Price. "Local government tends to get lumped in with federal government, but local agencies have unique needs." He predicts that local government will be a hot area for GIS in the future. And if that is any indication, in just five months, the Local Government community group grew to 90 members.

Price, who is passionate about GIS and comes from a family of cartographers, receives and answers e-mails from other group members, sends out information about job openings, and more. "Other members are in small GIS shops like me," he says. "I can reach out to them and discuss work-related issues and their potential solutions, and ask if anyone has done a certain task before. It's a real time saver."

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