Recognizing Excellence in Mapping with Esri Story Map Technology

Have you created a Story Map recently? Innovation and excellence in the application of geographic information system (GIS) technology were recognized recently at the International ESRIUC via the coveted geospatial awards. The awards are always exciting and inspirational as we get to see and appreciate the work of innovators who are tapping into the latest technology, data, and tools from Esri, Esri business partners, and developers. Of particular interest were the announcements of winners in the Storytelling with Maps competition – recall, it was announced back in April 2017.

We enjoy, appreciate, and use the Esri Story Map technology and apps here at GEO Jobe. These tools and templates make creating, authoring, and sharing maps and webmaps easy and possible for all, opening up the World of GIS and geospatial thinking to everyone – no programming required! Story Maps are exciting for us as a company / Esri business partner as it provides another technology that we can think about building solutions on and hopefully making even better for all. Case in point, users and user orgs that build Story Maps for their organization can better manage and organize these data and maps using our Admin Tools for ArcGIS Online. Some of the Story Maps we’ve created recently include: Story Map Journal of #GeoGeeksinCars Video Interviews, Our Admin Tools User Community Story Map, and our 2017 User conference activities story map.

About the 2017 winning app

Announced on the ESRIUC main stage plenary, the winning Story Map was created using the very popular Story Map Cascade app – Washington’s Ice Age Floods, created by Daniel Coe of the Washington Geological survey. This visually engrossing story map documents the cataclysmic floods that shaped the landscape of the Pacific Northwest during the last ice age. Maps, images, and videos illuminate the deluge’s devastating path of destruction from western Montana to the Pacific Ocean.

Submissions were judged on factors such as design, user experience, impact, and overall creativity in telling an engaging story. All entries used of one of the Esri Story Maps apps (Cascade, Series, Crowdsource etc…) while entries were hosted in ArcGIS Online or on another publicly accessible server. Participants submitted multimedia narratives—filled with dynamic maps, descriptive text, videos, and compelling images—in Esri Story Maps apps.

See details of all the winning apps HERE

About the competition:

Esri awarded first-, second-, and third-place prizes in the following five categories:

Conservation, Environment, and Sustainability
Travel, Destinations, and Recreation
Culture, History, and Events
Science, Technology, and Education
Infrastructure, Planning, and Government

See full details at esri.com/storytellingwithmaps.

A Tip – Host your own Story Maps

You’ve built many Story Maps but perhaps you’d rather have them self hosted. this would be a nice thing to do and this blog post teaches you exactly how to do that. There are several benefits to hosting a Story Map app on your own server, the most obvious is you can give your story a custom URL on your organization’s domain.

Have you created an awesome Story Map recently? We’d love to hear about it – feel free to comment with a link or share a tip on Twitter via @geojobegis