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ArcGIS Dashboards Beta Lets Users Try Out New Features
Each month, Esri users create thousands of dashboards using ArcGIS Dashboards (formerly known as Operations Dashboard for ArcGIS). Informative and dynamic, they serve multiple purposes, from managing performance and monitoring progress to doing impact assessments and sharing information. They’re built for a variety of audiences, too, including operations staff, line-of-business managers, and C-suite executives.
To help users achieve these objectives and more, the ArcGIS Dashboards team is always working to improve the product. The new ArcGIS Dashboards beta, available in ArcGIS Online, is the latest version of Esri’s dashboard authoring technology. Built on ArcGIS API 4.x for JavaScript, it enables dashboard authors to take advantage of multiple enhancements that have been introduced across the ArcGIS platform.
With ArcGIS Dashboards beta, users get to test-drive several new features, highlighted below, and provide feedback to the team. All ArcGIS Online users have access to ArcGIS Dashboards beta through the app launcher. Just look for the familiar ArcGIS Dashboards icon labeled BETA. Also, once this version of ArcGIS Dashboards comes out of beta, it will be available in ArcGIS Enterprise.
Improved Usability and Performance
The ArcGIS Dashboards team has made a number of user experience improvements, many of which are exposed through dashboard configuration options. These include new and improved summary statistics for percentile and count, as well as support for Hex, RGB, and HSL formats for color input. Options such as these enable authors to customize their dashboards to create the information products they want and need, supporting diverse audiences and adhering to organizational branding.
To try ArcGIS Dashboards beta and provide feedback to the team, sign in to your ArcGIS Online account or get a free trial. Documentation, FAQs, and a discussion forum for ArcGIS Dashboards beta are available on GeoNet.
first published week of: 06/01/2020
A still image taken from the animation released by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Epfl). It shows a map of the universe in expansion.
This is the result of a 20-year collaboration of several hundred scientists from around 30 different institutions worldwide.
To answer some of the most pressing questions about the universe, scientists have revealed the largest 3D map of the universe ever created. The map, published on June 19, is the result of an analysis of more than two million galaxies and quasars (luminous galactic nuclei which have supermassive blackholes) covering over 11 billion years of cosmic time. It fills in the most significant gaps in our knowledge of the universe.
Announced by Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the results come from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), an international collaboration of more than 100 astrophysicists and one of the SDSS’s main surveys. Within the eBOSS team, groups of scientists from different universities around the world focused on different aspects of the analysis. The map today represents their combined effort of mapping the universe for over two decades.
“We know both the ancient history of the Universe and its recent expansion history fairly well, but there is a troublesome gap in the middle 11 billion years,” said cosmologist Kyle Dawson, who leads the team, in a statement. “For five years, we have worked to fill in that gap, and we are using that information to provide some of the most substantial advances in cosmology in the last decade.”
Read full story at Vice…
first published week of: 07/27/2020
BAE Systems, Inc. announced it has reached definitive agreements for the proposed acquisitions of Collins Aerospace’s military Global Positioning System (GPS) business and Raytheon’s Airborne Tactical Radios (ATR) business.
These two high-performing businesses are being sold in connection with obtaining the required antitrust clearances for the previously announced pending merger between Raytheon and United Technologies Corporation (UTC).
The proposed acquisitions are structured as asset transactions with associated tax benefits, and they remain subject to customary closing adjustments. The asset purchase agreement for the Collins military GPS business calls for cash of $1.925 billion, with an expected tax benefit of approximately $365 million. For Raytheon’s ATR business, the purchase agreement calls for cash of $275 million, with an expected tax benefit of approximately $50 million.
“As militaries around the world increasingly operate in contested environments, the industry-leading, battle-tested products of these two businesses will complement and extend our existing portfolio of solutions we offer our customers,” said Jerry DeMuro, CEO of BAE Systems, Inc. “This unique opportunity to acquire critical radio and GPS capabilities strengthens our position as a leading provider of defense electronics and communications systems, and further supports our alignment with the modernization priorities of the U.S. military and its partners.”
These proposed acquisitions are subject to the successful closure of the Raytheon-UTC transaction, as well as the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions, including receipt of the required U.S. regulatory approvals. Upon closure, both business lines would be integrated into the company’s Electronic Systems sector.
“These are strong businesses with talented employees who share our focus on quality and technology innovation,” said Tom Arseneault, President and COO of BAE Systems, Inc. “We are confident of a smooth transition that will accelerate our future together and look forward to welcoming these new employees to the BAE Systems team once the transactions are approved.”
Read full story at BAE Systems…
first published week of: 01/20/2020
As the new coronavirus has spread around the world, many people have begun to rely on online maps to understand it. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University used a software package called GIS to create an interactive dashboard with a map, numerical data and charts. The New York Times has presented updated information about where cases appear in two types of non-interactive maps: a world map with the number of cases written over each country, and maps of the United States, East Asia and Europe with proportional circles over provinces and cities.
It’s not only ordinary citizens who rely on maps like this. Acting deputy homeland security secretary Ken Cuccinelli asked Twitter for help when he briefly wasn’t able to view the Johns Hopkins map, and complained about the institution’s bad timing in limiting access.
… Every map embodies an argument. Here is what you need to know about mapping coronavirus.branch
There’s an argument embedded in every map. Here’s what you need to know.
Read full story at Washington Post…
first published week of: 03/23/2020
The four largest U.S. carriers face combined FCC fines totaling about $209 million for selling access to customers’ real-time location data without their consent to unauthorized third parties, even after operators were made aware of the issue.
An FCC investigation found that even after several highly public press reports, including the New York Times and Motherboard, revealed customer data was getting into unauthorized hands, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon all continued to sell access to the sensitive information to so-called “aggregators” without putting adequate safeguards in place, in some cases for more than a year.
In MotherBoard’s early 2019 investigative report, bounty hunters were able to get their hands on real-time location data as it trickled down from aggregators for just a few hundred dollars.
Read full story at Fierce Wireless…
first published week of: 03/02/2020
Bird is rolling out a new standalone app, called Bird Maps, in Paris and Tel Aviv that will provide turn-by-turn navigation for riders who want to use bike or micromobility lanes for their entire trip.
The app, which will be available on iOS and Android, was created using navigation software from Trailze, an Israeli startup that has mapped the urban grid with micromobility in mind. Bird has not determined how long it will pilot Bird Maps. The results of the pilot will determine testing in other cities, a spokesperson told TechCrunch.
Bird Maps prioritizes bike lanes, wide roads or paths with less traffic and offers visual and, more importantly, audio directions to riders. A Bird spokesperson said the company expects the audio feature will be the main method people use in the app. Bird is not testing phone mounts, which would be the only safe way for riders to view the navigation.
Read full story at TechCrunch…
first published week of: 06/22/2020