Early last month Chris Sergent forwarded me an email via Mapping Center's submit a blog entry feature.  Chris, who is a developer, was looking to connect with other ESRI developers. The spirit of Chris's email struck me as something we could all do with a little more of, so we put Chris's post up on the ESRI Developer Summit blog.

Last week I spent a day in Palm Springs at the Developer Summit, and was pleasantly surprised by the sheer number of people in attendance.  Combined with the attitude exhibited Chris's post, I didn't have much trouble recognizing this is a pretty important phenomenon and opportunity for all of us to share our knowledge and experience.  I think Chris's most important point is that user groups are key to making steady progress in the day-to-day work of implementing GIS, which includes all varieties of mapping projects and software applications - and cartographic products. 

While in Palm Springs I heard - more than a few times - a bit of buzz that raised my eyebrows, it went something like: "For me, as a developer, this is the most useful conference, and I don't think I need to attend the Users Conference any longer".  While there are many reasons someone might say as much (i.e. limited travel budgets), my feeling is that I would much rather continue to see the developers in San Diego. It's there that they get to meet and mingle with the folks who get their daily work done with the GIS applications that the developer community creates. It's also in line with one of the reasons ESRI puts on the Users Conference in the first place: for all our staff to get in touch with and to be informed by our clients.

For all the map makers and cartographers reading this, my point to you is that you should get to know the developers in your organization. In many cases these are the folks who are and will be paving the way to enterprise and server-based GIS systems. These are the people who have to implement (1) how you get data to map, and (2) in most cases, how you will publish your maps online.

While you might not hit the proverbial jackpot and meet a "closet cartographer" in your development group, you should at least find a way to convey your mission and priorities, so they to some extent become a shared mission and priorities.