Hello From San Diego

I write from the bright blue of San Diego. I'm here to attend an ESRI Conference.

ESRI (Environmental Systems Research Institute) is focused on making the most of geographical information and mapping. You can find a brief summary of ESRI's history here.

Perhaps you've heard of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) or ArcView. One of ESRI's goals is to develop software that allows users to combine geographical, agricultural , population, and topographical information to learn about the world around us and our societies.

ESRI's Educational Users Conference starts tomorrow with a keynote speech by Dr. Roberta Johnson. According to the convention web site, Dr. Johnson's work "emphasizes the power of modeling for understanding changes in the environment." I'm interested to hear what she has to say.

The rest of the conference seems to have a number of sessions that look nicely focused on how to use ArcView/GIS in schools. I'm looking forward to what's in store.