OK, this isn’t the product that we saw at the User Conference, at least as far as I can tell (I left my laptop at work so I don’t have a copy of ArcGIS to test it on). Rather than being built on MSN Messenger, GeoChat supports Jabber allowing you to use any Jabber server you wish (specifically it uses XMPP protocol which Google Talk among others uses). Since I can’t test it, I’m limited to reading the user guide but it looks very impressive and well integrated into ArcMap. My company has many offices and few people so collaboration between GIS professionals is usually done with Acrobat. GeoChat would surely simplify our workflow so I’m really wanting to try it out (I’ll have to wait until Wednesday as our office is closed on Tuesday due to it being right across the street from the Fiesta Bowl).
First Python and now Jabber. Could ArcIMS 10 be built on Mapserver? 
3 responses so far ↓
1 Spatially Adjusted with James Fee » Blog Archive » ESRI’s GeoChat to be released? // Dec 31, 2005 at 7:49 pm
[...] Update - GeoChat has been released. GeoChat is one of those programs that ESRI has talked about in the past, but then went silent about. The thought among most of us is ESRI abandoned it, but it appears it might be released really soon. [...]
2
Chris Tweedie
// Dec 31, 2005 at 9:31 pm
Would of liked to have a play with this, but just a headsup so anyone else that it really does only work with v9.1. Alas, i only have 8.3 so was unable to have a look too (you will get errors when setup tries to install).
Let us know what its like James. By the look of the screens im not really too sure of the usefulness this will be but you never know. Seems as though its nothing beyond the typical IM client “whiteboards” where users can share a drawing workspace
3
Richie
// Jan 3, 2006 at 12:02 pm
GeoChat is a little more than a “whiteboard” for ArcMap. Some benifits of geochat:
1) Locational Context
Ink drawn with geochat has locational context. Most people will use geochat to “annotate” a map, like circling a shop or drawing a driving route.
2) Supports Map Projectsion
GeoChat supports multiple map projections. Ink is drawn is the local map projection but sent as geographic (WGS84) coordinates.
3) Message Pooling
Some XMPP servers support pooling, that is, the server will hold on to messages that were received whilst you were offline. The server will forward these messages when you reconnect.
4) GeoChat layers are 100% GIS friendly.
A GeoChat layer is a standard feature layer sourced from a geodatabase feature class. What this means is that you use incoming ink messages for mapping, querying, geoprocessing etc. This is when the geochat concept gets cool… …users can collaborate on tasks by exchanging ink messages. Remote users can use ink messages in geoprocessing models or analysis against their own data and communicate the results.
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