CLOUD

More than 50 mapping and defense professionals from more than 20 organizations in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia were briefed on the latest geographic information system (GIS) technologies for mapping, charting, and defense industry applications announced ESRI, the world's leading developer of GIS software. ESRI and its Baltic distributor, HNIT-Baltic GeoInfoServisas (HB-GIS), showcased a series of new GIS software tools including ArcGIS 9 Desktop applications, geodatabase concepts, ArcGlobe for terrain and data visualization, the Military Analyst extension, ArcGIS Engine, and ArcGIS 9 Server. The team also discussed the Commercial Joint Mapping Toolkit (C/JMTK) and the new capabilities of the Production Line Tool Set (PLTS), which is used for military and civilian topographic, hydrographic, and aeronautic chart production. It includes extensive data capture and editing tools, quality control, job tracking, and management tools. The presentations were complemented with discussions about the requirements and challenges of GIS technologies for the defense industry. After the event, Chris Dorman, ESRI's European defense business development coordinator, said "I am very pleased that there was such a huge interest in ESRI's GIS technology and its migration to an intelligent enterprisewide solution. Building a national spatial infrastructure has been a key topic in many countries in Europe for the past few years, and PLTS provides a comprehensive solution to building European spatial data products based on European data standards. Mapping organizations are playing a very important role in this process. However, interoperability and common standards also play a key role, and by supporting more than 60 industry standards, ESRI's GIS tools provide an open platform for building this vital national and international spatial data infrastructure." "The mapping and defense industries in all three Baltic states have many similarities," said Vytautas Gipiskis, head of the Client Support Department of HB-GIS. "The joint seminar is a good opportunity for the participants to discuss common problems and share experiences of GIS applications. HNIT- Baltic, as a PLTS expertise center in Eastern and Central Europe, together with its partners ENVIROTECH in Latvia and the recently founded company ALPHAGIS in Estonia, is working hard to support the key mapping and defense organizations in GIS implementation. This seminar was aimed at promoting the best technology achievements for those industries."