The staff of ArcNews was very excited to debut online-only articles in the Winter 2002/2003 issue of ArcNews Online. The Spring 2003 online issue continued this enhancement with yet more great articles. We created this new feature to help keep up with the ever-increasing number of articles about successful GIS implementations across the globe. These Web-only articles are outlined in each paper issue of ArcNews. In the Summer 2003 issue of ArcNews Online, you can read the following exclusively online articles:

Cover Story

"Innovations Key to Geospatial One-Stop Portal Design"
To properly support the business of government and decision making, the Geospatial One-Stop portal needs to be both flexible and innovative. This article presents some examples of innovative portal applications reflecting users' interests, such as channels, map viewing, basemap selection, metadata harvesting, and leveraging e-govenment initiatives.

GIS in Action

"New Jersey Meadowlands Commission Improves Efficiency, Accuracy With GIS"
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is a regional planning and development agency with authority encompassing a 32-square-mile area in the urban setting of northern New Jersey. It averages 600 development applications per year. In 2001 the commission implemented a GIS to improve the efficiency and accuracy of tracking permit data.

"Oakland County, Michigan, Drain Commission Prepares Well for Infrastructure GIS"
Michigan's Oakland County Drain Commission is well on its way to building a comprehensive infrastructure management GIS after completing an 18-month planning process that resulted in a solid geodatabase design. The commission's GIS has been designed to ultimately serve the infrastructure management needs of all 61 cities, villages, and townships within the county.

"Boston, Massachusetts, Develops an Industrial Archaeology Mapping Project With GIS"
A parcel of urban land now used for residential or commercial building might once have been a leather tannery, lead smelter, or foundry. The Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is developing a procedure to link 120-year-old Sanborn fire insurance maps with current land use. A GIS mapping database and a customized GIS application have been developed to allow for the mapping of the determinant factors of potential environmental hazard exposures.

"Esri and Partners Provide GIS Support for the American Frontiers Trek"
On July 31, 2002, two teams of trekkers departed from opposite borders of the western United States on an epic journey across a contiguous mosaic of exclusively public lands. Dubbed as the historic American Frontiers Trek, these teams required two fully equipped GIS support units. Esri enlisted the help of several business partners to help.

GIS Community News

"GITA Publishes Fifth Annual Geospatial Technology Report"
The Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA) has published the Geospatial Technology Report 2002: A Survey of Organizations Implementing Geospatial Information Technologies. The report, the fifth in an annual series from GITA, contains detailed information on the complexity, direction, and completeness of GIS projects being implemented at 187 infrastructure-based organizations—19 percent larger than the 2001 study.

Also—Look for the expanded Esri T-Shirt Feature section online!