Ways Of Getting Access To ESRI’s ArcGIS Software For Ecological And Marine Biological Research

[GIS in Ecology]

Ways Of Getting Access To ESRI’s ArcGIS Software For Ecological And
Marine Biological Research

By Colin D. MacLeod, Founder, GIS In Ecology

One of the most common questions that we at GIS In Ecology are asked
is ‘How Can I Get Access To ArcGIS Software?’* Since much of our
training materials, courses and books are designed for ArcGIS users, I
decided to put this posting together to outline the ways that you can
get access to it. This information is primarily aimed at those
working in ecological and marine biological research on a non-
commercial basis (as far as I know only the first option provided
below is open to commercial users).

The first, and foremost, way to access this software is to purchase a
licence from ESRI for the software and any extensions you might need
(see http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop/pricing.html).
However, let’s face it, in these financially-pressing times, few
people working for universities, non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
or who might want to use GIS in their research on a private, rather
than commercial, basis can afford the licence fees. So what can these
people do?

For those working at a university, the first step should be to find
out if your university already has a site licence for ArcGIS. If you
work in a biology or life sciences department, you may have to dig
around (often in the geography department) to find this out.
Alternatively, you might want to try your IT department to see if they
can tell you if your university already has a site licence. If your
university does have a site licence, you can usually get a copy of it
for free or for a small fee, especially if you are a member of staff
or a post-grad student. However, you can generally only use it for
research and not for any commercial purposes.

If you don’t work at a university or your university does not have a
site licence, don’t despair. ESRI has a scheme called ArcGIS At Home
(http://www.esri.com/arcgis-for-home/index.html) that allows you to
obtain a copy of ArcGIS for non-commercial use that you can install on
your own home computer for a very reasonable fee (about US$100 per
year). I do not yet know anyone who has used this scheme, but if it
does what it says on the tin, it seems like a great way to open up
access to ArcGIS to large parts of the ecological and marine
biological community that are otherwise excluded by the cost of
commercial licences.

If you work for a non-governmental organisation (NGO), there is also
another route open to you. This is through ERSI’s non-profit program
(see http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall10articles/nonprofit-program.html
and http://www.esri.com/nonprofit/index.html). This program allows
non-profit organisations to access ESRI software, such as ArcGIS, at a
greatly reduced cost. Non-US NGOs will have to arrange this through
their own local distributors ( see http://www.esri.com/about-esri/locations.html
for more information).

Finally, if all else fails, or if you just want to find out if ArcGIS
software is for you, you can download a 60 day free trial version of
the latest ArcGIS software from ESRI (http://www.esri.com/software/
arcgis/arcgis-for-desktop/60-day-trial.html). While this will provide
access to a fully functional version of ArcGIS (including many of the
extensions you will want to use), it will only last for 60 days and
after that you are back to wondering how to get a licence. Therefore,
it is not a permanent solution to this problem.

If anyone else comes across any other legal ways of getting ArcGIS
software for using in ecological and marine biological research, or
has any experiences with any of the above (such as whether they worked
or not), please feel free to post it to this thread using the reply
button to help others following in your footsteps (no suggestions of
where to get it illegally will be posted as we do not support software
piracy).


*Please Note: Other GIS software from other manufacturers are
available, and this posting does not represent an endorsement of
ArcGIS over other software, nor does it indicated that the views
presented in this posting is approved of, supported by or linked to
ESRI in any way. It is provided for information purposes only on an
‘as is’ basis and GIS In Ecology takes no responsibility for any
inaccuracies or broken links.