Author: gjnaples

Chapter 1

This book shares a very good quality with the book from 291 which is that they both are able to provide very thorough explanations of somewhat complex topics, while keeping it concise. The first chapter discusses the first stages of Web GIS and its evolution to the modern cloud-based service. It also discusses the purpose behind Web GIS and its unique place in different GIS systems. In addition it makes a point to examine the ways in which Web GIS has kept up with technological advancements. I appreciate how much of an emphasis is placed on the social aspect of Web GIS. 

 

Chapter 2

Chapter two opened with explaining to the reader what feature layers are. Although I did not explicitly need to learn this again because of my experience in 291, it again does an amazing job as always of maintaining concise, clear explanations. The main focus of this chapter is to have the reader learn how to create and use hosted layers. The process of creating different layers and maps in Web GIS is very similar to the Desktop version, however it is much more polished than the actual software itself, which I guess makes perfect sense to be accessible and user-friendly.

 

Application

An application for the parcel dataset from the Delaware County database is creating a continuous timeline of the most recently sold parcels to the possibly never sold parcels. This could be useful to city planners and community organizers in spatializing the places in the county that have high levels of generational wealth.

Hi! My name is George Naples and I’m a junior here at OWU. I am an Environmental Studies and Geography double Major.  I’m from Youngstown, Ohio, and I enjoy collecting vinyl records and going to concerts in my free time. I also have a one year old golden doodle named Arlo!

I had some experience with WebGIS from taking 291 previously this semester. However, exploring WebGIS just to explore it was quite the refresher. I hadn’t realized all I had posted to my account. I found them immediately  as they’re displayed as soon as you open your profile. 

Looking further into the website I was drawn to the Community & Forums tab. This often helped me when experiencing issues in ArcGIS that I knew had a very simple fix. It was interesting to see the dashboard side of the forums. From my previous experience I mostly interacted with reddit-style Q&A threads. Seeing the different Q&As, updates, and alerts gave me a better understanding at how ‘alive’ this section actually is.

Reading through “Get Started: What is ArcGIS Online” I was pleasantly surprised with just how many different features there are. The ones that truly stuck out to me were the accessibility of programs like Python/the various types of ArcGIS web apps, as well as how easy it is to collaborate with others directly through ArcGIS Online. The accessibility of utilizing different apps within ArcGIS Online is incredibly convenient, allowing people to be much more productive than they would’ve been having to exit to another software. The collaboration aspect is also very intriguing. I love the functionality of Google Suites and this has the same usability.

When completing Web Course: ArcGIS Online Basics I truly enjoyed the process of how the program walks you through the software. Carrying over from the textbook, it is so nice to have instructions written as plainly as possible. The biggest issue I ran into was that I did not realize I had to click submit on the quizzes. I enjoyed the teaching style of building that was carried over from the book as well. Outside of that it was smooth sailing.

ArcGIS Online Basics_Certificate_03232025

For my first google search for Arc Online applications I wanted to look at something about car sales. I tried a few different searches, but I did not find anything until I started looking at car dealerships. The first Webmap I found was titled “Car Dealership Market Opportunity in the United States. This map is somewhat old, due to be retired in December of this year (2025). This map represents the market opportunity for car dealerships in the United States in 2017. It utilizes a multi-scale map, changing boundaries depending on state, county, zip code, tract, and block group.

For the second application I searched I wanted to see something about brick & mortar Apple Store locations. I came across a map that had two layers; Apple Stores, and median household income by zip code.