Podcast: Directions OnPoint - A Conversation with Don Cooke, Esri’s Evangelist for Community Mapping

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Directions Magazine's senior editorial staff of Joe Francica and Adena Schutzber speak with Don Cooke, Esri's Evangelist for the Community Maps program. Cooke's career spans over five decades in geospatial technology starting as a member of the 1967 U.S. Census Bureau team that developed the DIME method of street map encoding and continuing through his founding of Geographic Data Technology (GDT) in 1980, later purchased by Tele Atlas (now TomTom) in 2004.

Cooke was a surveyor in the U.S. Army and is the author of the book Fun with GPS.  He served on the National Academy of Science's Mapping Science Committee. He is a graduate of Yale and studied Civil Engineering Systems at MIT. He received URISA's Horwood award in 2004 and ESRI's Lifetime Achievement award in 2007. He discusses Esri's Community Maps program and his perspectives on the trends he sees developing over the next few years by offering insights about the history of geospatial technology and why this industry sector has "boomed."