While the theme of Safe Software's FME User Conference, held March 6-7 in Vancouver, was New Dimensions in Spatial ETL (extract, transform, load), I'd say it was a GIS conference that was not so much about GIS. The challenges are geographic, to be sure, but the conference was really about integration - integration of data, platforms, services, levels of government, etc. While GIS and related technologies were in the picture, the focus was the "glue" that enables integration. Below are the key announcements and takeaways from the two-day event.
FME 2008
As is always true in an update of Feature Manipulation Engine (FME), Safe Software's workhorse for translating data between formats and restructuring them to meet specific needs, there's a long list of enhancements. Among them is a new interface tool that allows drag and drop of transformers. That tool alone, said co-founders Don Murray and Dale Lutz, will save users "1000s of clicks." The pair tag teamed each day's product-focused plenary sessions with an amusing banter that reminded me of twin brothers trying to entertain the family during the holidays. (They are a riot.)
