Esri Enables Federal Agencies to Open GIS Mapping Data to the Public

This article by Alexander Howard on February 10, 2014 at readwrite.com provides details on how government agencies will be able to make more geospatial data available to developers and the public.

"The mapping software giant will take an unprecedented step, enabling thousands of government customers around the U.S. to make their data on the ArcGIS platform open to the public with a click of a mouse."

"Government agencies can use the new feature to turn geospatial information systems data in Esri's format into migratable, discoverable, and accessible open formats, including CSVs, KML and GeoJSON. Esri will demonstrate the ArcGIS feature in ArcGIS at the Federal Users Conference in Washington, D.C. According to Turner, the new feature will go live in March 2014."

Notice that the KML format used by Google Earth and Maps is mentioned.  It will be interesting to experiment with this new open source data availability as it becomes available for the Boise River Watershed.

See this Boise River Enhancement Network page for more information on mapping the Boise River projects.