Comment by n8cpdx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by n8cpdx | Hacker News Reader

Esri, the leader in corporate/enterprise/government map-making (GIS), recently launched its first direct-to-consumer product, StoryMaps. It fits a slightly different use case from Felt - it is oriented to storytelling - but in some ways it is solving a similar problem.

https://storymaps.com/

For people willing to sign up for a personal use subscription (too difficult and not marketed to consumers, unfortunately), ArcGIS Online makes it easy to make really powerful maps, far beyond what Felt offers, for those interested. Newer things like blending modes are making the design aspect of map making a lot more accessible.

Video for those interested in what “more powerful than Felt” looks like: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0XI-J8XUNeU

And for developers, you can try out the samples to see what the tech can do and the code to do it. The flow renderer is one of the newer flashier features: https://developers.arcgis.com/javascript/latest/sample-code/... This shows how its done in code, but the public API underpins the Web Map Viewer, which exposes a UI for most of it.

Would it be worth mentioning here that you work for Esri?

disclaimer: i'm the co-founder at felt.

I’m paid by the hour and I posted in my personal time. I don’t own stock or have any financial interest in the company. I’m also a satisfied customer.

I’m not sure it’s relevant though; everything I mentioned is factual and backed up with sources. Note that I didn’t advocate anything other than learning that the technology exists, which I think is fair game.

Even with the points in your above post, I think it's tough to make the case that you're posting something unbiased and should have still disclosed that information. Even if you're paid hourly and posting in your personal time, in the end I can't see any situation where positive press for the company you work for doesn't somehow affect you positively, no matter how small the needle.

Saying you don't have any financial interest in a company while you are employed there is almost an oxymoron, even if your incentives are much more diminished than someone who owns equity.

Around 2011 I had a job that required me to use ArcGIS often. Quantum GIS (now just QGIS) was nearly unknown in my office, I think I was the first person to require a QGIS install there. Fast forward 10 years and it is awesome how the project progressed in this time. Now the situation inverted, my old colleagues and the people that came after use mostly QGIS.

FYI, https://storymaps.com/explore is barely usable over T-mobile LTE -- guessing it's the very numerous high-res images.

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