More Content, Community, New Esri Support site provides more features The new interface for the Esri Support site (support.esri.com) is search-centric and more tightly coupled with the Esri Resource Centers. The site, incorporating Web 2.0 features, made its debut in April and will continue to roll out new functionality through July 2010. The new design makes announcements, common issues, support resources, and other relevant information handy. Locate existing data and solutions easily using the new large Search Support Pages bar. This search is powered by a new Google Search Appliance (GSA). Keyword search results are displayed in a new quadrant-based search page that identifies relevant search results from different data repositories (e.g., Documents, Communities, Service Packs and Patches, and Bugs). Resources on the site are easier to find and use. Icons located on the top, right-hand side link directly to tech support features. Make a new support request by clicking New Support Request. My Support Requests is currently available only to Esri international distributors but will be available to users with valid support contracts by the 2010 Esri International User Conference (Esri UC). The Contact Technical Support button provides information for contacting tech support. The ability to chat with an analyst online is coming soon. Links to articles on common issues and up-to-date information on bug-related announcements, patches, and service packs are listed directly below the icons. The blue Find Resources bar, located under the site login, links directly to the new ArcGIS Resource Centers that organize information on Esri products including Web help and knowledge base articles. Knowledge base articles are also directly accessible from the Support Center site. (Because of changes to the support site, previously created links or bookmarks will no longer work. The most effective method for locating knowledge base articles will be to search for them using the article ID number.) Links to Esri online communities, familiar ones and some new ones, are grouped under the Community Content heading. Links to the Support Blog and Data Model pages 58 ArcUser Summer 2010 are located here. This section also contains links to new items such as the Forum, wiki. GIS.com, and the ArcGIS Ideas portal. New Improved Forums The new, improved Forum makes it much easier to locate a post and link to social networking sites like Digg and del.icio.us. It provides a customizable user experience. Members can subscribe to forums organized around products, functions (e.g., data models, geoprocessing), user communities (e.g., land records, petroleum), and solutions (e.g., ArcLogistics, PLTS). Members can also subscribe to threads and join groups with others who share an interest area. Forum members have publicly viewable profile pages. Messages can be posted to these pages. Members can control privacy settings; add signatures, avatars, or profile pictures with posts; and upload albums and pictures. Lists of friends and contacts are maintained through the site, and members can send private messages. The Quick Links menu in the navigation bar at the top of each page (available only to logged-on, registered members) provides direct access to today’s posts; networks of friends, contacts, groups, pictures, and albums; the control panel; and other personal items. After only six months of operation, nearly 8,500 users have become members of these new forums. Building a Great Source of GIS Knowledge Launched in December 2009, wiki.GIS.com is envisioned as a free encyclopedia that will serve as a comprehensive repository for factual, unbiased GIS knowledge. It is free, available to anyone, and moderated by the GIS community. The collaborative nature of a wiki is especially well suited to the rapidly evolving field of GIS technology. Wiki.GIS.com started with just 2,000 pages of content that encompassed both GIS and geography. In the first three months, it grew by nearly 7,000 pages and was receiving more than 3,000 visitors per week. A high percentage of visitors to this site participate. Regular contributors to the site may be www.esri.com