AlertNet Uses ESRI Technology to Provide Fast, Efficient Web Mapping
Redlands, California-http://www.alertnet.org). The Web site provides a unique, geocoded news feed where online visitors can search for stories by geographic region or retrieve digital maps showing locations where stories are taking place. The system provides a fast, efficient online method to discover where news is happening. The AlertNet mapping system proved its value during the first days of the Indian Ocean tsunami crisis. Tens of thousands of visitors to the site turned to the interactive mapping feature to find out details of the areas that had been affected. At times the ESRI-powered mapping accounted for more than 20 percent of total site traffic.
ESRI (UK) LTD. Business Partner and systems integrator ESYS (sponsored by the European Space Agency) built the Web site using ESRI's ArcIMS technology. "They were interested in introducing a Web mapping component to AlertNet," says Peter Beaumont, marketing manager, Enterprise Solutions, ESRI (UK) LTD. "The AlertNet Web site is a unique undertaking, providing one of only two current Web mapping services related to timely humanitarian information. ESRI is committed to serving the needs of the humanitarian community and organizations serving this important segment. This service enhances the ability to provide information including during a crisis." Reuters AlertNet is a humanitarian news network that aims to keep relief professionals and the public up-to-date on humanitarian crises around the globe. AlertNet attracts nearly four million users a year, has a network of more than 300 contributing humanitarian organizations, and its weekly e-mail digest is received by more than 13,000 readers. It was started in 1997 by Reuters Foundation, an educational and humanitarian trust, to place Reuters' core skills of speed, accuracy, and freedom from bias at the service of the humanitarian community. Since its inception, AlertNet has been tasked with the efficient provision of humanitarian news services. The organization wanted to investigate the possibility of leveraging technology for even greater success in this arena. ESRI's GIS technology was selected after a review process was carried out by ESYS and University College London's Department of Geomatic Engineering. ESRI's open technology standards, extensive user community, and international support of humanitarian organizations were factors contributing to the selection of ESRI technology. The design and implementation of the Web site, originally begun by an M.Sc. student studying GIS at University College London and then followed through by ESYS, took approximately 12 months. ESRI (UK) LTD. provided additional consulting services. A key component of the Web site is the ability to automatically link a Reuters news story or a piece of content submitted by a relief agency to an interactive map and vice versa. A user can click on a news story and link to geographically related maps. Conversely, a user can click on a geographic area to view news stories related to that region. A user can pan, zoom in and out, rotate the digital map, and select data layers such as political boundaries, infrastructures, and geographic attributes. For the site's spatial data, Reuters selected the Global Insight data product from Europa Technologies providing up-to-date 1:1,000,000 scale digital mapping for the entire world. The product provides up-to-date political entities, coastlines, international borders, some first level administrative borders, time zones, and more than 650,000 named places with urban sprawls. Reuters is now working with ESRI (UK) LTD. to plan the next phase of the implementation with greater functionality, additional data sets, and improved usability. Future applications may see the addition of satellite data as well as the ability to receive automatic news alerts based on user-defined geographic parameters. In addition, geographic data may be available for download via the Web site for users to deploy in the field. Users could upload data as part of the geographic information exchange.
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About ESRI Founded in 1969, ESRI is the leading developer of GIS software with more than 300,000 clients worldwide. ESRI software is used in all 200 of the largest cities in the United States and in more than 60 percent of counties and municipalities nationwide. Headquartered in California, ESRI has regional offices throughout the United States, international distributors in more than 90 countries, and more than 1,700 business partners. ESRI's goal is to develop comprehensive tools that enable users to efficiently manage, use, and serve geographic information to make a difference in the world around them. ESRI also provides consulting, implementation, and technical support services. www.esri.com.
