Abstract

GeoStories: Storytelling and engagement with GIS
Track: Business and Commercial
Authors: Frank Biasi

National Geographic has been combining maps, pictures and narratives to tell stories and diffuse geographic knowledge for over a century. In recent decades GIS has played a supporting role in these efforts, helping to prepare and manage data on the back-end for export to production systems. Today, we are bringing GIS maps to the forefront, integrating them into consumer-facing products and managing them through web content management systems (CMS).

GeoStories are map-enabled slideshows that combine maps, multimedia, and narratives to take users on virtual tours of places and topics. They are easy to produce and embed in websites, allowing organizations to spoon-feed maps and data to non-technical audiences in a simple and engaging format. We will discuss the development and deployment of this new publishing platform and how ArcGIS is being integrated with the CMS.