ESRI, PostgreSQL, FOSS4G proceedings, etc.

Where is ESRI at in supporting free, open source GIS? Evidently, they
are supporting PostgreSQL as a database back-end for Arc* 9.3.

I recall reading that they were a sponsor at the last FOSS4G
conference. Can anyone report on what ESRI presented at that
conference, and what they publicly declared their FOSS GIS strategy to
be? (if they made such a declaration).

Speaking of the FOSS4G conference, are there screencasts/videos
available of all or most of the presentations? In the spirit of free
open source, I imagine the content would be free available to all--but
can't find it.

Also, anyone know if the next FOSS4G conference will be webcasted?
Even if there's a fee, I think virtual attendance would be a heck of a
lot more viable and cheaper for North Americans than getting a plane
ticket to South Africa. Better for those on some continents, but
clearly lousy for North Americans. Wonder if attendance will suffer. I
should have gone to the one in Victoria, BC. :-)

http://www.foss4g2007.org/

AGP

Thanks AGP. I'd been there before, but didn't realize links to
powerpoints, PDFs, etc were embedded in the schedules themselves.
Expected a separate proceedings section.

For what it's worth, here's the presentation I was looking for (ESRI
support for PostgreSQL):

http://www.foss4g2007.org/labs/L-14/FOSS4G_Lab14a.pdf

As a bonus, I found a recently open sourced reverse/forward
engineering data modeling tool that looks promising. It's called
Power*Architect and supports PostgreSQL, as well as Oracle 9i, Oracle
10g and others (not sure if MySQL is in there, but I like the fact
that it works with both FOSS and proprietary RDBMS products). If
you're going to learn a tool, and it's a good tool, it's always nice
if it can be leveraged to other platforms and products. For those who
are Oracle by day, PostgreSQL by night/weekend, etc:

http://www.sqlpower.ca/page/architect

I'd encourage you to post your question to

http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev

Greetings
--
Mateusz Loskot
http://mateusz.loskot.net