Web Mapping Portal on Virtual Earth
June 1, 2007 10 Comments
I had bookmarked this article yesterday, but had not had time to read it until today. My first thought was that this is exactly something that would have been done on ArcIMS or MapGuide two years ago. Now in 2007, these applications are being done with Virtual Earth (at a government organization no less, the bastion of ESRI and Autodesk).
The EVOC (Enterprise Virtual Operations Center) portal layers the City’s GIS data on top of Virtual Earth, providing users with the ability to visualize City assets, resources and live incident reporting. Information is merged from the fire departments of 7 cities and well as the police departments of 2 of those cities.
Rather than deploying at big GIS server and having clients hit it, they deploy a lightweight web application. I think we are beginning to see a trend here, away from loading up a huge server with tons of server products and toward lightweight APIs that are capable of being deployed anywhere with little administration from anyone.
About James Fee
This ties nicely with your ArcIMS is dead post from a couple weeks back.
So we’re going to rely on Microsoft keeping around a free(-ish) service that logically exists to detract from a competitor’s equally economically unsound service. Good enough for government work!
Awww, the comment system stripped my < devils’ advocate > tag.
Yea, that sucks. Blame wordpress….
It is interesting as I’ll think twice now if some company wants me to spend 10-20k on software for servers when simple functionality is all I want.
I’m tired of paying for product I don’t use 100% of. If I use 10% of ArcIMS, I shouldn’t have to pay for the other 90%.
you should buy Manifold. Its only 10% of the cost of ArcIMS.
Or pay $0 and use VE.
Or pay $0 and use VE.
but for $100 and Manifold run-time, you could then have all the spatial analysis capabilities that you need.
However, for Alvin, you are correct. Most of what IMS sites are doing out there really is nothing more than what VE can do.
ESRI has been raping its entry level customers for years, and the GIS community keeps worshiping them. I’m afraid the gravy train for JAck is just about finished – that is, if people wise up.
“Pay $0 and use VE”? I guess they must have just recently updated the EULA and FAQ to mention the “free” evaluation they are providing, under certain conditions.
http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/products/webservice/howtobuy.mspx
Virtual Earth, like MapQuest, Google, ESRI, Yahoo, and everyone else, requires a costly subscription for non-personal and high-volume use.
Manifold is a very competatively priced product, but what data are you going to overlay your maps onto? It doesn’t seem to include a lot of data; linking in data from the “free” providers still requires a subscription.
Now that these web-based thin-apps are gaining popularity, these companies are going to want the money they’re owed. I’m afraid the free-ride for unlicensed abusers is just about finished.
@Cellulose:
Actually they did update it.
Virtual Earth commercial use licensing announced