Open data is a key component of ArcGIS Hub. It is a fundamental building block for sharing data with the community and the source data for information products, apps and initiatives that are part of the ArcGIS Hub community engagement experience. ArcGIS Hub puts open data to work by focusing its use on initiatives and internal and external collaboration efforts that make an impact. ArcGIS Hub adds intent and focus for the use of open data, instead of simply providing data to the public without any direction or focus to help solve community problems.

The foundation license level comes included as part of your ArcGIS Online subscription. It allows you to share open data and create open data sites and pages that can integrate and leverage data driven visualisations and apps created with ArcGIS.

The premium license level provides added functionality and tools that make your community engagement efforts easier, including tools for creating and managing initiatives and initiative teams, an event management system and dashboards for monitoring feedback and progress. It also provides community members with identity accounts that allow them to create a community profile to provide feedback, sign up to attend events, follow initiatives and receive relevant updates. ArcGIS Hub administrators can also leverage included initiative templates and tools to help them manage internal and external collaboration and participation.

Many customers start by creating a website for sharing open data. To do this, you will need to enable open data. Enabling open data can be accomplished by signing into your ArcGIS Online organisation with administrator privileges and clicking on the Organisation tab of your ArcGIS Online organisation. From there, there are a few quick steps to complete. Please note, open data must be enabled first, before you can begin creating or configuring hub sites or pages.

You can go beyond basic site creation and open data sharing by using the engagement capabilities included with a premium license.

The foundation license level capabilities are included, but the premium license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub are not included in Enterprise Agreements. The premium capabilities are licensed in addition to an EA. The capabilities are intended to extend Enterprise GIS and provide GIS capabilities to the community, in effect extending a customer’s staff, by making is possible for citizens to contribute to the efforts of data gathering and initiative work.

Any organisation with ArcGIS Online can take advantage of the foundation license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub, however, by enabling open data.

An ArcGIS Online subscription is required for both the foundation and premium license levels of ArcGIS Hub.

The premium license level of ArcGIS Hub requires you to designate which ArcGIS Online organisation (if you have multiple) that you wish to use to manage and administer your hub. If you do not have access to an ArcGIS Online organisation or wish to have a new organisation for your hub, you can purchase one. If you plan to have many internal participants in your hub, you might need to add additional users to your ArcGIS Online organisation.

Sites is a capability of ArcGIS Hub which enables you to build custom web pages and websites for sharing content like datasets, web maps, documents and media with your team and community. Sites is included with the foundation license level of ArcGIS Hub. Initiative templates are included with the premium license level of ArcGIS Hub. With options to create custom initiatives or use ready-to-use templates, initiatives align teams within your organisation and community with the data and solutions they need to collaborate on and manage projects, workflows, plans and more. Each initiative can contain any combination of solutions, including configurable apps, web maps, story maps, dashboards, events, surveys and website templates.

People within your community who sign up to join your ArcGIS Hub become members within your ArcGIS Hub Community, a separate but linked ArcGIS Online organisation, that comes with a premium level ArcGIS Hub license. As members of this organisation, people from the public can create an account, manage their user profile, sign up to attend events, store data downloads, follow initiatives, respond to surveys, receive relevant notifications and emails and create story maps and web maps using shared data.

No. ArcGIS Hub benefits many sectors. We have seen tremendous interest from educational institutions, non-governmental organisations and nonprofit organisations. We even envision hubs for the private sector. Anyone who needs to coordinate internally across departments or groups and wishes to engage a broader community outside of their organisation can use ArcGIS Hub.

Any organisation with ArcGIS Online can take advantage of the foundation license level capabilities of ArcGIS Hub.

Special pricing for the premium license level of ArcGIS Hub is also available for nonprofits. If you think you are eligible, please contact us for information and details.

Esri’s industry-leading technical support professionals are available to address any questions or issues related to ArcGIS Hub.

Esri UK Professional Services subject matter experts are also available to provide guidance and support in the deployment and configuration of the ArcGIS Platform, open data, apps, Living Atlas of the World and other components involved in the creation of a hub. A hub is not just about technology. Implementing a hub environment requires thinking and planning holistically. Esri UK Professional Services can help you assess where gaps exist in your hub ecosystem and provide a roadmap and assistance in filling them.

Find out more about Esri UK Professional Services' offerings.

ArcGIS Enterprise and ArcGIS Hub both include a feature called Sites which provides organisations with the same user experience for creating and managing websites and pages. The difference is that ArcGIS Hub is supported by ArcGIS Online's configurable cloud platform, while ArcGIS Enterprise enables organisations to operate their GIS on-premise behind their own firewall. The premium license level of ArcGIS Hub uses Sites in conjunction with additional community engagement tools, such as an events management system and surveys, to share relevant and timely content with internal teams and collaborators within the community. Many ArcGIS Enterprise organisations use Sites to share their Portal's authoritative GIS data across teams and other departments by using sites and pages to create more tailored web page experiences for their data portal users. Learn more about how to access and get started with ArcGIS Enterprise Sites.