Community Blog

Meet Mele Koneya, a GIS Analyst for the City of Scottsdale, Arizona. Get a glimpse into how Mele and others on the City of Scottsdale GIS team have has been using GIS to support the city’s operations for decades, including though the management of geospatial data that empowers public safety units like the Scottsdale Fire Department to maintain an exceptional standard for response no matter the conditions. In this article, Mele also discusses why he often turns to Esri Community for support and knowledge-sharing that provides him with valuable guidance and has, at times, helped him resolve some sticky challenges during major city events.

Meet Amanda Huber, a GIS Administrator for Minnesota's Three Rivers Park District. In this article, discover how Amanda and a compact team of colleagues support geospatial needs across a range of departments that manage 27,000 acres of parks and trails. She discusses her strategic use of Esri Community to problem-solve and learn, including using it as a research resource when considering new Esri products to add to Three Rivers Park District’s broad tech stack. As a newly minted member of the Esri Community's MVP program, Amanda also describes what makes Esri Community a safe space for GIS professionals of all levels to ask their questions and why she’s inspired to contribute back as an MVP.

Meet Mervyn Lotter, a Biodiversity Planner and GIS Manager for the Mpumalanga Tourism & Parks Agency in South Africa. There, Mervyn leverages GIS to protect and conserve local biodiversity that includes over 600 species that are either threatened or of conservation concern. This work comes at a time when the stability of worldwide biodiversity is increasingly fragile, making the need for strong preservation measures paramount. In this article, Mervyn discusses how Esri Community has long provided him with an important source of support and the values that drive him to contribute help back to other members. Learn more …

Meet Ellie Hakari, a GIS Analyst III who followed a non-traditional path to her role at the State of Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. There, she works to protect the integrity of Alaska’s roads and airport pavement by monitoring their condition and evaluating threats—like those from typhoons, earthquakes, and other natural disasters and the impacts of climate change. Learn more …

Meet Doug Browning, a Geospatial Data Systems Architect contractor with the Sanborn Map Company. As the creator and manager of workflows that combine complex ArcGIS Survey123 forms, ArcGIS Field Maps, and ArcGIS Online, Doug is instrumental in supporting the Bureau of Land Management's Assessment Inventory Monitoring team as they monitor natural resource conditions across 245 million acres of U.S. public lands. What’s more, Doug is an Esri Community MVP whose contributions in this platform have and continue to impact many—including by helping shape the development of ArcGIS Survey123. Learn more …

Meet Hussam Al Jabri, a GIS Lead working on the electric distribution tier of a large city building infrastructure company in Saudi Arabia. Hussam has been recognized with multiple prestigious awards from Esri in recent years, in addition to being recognized as an Esri Community Rookie of the Year in 2020. In this interview and article, Hussam discusses the role Esri Community has played in his career and why he believes he'll be in Esri Community for his entire life.

Peter Knoop is a research consultant at the University of Michigan, where he and a small number of colleagues support the school’s roughly 10,000 registered ArcGIS system users. He’s there to help when questions come up about using the software. But with such a large group and more than 100+ Esri products any given user might be working with, he sometimes has to supplement his expertise by turning to Esri Community for insights. Read this Member Spotlight to learn how the resources in Esri Community provide Peter not just a place to find answers to questions, but also help him collaborate with other support staff in higher education to advance their shared product Idea priorities, and enable knowledge sharing in ways that lighten his workload.

The list of properties Johns Hopkins University owns has grown exponentially since it first opened in 1876. Keeping track of them all is no small task. Jonathan Dandois PhD, GISP is the GIS Manager for Facilities & Real Estate at the University. He manages the department's ArcGIS Enterprise products—the foundation that makes staying on top of construction, planning, and architecture related to all those properties possible. As with any complex task or tools, challenges arise that may not be easily solved alone. Without on-site GIS peers to collaborate with in such moments, Jonathan often turns to his virtual group of peers in Esri Community for help. In this article, learn why Jonathan thinks of Esri Community as the perfect middle ground between product documentation and Technical Support, and why he spends time investing his own expertise back into the Community ... 

Without any formal training in GIS, Brandon Adcock became its champion at the California Department of Public Health's Food and Drug branch, where he's investigated foodborne illnesses for over a decade in its Emergency Response Unit. In this Esri Community Member Spotlight learn how, with resources mostly found in Esri Community, Brandon taught himself ArcGIS and brought his vision for a more geospatially informed response against foodborne pathogens to life.

The NIFC Org is an online component of the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), a location in Boise, Idaho where eight federal and state agencies coordinate their work in wildland fire management. ArcGIS tools play an increasing role in those fire response efforts in recent years, with Esri Community additionally providing a place for NIFC's Wildfire Response GIS User Group—a private group where individuals involved in wildland fire go for key updates, resource sharing, and other needs as part of their work. Learn from Sean Triplett, Katie Hansen, and Skip Edel as they present NIFC's important work and how ArcGIS and Esri Community advantage it.