Latest Contributions by GeriMiller

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) is proud to announce the 2024 Student of Year nominations. EIP encourages students and educators to create innovative applications using ArcGIS technology - as part of research projects, course work, or skills development.   Every year, university members of EIP select one student to be their Student of the Year recipient. A benefit for the nominated student is a cash prize, certificate, and Esri Press book awarded to those who are nominated as Students of the Year. This Story Map Collection highlights the 2024 projects – thank you to all the students for their inspirational work, and to their mentors for the support and encouragement. Out of all submissions, one student is selected as International Student of the Year and invited to attend the 2024 Education Summit and 2024 Esri User Conference. This year, this special nomination goes to Cathryn Hunt, a student in Penn State’s MGIS Program, Recipient of the Penn State EIP Student of the Year nomination. Congratulations to Cathryn for her work on this From Selfish to Selfless Routing project - an application which helps alleviate traffic congestion with GIS routing apps. The blueprint incorporates a selfless routing approach by distributing high-volume traffic flows over multiple routes and assigning vehicles to routes based on route capacity. Thank you, Cathryn, for your wonderful work and creativity, and congratulations to all Students of the Year! ... View more

When working with ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Pro, most Education customers choose to license ArcGIS Pro via ArcGIS Online named user. In certain instances, specifically for Administrative Use, we see customers wishing to license ArcGIS Pro via ArcGIS Enterprise (Portal license file). ArcGIS License Manager is required today when ArcGIS Pro or ArcGIS Pro-derived products are licensed via ArcGIS Enterprise named user. In other words, even though Education customers have GIS Professional Advanced user type (soon to be Professional Plus user type) with ArcGIS Enterprise, they will not be able to license ArcGIS Pro via that named user, without a License Manager. We understand that the use of ArcGIS License Manager may not be desired, as it adds additional administration overhead and extra infrastructure. The recommendation is to license ArcGIS Pro via ArcGIS Online.   For customers using ArcGIS Enterprise with ArcGIS Pro Named User licensing supported by ArcGIS Online, the use of License Manager is not required. When creating an ArcGIS Enterprise Portal provisioning file on My Esri for this scenario, you can put any values in the fields for ArcGIS License Manager Hostname, Port, and MAC address (random MAC address generator can satisfy the form validation). The generated license file can still be used, while bypassing the setup of License Manager altogether.   For customers using ArcGIS Enterprise that prefer to manage Pro Named User licensing within ArcGIS Enterprise (Portal for ArcGIS), which typically is to meet institutional guidelines or requirements for administrative use security or privacy, then you are required to first set up and configure an instance of ArcGIS License Manager. When creating your ArcGIS Enterprise Portal provisioning file on My Esri for this scenario, you will need to provide your ArcGIS License Manager's Hostname, Port, and MAC address. Work is underway to remove the need for traditional License Manager in future releases, timing of which is unknown at this point.    ... View more

Education Colleagues: We have a number of important licensing changes ahead of us. We have communicated the removal of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro SU/CU) consistently and in numerous ways. By now, you have also likely heard the announcement of Esri User Types changes. Please review the following blog describing what this user type configuration change means for Education.  Please also take a look at this video (Passcode: Sy!k0!2W) explaining some of these upcoming changes. In addition, we will also have a GIS Admins Community Meeting Q&A session, meant to serve as accompanying discussion to the above messaging and resources. The purpose of the meeting would be to answer questions, hear comments, address concerns, hear from fellow license administrators, learn from each other, interact as a community. Please join us, if interested, and please feel free to email any questions ahead of time to highered@esri.com. Date/time:  Wednesday, May 29th at 11:00 am PT | 2:00 pm ET Meeting: https://esri.zoom.us/j/778857623 (no registration required) Last, please review our updated Best Practices for Managing ArcGIS app, outlining many of the recommended practices for deploying and administering ArcGIS in a secure and safe matter, while saving valuable time. We have been discussing these recommendations for quite some time, and hopefully they are not news. Of course, as time progresses and things change, these recommendations have evolved and will continue to evolve.  Look forward to seeing you there! ... View more

Education Colleagues: You have likely received communication about updates to User Types being implemented at the June 2024 release of ArcGIS Online for all Esri customers. We want to provide further information specific to Education. What the upcoming changes are: The capabilities of ArcGIS are accessed through multiple products, apps, extensions, and add-ons—all with varying levels of licensing and entitlements. Access to those licenses and entitlements is provided through an ArcGIS user account. Each user account has a “user type” that defines some of the privileges of that account. Effective June 2024, Esri is updating the user type model to simplify access and administration of capabilities and apps.    See 2023-to-2024-arcgis-user-type-comparison-matrix and website for additional information. What this means for Education customers:   Customers with Education licenses (Education Institution Agreements, Education Departmental Agreements, ArcGIS for Schools, ArcGIS for Student Use, and Research Institute Agreements) who currently have the “GIS Professional Advanced” user type, will receive the corresponding “Professional Plus” user type. The Professional Plus user type includes all the existing capabilities of the GIS Professional Advanced user type and adds even more – no capabilities will be taken away. Several ArcGIS Pro extensions and apps that were previously managed as separate licenses will now be included in the Professional Plus user type, simplifying administration by reducing the number of additional licenses to assign.     The update will be automatic and seamless, i.e. it will take place during the ArcGIS Online update in June 2024, and there will not be any action Education customers will need to do for the actual user type update. What Education Customers will need to do: As part of the Best Practices for managing ArcGIS, we have been recommending that GIS administrators enable new users with all available apps and capabilities, which removes barriers and eliminates manual administration. We suggest you continue with this approach of assigning all available products to all students, faculty, and staff. With this user type update,  more capabilities and apps will be part of the user type, reducing the additional licenses assigned that need to be assigned through New Member Defaults. Therefore, once the update takes place, you will need to update your New Member Defaults to change Add-on licenses that you assign. The following licenses are now part of the Professional Plus user type, hence will not need to be assigned as Add-on licenses. ArcGIS Image for ArcGIS Online ArcGIS City Engine Several ArcGIS Pro extensions 3D Analyst Data Reviewer Geostatistical Analyst Image Analyst LocateXT Network Analyst Publisher Spatial Analyst ArcGIS Workflow Manager See this matrics for Summary of new additions Any other additional licenses currently included in your New Member Defaults can remain, with the exception of ArcGIS Community Analyst and ArcGIS GeoPlanner (these products will be removed from Education Program offerings in advance of their retirement). For customers with an Education Institution Agreement, here are the licenses that will remain part of the New Member Defaults: ArcGIS Business Analyst Web and Mobile apps ArcGIS Drone2Map Standard ArcGIS Insights ArcGIS Urban ArcGIS Location Sharing Esri Redistricting ArcGIS Data Interoperability ArcGIS Pro extensions Aviation Airports Aviation Charting Bathymetry Maritime Defense Mapping Production Mapping Pipeline Reference Roads and Highways For the add-on licenses that are now part of the user type, you will see a notification stating, "Some members have licenses assigned twice." This notification indicates that due to the user type update, some users have licenses assigned under the updated user type and the add-on license from the previous license model. You have two options:  Reconcile this duplication by clicking "Unassign duplicate add-on license."   Unassigning duplicate licenses will remove the add-on licenses under the previous license model, retaining only the licenses from the newly updated user types. This action will not disrupt your current workflow. Take no action and maintain the duplication until your next subscription renewal.  Nothing will happen; the duplication of licenses persists and has no impact on current workflows. The notification will continue to be displayed until you renew your subscription.  Additional Notes: For Administrative/Operational use, there is an ability to purchase Mobile Worker user type. The Mobile Worker user type retains its existing capabilities, including access to field apps, therefore, no changes will be needed. ArcGIS Pro licenses which have been taken offline will not be affected. ArcGIS Enterprise customers will see similar user type update upon upgrading to ArcGIS Enterprise 11.4 (expected November 2024). Summary: For Education customers, this user type configuration change means that more licenses are assigned by default with the Professional Plus User type, which ultimately means less administrative burden of assigning additional Add-On licenses. If you have assigned New Member Defaults as part of our recommended Best Practices for managing ArcGIS, we recommend to update New Member Defaults to change Add-on licenses that you assign. For individual names users who now have duplicate licenses, especially for large organizations with many users, we recommend taking no action, as the duplication will be resolved during next renewal.  Please post any questions here, reach out to your Account Manager or email highered@esri.com. ... View more

As ArcGIS Online usage grows across educational institutions, we often get questions about managing the growing amount of content that comes with that. The concept of Data Governance is instrumental in effectively addressing such questions. Data governance is about setting institution-wide standards - data policies - that apply to how data is gathered, stored, accessed, processed, and disposed of.  A data governance plan for managing one’s ArcGIS Online organization can help institutions plan for growth and avoid problems.  Many institutions are still in the early stages of implementing Modern GIS (ArcGIS Online and related apps); in such cases, “do not delete data” is a reasonable short-term policy. For institutions with thousands of users, however, now is a good time to develop data governance policies. What should be addressed in a comprehensive data governance plan? Monitoring utilization of ArcGIS Online Handling of user content when a user leaves an organization (off-boarding) Plans for increasing capacity, prior to encountering limits. Regularly informing users of your data governance plan and how it will impact them In developing a data governance plan for ArcGIS Online, a good starting point can be to review an institution's existing data governance practices for other campus systems, and mirror those. Answer questions such as “How often is data purged?”, “What happens to existing content when a user leaves?”, etc. Frequently Asked Question about ArcGIS Online Storage The purpose of this blog is not to address everything that goes into a data governance plan, but to focus specifically on addressing storage-related issues and options for increasing capacity prior to encountering storage limits. Below are Frequently Asked Questions which will help explain how to get information about your organization’s specific data storage, along with suggestions for next steps. Q: What are the different types of storage in ArcGIS Online? Broadly speaking, there are different types of storage in ArcGIS Online: Feature storage is specific to feature layers hosted in ArcGIS Online.    File storage includes other types of layers and files, including attachments in your hosted feature layers. Imagery storage is specific to image layers in ArcGIS Online. Q: How do I gain insights as to where my organization stands in terms of storage? Is it possible to run a report? We recommend creating an organization item report by going to Organization à Status page and creating an “Item” report. You can gain insights on items which consume large amounts of file or feature storage. To identify items in the organization that consume large amount of file or feature storage, open the report and sort the respective fields.   For further information, please check the View and report status documentation. Please also check the Tracking your ArcGIS Online Feature Data Store Key Health Indicators blog specifically relating to feature storage.   Q: What are my options and next steps if my storage is getting large? Consult your IT colleagues/centralized IT support to evaluate whether existing data governance practices for other systems (e.g., Sharepoint, file servers) can be applied to ArcGIS Online. Some modifications may be required but you can leverage your colleagues’ expertise to build a strong foundation.  Remove data sets that consume large file or feature storage and have not been accessed or are redundant. After running an Item report as described above, consider removing any large items that are not being accessed or are redundant. Students inevitably leave the institution and become inactive users with inactive content. In addition, redundant data can result from course activities in which dozens of students follow the same workflow. In addition, this section of the ArcGIS Online documentation provides additional guidance for actions such as identifying old or unused items and finding large hosted feature layers. Another consideration for managing content are 3rd Party tools, such as Geo Jobe’s Admin Tools, Back Up My Org, and Clean My Org solutions. Note that there is a cost associated with these tools. Implement additional storage solutions Below are additional options to consider and both have an associated cost. License Premium Feature Data Store: For organizations who are reaching the feature storage limits, and would like to keep maintaining similar workflows without removing existing content, a Premium Feature Data Store is available. In addition to providing additional storage, the Premium Feature Data Store provides additional dedicated database resources such as memory, CPU, and input/output (I/O) and could provide improved database performance.   Leverage ArcGIS Enterprise to host large datasets: ArcGIS Enterprise runs in your own infrastructure, and while included as part of the Education Institution Agreement there is a cost associated with using an institution’s infrastructure/servers (on premises or cloud), as well as time cost associated with setting up and maintaining it. In addition, you may need to move content between portals, which could result in broken links to any applications leveraging the content if not managed carefully. Either of the above approaches could be a viable option and it is up to your organization to consider which storage solution provides the best ROI in your specific context. In one of the options (Premium Data Store), Esri is providing the infrastructure and management at a cost, while in the other (ArcGIS Enterprise), the technology itself is available with your existing Esri license agreement but there is an associated cost with maintaining infrastructure/servers (on premises or cloud), as well as time cost for someone to stand up and maintain. Any feedback and questions are welcome.   ... View more

Over the past years, we have been encouraging customers to adopt a Modern GIS pattern, which includes ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro and Apps. By definition, Modern GIS uses named user licensing to provide access across the suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop apps. We have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, leveraging Single Sign On/SAML logins as the most efficient way to provide access to ArcGIS both in lab environments and on students’ personal devices. With the upcoming removal of Single Use/Concurrent Use licenses for ArcGIS Pro from the Education programs, ArcGIS named user will be the only method to license ArcGIS in the future. Hence, it is crucial that organizations implement SAML logins for efficient access to all ArcGIS apps, including ArcGIS Pro. Some of you have asked how to deploy ArcGIS Pro in a lab environment with shared computers. A common concern is that students may forget to log out, and/or one student may get unauthorized access to another student’s work. Fortunately, many institutions have successfully deployed ArcGIS Pro in lab environments where licenses are managed with ArcGIS named user accounts rather than concurrent use licenses. User-based licensing has become a common industry standard in academia, used by many vendors, including in labs. This approach saves time and costs, since no license server needs to be maintained. Please collaborate with your IT/lab managers to enable proper settings for logging out (to alleviate concerns of students continuing to be logged in to ArcGIS Pro for extended period, or sharing logins, or accessing data). Below are some considerations as you collaborate with your IT colleagues in this process. These settings are common in lab environments and are not specific to ArcGIS: Avoid a setup where students use a common username and password to log into Windows rather than use individual credentials. In general, using shared credentials violates most universities’ information privacy policies. In other words, users of the computer lab must log into the Windows computers with their own individual credentials, versus using a single, shared username and password. If shared credentials are used, indeed one student could accidentally access another student's GIS work, as the ArcGIS Pro login information is cached inside a Windows account that more than one person can use. Hence, the recommendation is to avoid shared accounts. If that’s not possible, implement controls (Windows, not ArcGIS) to prevent retention of user-specific information across login sessions. Setup proper log off timeout in case students forget to logoff themselves – your IT/lab manager likely already has a preferred timeout setting in place.   Encourage students to log off when done working in the lab – this will ensure no one can access their work in ArcGIS Pro or other applications. “Sign in automatically” is enabled by default and the recommendation is to keep it that way. As long as individual Windows logins are used (versus shared logins), there is no concern of sharing ArcGIS Pro sessions and accessing someone else’s data or content.   The following question was asked of institutions who have implemented named user licenses in lab environments successfully. Question: Do you use named user licensing in your lab, and if so, have you encountered issues if students do not log out? Answers:   “Yes, we use named user licensing. We have never run into an issue where a student’s license gets locked to a lab PC. The lab I manager has group policies in place that wipe some data from the PCs every night that resets the ArcGIS Pro instance to an unlicensed default.”  -- Campus License Administrator and GIS Lab Manager, Tier 1 Research Institution.  “We don’t have Pro installed in a lab in the GIS Department anymore since we are online (and students use their own computers). There are a few seats installed in computer labs – we use the named user approach. All our machines get wiped each night so even if they are signed in, the policy wipes that out because each product reverts to its original state.”  -- Geography/GIS Professor and Campus License Administrator, Nationally Recognized Community College   Further feedback is welcome! ... View more

The Esri Innovation Program (EIP) is proud to announce the 2023 Student of Year nominations. EIP encourages students and educators to create innovative applications using ArcGIS technology - as part of research projects, course work, or skills development.   Every year, university members of EIP select one student to be their Student of the Year recipient. A benefit for the nominated student is a cash prize, certificate, and Esri Press book awarded to those who are nominated as Students of the Year. This Story Map Collection highlights the 2023 projects - thanks to all students for the wonderful work, and to their mentors for the support and encouragement. Out of the pool of all submissions, one student is selected as International Student of the Year and invited to attend the 2023 Education Summit and 2023 Esri User Conference. We are very excited to announce this year’s winner, Luke Zaruba, Recipient of the University of Minnesota EIP Student of the Year nomination. Thank you, Luke, for your wonderful work and creativity! Congratulations to all Students of the Year! ... View more

*Updated February, 2024 There has been a change in product direction for ArcGIS Desktop - the date on which ArcGIS Desktop delivery will end for all existing customers, has been changed from March 1 to July 1 2024. The product lifecycle remains unchanged - ArcGIS Desktop enters Mature Support phase on March 1. Education Colleagues: For a few years now , we have encouraged the GIS Education Community to teach Modern GIS workflows, adopting a cloud-first approach and moving away from ArcMap in curriculum and research. Modern GIS skills (requirements gathering, application configuration, data as services, automation and scripting, cloud infrastructure and architecture)  are crucial in today’s environment. We’ve worked hard to provide supporting resources and guidance on transitioning from teaching only ArcMap to teaching the entire ArcGIS system to help the community prepare for the retirement of ArcMap. In addition, Modern GIS uses named user licensing to provide access across the suite of ArcGIS web, mobile, and desktop apps. We have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, leveraging Single Sign On/SAML logins as the most efficient way to provide access to ArcGIS both in lab environments and on students’ personal devices. Moving forward, ArcGIS named user will be the only method to license ArcGIS Pro and other ArcGIS applications in the future. We want to share a timeline, along with answers to some frequently asked questions, on what to expect with the retirement of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use).  TIMELINE In 2022-2023, depending on your customers’ license renewal date, the quantity of ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use) licenses delivered by default with an Education Institution Agreement decreased from 5,000 to 250. Additional licenses may be requested for specific needs. In 2024, ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use) will be removed from the Education Program. ArcGIS Desktop enters the Mature Support phase of the product lifecycle on March 1, 2024. ArcGIS Desktop will no longer be delivered in Education Institution Agreements or Education Department Licenses as of July 1, 2024. Notes: Changes to the quantity of ArcGIS Desktop licenses delivered are made at renewal. License quantities will not change in the middle of your license term.      To emphasize, ArcMap and ArcGIS Pro Single Use/Concurrent Use licenses will NOT be included in future terms of your Esri Education Program license for renewals after March 1 2024 July 1, 2024. ArcGIS Pro WILL continue to be included and enabled via named user licensing.  Customers whose licenses renew between March 1 and June 30 2024 will receive 250 license of ArcGIS Desktop for the next term. RESOURCES There are many resources to help guide you through this journey, between ArcGIS tutorials, Esri Academy courses, and Esri Press books, among others. In addition, we have hosted, and will continue to do, several workshops and discussions to share best practices and address your questions.  Below are links to some of these resources. Please use them as stepping stones and/or supplements for your curriculum and research activities. ArcGIS tutorials, specifically this Modern GIS tutorial series Esri Academy, specifically the guide to Modern GIS e-learning Esri Press books Modern GIS Blog Modern GIS User Stories Access to other Esri subject matter experts (in USA, please reach out to your Account Manager, Outside USA please reach out to your distributor). COMMONLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT MANAGING ARCGIS LICENSES Q: What about ArcGIS Pro licenses? A: The quantity of named user licenses (GIS Professional user type) did not change. As before, the recommended method for licensing ArcGIS Pro is via a named user. The quantity of ArcGIS Pro single use/concurrent use licenses delivered did change starting in 2022-2023; it was reduced to 250. If ArcGIS Online (or ArcGIS Enterprise) cannot be used as a licensing portal for GIS Professional user types, additional quantities of ArcGIS Pro single use licenses could be requested, as needed. However, after March 1, depending on your renewal date, 2024 the GIS Professional User Type will be the only method of licensing ArcGIS Pro. Q: How do I license ArcGIS Pro in lab environments? A: As stated already, we encourage customers to adopt a Modern GIS pattern, which includes ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online and Apps. By definition, Modern GIS requires named user licensing and we have been recommending ArcGIS Online as a licensing portal, particularly leveraging Single Sign On (SSO) as the most efficient way to provide access. We discourage use of concurrent use licenses in labs, and many institutions successfully use ArcGIS Pro in lab environments using the named user model. This eliminates the need to run  a license server. Please work with your IT/lab managers to enable proper settings for logging out (to alleviate concerns of students continuing to be logged in to ArcGIS Pro for extended period of time). Q: Distributing ArcMap licenses was easy. We serve a large body of students, faculty and staff, how do I manage access for everyone with this newer model? A: As ArcGIS has grown beyond a single desktop application, the way we manage access and licenses has changed. Please follow these recommendations on Managing ArcGIS, if you do not already. Using SSO and New Member defaults are the most important approaches to minimize time managing access to ArcGIS.  In addition, it is important to have good communication about software distribution and options for using ArcGIS Pro on Apple devices. Q: How do I notify all my stakeholders (students, faculty, staff) of these changes, or any changes? A: This is an institution-dependent question. We recommend a combination of “push” and “pull” communication such as email (push) and notification on a website (pull).  The blog ArcGIS access website for your institution  describes how to create a website that enables self-service access to ArcGIS software and support. Please ensure your institution has such a website, and the website clearly describes how to access ArcGIS software, support and learning resources at your institution.   ... View more

Education Colleagues: As you know, My Esri is an invaluable one-stop destination for generating licenses, downloading installation files, requesting technical support, and accessing many Esri products and services.   You have likely already seen/experienced the new My Esri look, which is now the default version that you see when you login, versus the default Classic My Esri view. This new My Esri version became the default in December 1, 2022. Some of the enhancements of this My Esri Update are: Decreased number of selection tiers, simplifying the ability to find items Streamlined access to licensing information More intuitive Downloads options, making it easier to find products/executables to download Better connection to ArcGIS Online organizations (option to pick from available ones) Many others If you are still leveraging the Classic view, we encourage you to experiment with the New Overview page, and all the underlining links. The naming convention for Academic versus Administrative licenses (i.e., specifying/having a designation of which ones are Academic and which are Administrative) is not implemented yet - we are hopeful to have this done in the near future. Please take a look at this New My Esri Experience is Live! blog, documenting some of the changes. Please also feel free to subscribe to the My Esri Blog on Esri Community, in order to receive timely updates about My Esri. Your feedback as always is greatly appreciated.   ... View more