Latest Contributions by BernSzukalski

Earlier today someone asked me about a way to shorten a URL to an app hosted in their ArcGIS organization. Not only did they want to shorten it, they wanted to create a custom shortlink that would be easier to remember.  I found a list of 9 URL Shorteners to Shorten Long Links and tried a couple of them. Most just shorten a link - this is good, but results in jibberish that's good for copy/paste, but not much else. One of them (which I did not try) offers domain-based short URLs for a fee. But a reasonable alternative, and also one that's free, is from Tiny URL. While not quite a total custom URL, or one that is based on your domain, it does offer a solution for something that's easy-to-remember. I took this impossible to remember and lengthy URL: http://story.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/index.html?appid=9b5f19e06a2b4aaba75844d147251d2b  And ran it through TinyURL to create something I could remember. I tried a couple of strings which were already taken, but found one that wasn't and settled on this as the short URL: Note that it also includes a preview, just in case someone might be suspicious and wants to view the expanded URL before opening. Try them out: http://tinyurl.com/wnsstorymap  http://preview.tinyurl.com/wnsstorymap Note that this isn't an endorsement, but hopefully it's something useful. Let me know if there are others you find. ... View more

Some called it "the day the internet died" when a massive failure at a key Amazon east coast facility caused major disruption of some sites, including ArcGIS Online, for several hours. According to Amazon: The Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) team was debugging an issue causing the S3 billing system to progress more slowly than expected. At 9:37AM PST, an authorized S3 team member using an established playbook executed a command which was intended to remove a small number of servers for one of the S3 subsystems that is used by the S3 billing process. Unfortunately, one of the inputs to the command was entered incorrectly and a larger set of servers was removed than intended. For some it was an inconvenience, for others a cause for re-thinking their cloud backup plan. ArcGIS Online, including license activation for ArcGIS Pro and other premium apps, was impacted for several hours. But Amazon rectified the problem, everything quickly came back online again. How to monitor ArcGIS Online system health The ArcGIS Online Health Dashboard publishes the latest information on service availability. Here's how it looked during the Amazon outage: Hovering over any icon provides the latest status and information. While the event was unusual, you may want to subscribe to the RSS feeds to be notified of any issues. Subscribe to any individual RSS feed, or subscribe to All, to be notified of any service interruptions. More information on service status as well as other service and security considerations can be found at Trust ArcGIS. ... View more

By default, all story maps include an Esri logo, with a link to the Esri website, located somewhere in the header or opening section. Also by default the text string "A story map" is included in the header, with a link to the Story Maps website. A good practice, especially if you are authoring story maps that represent your organization, is to replace the Esri default logo, text, and links with a logo and links of your own. Here's a nice Story Map Tour from the Commonwealth of Kentucky.   If you take a closer look at the header, you'll see a custom logo, tagline, and links have been added. The logo links to a web site, but what I really like is that the string "A Kentucky story map" links to a gallery of other story maps, created using a group gallery app. Here's the gallery: This is a good way to let user know about more story maps they might be interested in, from any other story map. For more information, see Add your organization logo and links to your story maps. ... View more

The list never seems to stop, here's two more things that you can do with Story Maps. The current list of 10 is here: Ten things you didn’t know you could do with Story Maps | ArcGIS Blog  These will be added soon... A Wedding Invitation This Story Map Series (side accordion layout) is actually a wedding invitation, including everything from the event date, venue, and travel information to get there. Congrats to Jose and Segio!   A Web Page Here are two examples of a Story Map Cascade as a web page. This first one from the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). The header is fixed, the Cascade was embedded using an iframe. This second example is from the USGS,and uses a standard USGS header and footer. It also embeds the Cascade using an iframe. Check out the page source to see how easy and simple this is. Great idea! ... View more

All of us have seen web pages that introduce staff - a collection of photos, background information, contact info, and even interesting fun facts that bring the faces and personalities behind a corporate logo or company website to the forefront. Look at a few examples, and it becomes clear that these not only reflect the personality of the individuals that are the company, but collectively reflect the personality of the company itself. Some random examples: A web design firm (scroll down...)​ Wealth management​​​ Digital design and publishing​ Domains and hosting​ You'll find lots better (and worse) examples than the quick picks I've listed, but they're fun and (sometimes) interesting, with facts like "I have a tattoo of my rescued Pomeranian." But you're a GIS or mapping company, consultant, or a GIS department. Why not eat your own dog food and put some mapping and geography into your "About Us" pages? Here's recent example that came to my attention from Trust for Public Land. It uses a Story Map Tour. ​ If you've got an example of your own, why not share it by adding it to the comments on this post. ... View more

Story Maps have become very popular for presentations, used as an alternative to PowerPoint when you may want to include live maps and apps without having to toggle between PowerPoint and your browser. See Story Map Presentations instead of PowerPoint. Recently someone brought to my attention a great example of an Annual Report that is crafted using a Story Map. I think this is a great idea, and a fine example, from the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society. ​ The Annual Reports has been created using the Story Map Journal, a very versatile and effective choice when lots of of text, media, and maps are needed to tell the story. ... View more

Last February I was preparing for a presentation at a conference. I intended to use a few PowerPoint slides to introduce the topics I wanted to cover, then switch to live web maps and apps to underscore the points I was going to make. There were about 10 topics I wanted to introduce and demonstrate, so this meant having to exit PowerPoint (or use the clumsy Alt-Tab) to switch back and forth between the slides and the demonstrations. Then I realized that in this case a Story Map would be the perfect solution. I could use my PowerPoint slides in the story map, and as I advanced I could include the live web maps and apps without having to switch programs or toggle back and forth from PowerPoint. I chose Story Map Series as the presentation platform of my choice. Below on the left is the PowerPoint slide, on the right a web map, both in the Story Map I used for the presentation. While any Story Map can be used to make a presentation, some are better suited to the task than others. My preference is the Story Map Series, specifically the bulleted layout, since it provides sequential access moving left to right. Map Series also doesn't require that you use a side panel for additional text or media - something not needed for most presentations. Recently, just prior to the Esri 2015 User Conference, the Story Map Series bulleted layout was adjusted to make it well-suited for presentations by allowing more entries (30 is the max) and changing the placement of the bullets to prevent overlapping the main stage content. Here are several examples from the User Conference that used the Story Map Series bulleted layout: What's Trending with Web GIS​​ Beck's Hybrids​​ Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport​​ This example from the Esri UC uses a Story Map Journal: Mentoring the Next Generation​​ In general if you are the one doing the presentation, I find the Story Map Series the best choice. If you want others to view and experience the presentation as well, the Story Map Journal might be the one to choose, since the side panel can include text, which can be thought of as the notes section on a PowerPoint slide, and can guide the viewer through your presentation. Creating your presentation It's simple to use a Story Map for presentations, just author and store your PowerPoint slides, collect other media, author needed maps and apps, and launch the builder for the Story Map you want to use. You can export your PowerPoint slides, or just capture them (I use Snagit, but any capture tool can be used). Once captured, place the slides at any URL-accessible location, then add them to your story map. A key consideration is using the proper position for your slides; you don't want text or graphics to be skewed or cropped. In general, Fit is the best all-purpose option that will accommodate any display resolution. For several Story Map presentations at Esri events, I knew the exact display resolution (e.g., 1366 x 768). So I calculated the size my slides needed to be to fill the available real estate, added a handful of pixels on all sides to ensure they completely filled the space, then used a Position of Center. This technique only works when you purpose-build a presentation for a specific event, as when you use Center your slides will be cropped at different display resolutions. You can learn more by viewing Add PowerPoint slides to your Story Map. Adding maps or apps is also very straightforward. Simply add them using their URL, and use Stretch as the Position option. Since the map viewer and most app templates are responsive, they'll fill the entire frame nicely. When embedding apps or other story maps, some templates enable you to minimize the UI. See Embedding a Story Map within a Story Map. Considerations and Tips Story Maps are a powerful way to tell a story using maps and media, and Story Maps can be a powerful way to deliver presentations. Some thought and planning will provide the best results. Here's a few things to consider. It's easy to author a terrible PowerPoint presentation, and we've all suffered through our share of them. Crafting a great Story Map is somewhat of an art, and a great Story Map presentation is no different. Limit the text in the Story Map so that the audience listens to you. Story Map presentations work best when they are short. The latest update to Story Map Series allows you to add a maximum of 30 tabs, bullets, or expandable side accordions. Story Maps do not offer the slide transitions and animations available in PowerPoint. Choose the best Story Map for your purpose. Map Journal is ideal for stories that need to be read as you can use the story narration on the left panel to add the necessary level of detail.  However, if you are presenting a live story, the Map Journal narration might be distracting. Instead, try Map Series with its optional text panel. When using a Story Map Series or Journal and adding content via a URL that takes a while to initialize (like a detailed web scene), ensure that Unload when reader navigates away is unchecked. Before your presentation you can "warm up" all your maps and apps, and unchecking this option ensures they do not need to be reloaded when you reach that part of your presentation. Additional resources Storymaps.arcgis.com​ How to make a story map​ The five principles of effective storytelling​ ... View more

When I'm searching ArcGIS Online I'm always looking for the best content possible. I'm looking for the most authoritative and up-to-date maps,apps, and layers that perform well and have been well-authored with good pop-ups and other tradecraft. I often judge content like the proverbial book - by its cover. I look for a good thumbnail, a good description, a good profile for the author, and lots of other small things that together add up to mean "best." These little things not only tell me the content owner knows and cares about what he is doing, but is also representing a source that I can trust. I often evangelize these details as best practices that should be adopted by everyone, some of this is encapsulated in a recording of a Live Training Seminar you can find at the Esri training site. Until recently there hasn't been an automated way to evaluate items, but now there is. The Living Atlas includes a new contributor's page with online tools that evaluate your content and provides a score for how well you have documented your items and adopted best practices. Though intended for contributors to the Living Atlas, this is a really useful tool to help you evaluate the quality and completeness of your items, and readiness to share with others. To check your content (or to nominate content to be included in the Living Atlas), go to the Living Atlas contribution page and sign in to your ArcGIS account. You will see a listing of all your items with tools to search, filter, and sort. Click any item to see its score. I've done a pretty good job on this item, scoring 78 out of 100. Areas where you should look to improve the item will be highlighted in red. Looks like my Summary could use a little more work. Hovering over the info button will offer some tips for improvement, and how scored. Look for the Edit button to make changes directly from here. Use this valuable collection of tools to see how well you have done, and to help you put your best sharing foot forward. On top of that, why not think to nominate your best for the Living Atlas? ... View more

Earlier this week an earthquake registering 7.8 on the Richter Scale devastated parts of Nepal, with the nation's capital of Kathmandu hardest hit. The quake struck before noon just 50 miles from the city in an area known to be among the most seismically hazardous in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. According to CNN, as of today the death toll has passed 4,600 with at least double that number injured, and is expected to rise. Approximately 8 million people are affected across Nepal, an indication of the enormity and scale of the devastation. The map shown below is from the Esri Disaster Response organization portal. It's the Earthquake Public Information Map (or PIM) which uses the Public Information Map (PIM) template. The Earthquake PIM currently opens centered on Nepal. It includes social feeds as well as the USGS Seismic Data showing PAGER alerts and shake intensity. Other resources are available for those interested in learning more and in assisting with the response effort. The Esri Disaster Response Program website serves as an umbrella site useful to bookmark for responding to any event. You will also find specific maps and information concerning the Nepal earthquake, including the following important resources: GIS Assistance Earthquake Public Information Map (PIM) Catalog of online Nepal earthquake maps Disaster response resources Stay tuned to the Public Safety GeoNet place for additional resources and information concerning the Nepal earthquake response effort. ... View more

Here's a couple of posts that cover considerations and tips for embedding story maps in websites, and also embedding story maps in other story maps. Tips for embedding story maps in websites | ArcGIS Blog Embedding a Story Map within a Story Map | ArcGIS Blog A good example of embedding a story map in a website is this one about where the jobs are (and aren't) from Forbes: It uses Story Map Series with the side accordion layout option, and takes advantage of the &embed URL parameter discussed in the first post. The example below embeds another story map - a Story Map Swipe - inside a Story Map Series (tabbed layout) on the third tab. When embedding story maps inside of story maps, less is often more. Embedding story maps within a story map can complicate your story by providing to many paths to follow, and too much media to look at. The best story is often the simplest, pared down to its essentials. But used sparingly, embedding story maps in story maps can be effective an useful technique. ... View more

Most story maps are intended to present maps, text, and media in sequence, just like you would read or tell a story. But you might want to share a specific place in your story, like ear marking a chapter or page in a book to share with someone. For example, this story map is about the drought in California: http://mwd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=d1cbc210bcba4f58b2a859a1d5e7a7d7 http://mwd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=d1cbc210bcba4f58b2a859a1d5e7a7d7But if I wanted to specifically point out the dramatic differences of the "before" and "after" at Lake Oroville to someone, I'd have to have them advance or scroll through the thumbnails to find those of that lake. A pair of dramatic photos is shown at tour stops 19 and 20. If I wanted to share that specific pair with someone I can take advantage of a URL parameter that will open the Map Tour to my desired stop, as shown when you click this link: http://mwd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapTour/index.html?appid=d1cbc210bcba4f58b2a859a1d5e7a7d7&index=19 Three of the most popular story maps are the Story Map Tour, Story Map Journal, and Story Map Series. With each you can open the story map at a specific place in the story using the appropriate URL parameter, as listed below, and where <num> is the number corresponding to the tour stop, journal section, or series entry that you want to open. Story Map Tour: &index=<num> Story Map Journal: &section=<num> Story Map Series: &entry=<num> These are covered in more detail in the following blog posts: Launch a Map Journal at a specific section Launch a Map Tour at a specific tour stop (index) Launch a Map Series at a specific entry So while a story map, like a book, is meant to viewed from cover to cover, you can earmark a chapter to share with others. ... View more

With the ArcGIS Online update later this week, a new configurable Story Map will be introduced. It's called Story Map Series, and consolidates a couple of other story maps into a single configurable app with multiple layout options—tabbed, side accordion, and bulleted. Here's a Story Map of the top 10 visited US National Parks in 2012 I authored over a year ago (update coming soon). It uses the Story Map Playlist. Here's another iteration on the same map done by Rupert Essinger and used for testing during the app development cycle. It's using the soon-to-be-released Story Map Series, and is configured with the bulleted layout. Story Maps continue to evolve in new directions. The consolidation of these formerly separate templates into a single Story Map Series is yet another example of their evolution. With multiple layout options, the new Story Map Series is sure to be one of the more popular choices. ... View more

Just came across Bat Viewing Areas In Texas - a nicely done Story Map Tour showing bat viewing locations throughout the state. The story map was authored by Austin Community College. ... View more