Tag Archive for government technology

Highlights from CalGIS: Web, Mobile, Cloud & More

April 24, 2012 Annie Schwab, Vice President, Marketing No comments

A few weeks ago the Digital Map Products Team traveled to Sacramento, CA for the annual CalGIS conference. CalGIS is organized by the fine folks from the California URISA chapter. The conference included GIS professionals from local, state and federal government, consultants, product vendors, and service providers.

This year we were pleased to see that the majority of talks focused on web-based mapping, open source GIS, and improving access to geospatial data through mobile devices – all favorite topics of ours and a testament to the massive evolution GIS has recently undergone. Not long ago this conference was heavily focused on the utilization of desktop GIS tools including new functions and features. You could certainly feel the energy around the new and evolving geospatial tools at the conference that were leveraging the Web, Cloud and Mobile.

One presentation that particularly impressed us was given by Scott Gregory, California Government Information Officer, about the new state-wide portal for geospatial data. Scott’s vision revolves around improving access and generating further awareness about the new datasets. This initiative is especially exciting for us because DMP is providing the state-wide parcel database and tax assessor attributes which form the foundation for the new data portal.

Another highlight of CalGIS for DMP was sharing our knowledge of web mapping through an IGNITE presentation. We discussed how online maps can help local governments improve their communications with citizens and meet Google Era information access and transparency expectations. The biggest challenge of the session was fitting all our tips into a lightning fast 5 minutes! It really forced us to focus on the most critical points which we’re sharing with you below:

  • Changing expectations are forcing cities to re-asses their current offerings, citizens want to self-serve 24/7
  • Internet & social media are transforming the way city government interacts w/ citizens
  • The cloud provides a cost-effective, scalable & easier –to-use resource for cities to increase constituent engagement
  • Progressive cities are leveraging interactive maps and web 2.0 technologies to engage citizens & help them self-service their requests

Learn more about best practices for publishing city, property and community information to citizens & how cities can get started with web 2.0 & interactive mapping:

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Cities Satisfy Residents, Save Money with GIS in the Cloud

August 17, 2011 Christina Coggins, Marketing Manager 2 comments

Cities have long been on the forefront of using spatial technology to share data with their citizens and help their staff do their jobs more effectively. Longview, Washington, a town of 35,000 located between Seattle and Portland, is one great example of such spatially savvy cities. Longview is also on the cutting edge of using cloud-based technology in new and innovative ways.

Longview’s city staff works hard to foster a strong sense of community engagement. For years, citizens had been asking for city and community data to be available in an interactive format online. Many cities feel this same demand: in the Google era, citizens want to be able to find their own answers to questions 24 hours a day. But, like many cities of its size, Longview didn’t have the budget, manpower, or time to build a custom interactive GIS interface. They turned to Digital Map Products’ CityGIS™ and CommunityView™ for a software-as-a-service solution that was both faster and less expensive than building it themselves.

Now residents of Longview can go to the city’s website to see property and community information. Using the city’s CommunityView™ powered online maps, residents can:

  • Get detailed information about the city’s facilities and parks
  • Find their garbage and recycling collection dates
  • Look up water and sewer utility data
  • See bike routes and trails on a map
  • Get zoning and property information
  • Research public school locations and statistics
  • Access information about bus stops, bus routes, and ADA cutout ramps

The results for Longview have been impressive. City staff receives fewer phone calls and walk-in requests for information. There is an increased awareness of city services and community amenities. Residents can find information any time day or night. And an added bonus for the city was that it actually saved money with the system, an important benefit in this tight economy.

If your city is doing innovative things with spatial technology and cloud computing, we’d love to hear about them and share those ideas with our readers.

To learn more about DMP’s local government solutions visit:

http://www.digmap.com/Campaigns/CloudGISHelpsCities.html

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Why Mapping Will Go Mainstream in 2011

June 28, 2011 Jim Skurzynski, CEO One comment

I’m predicting 2011 will be the year mapping goes mainstream. By that I mean individuals and companies that have not already grasped the relevance of “thinking in maps” will come to understand the value of spatial technology tools and use them in greater numbers than ever before. As they do, we’ll see even more fast-paced and exciting breakthroughs including: sophisticated business, government and consumer uses; a rapidly-expanding pool of useful applications; and greatly enhanced creativity in the way spatial information can be used.

Mapping, and its use in viewing, analyzing and interacting with data, used to be important business tools only for the largest organizations that could afford in-house GIS experts. Today, spatial technology has become pervasive across many business sectors from local government to real estate to the utility industry. As consumers become more “spatially literate” and especially as the cloud makes location technology faster-to-implement, easier to use and more cost effective, mapping technology is becoming a core business tool for large, medium-sized and small businesses, alike.

The paradigm shift for mapping began with Google and Bing Maps, when the whole world suddenly saw the power of finding directions, looking for nearby attractions and otherwise organizing information in a visual format. The move to “spatial literacy” began overnight and hasn’t slowed down since it started. Now many types of businesses and government agencies have incorporated spatial technology into their core business operations as a means to improve their efficiency and decision-making.

At Digital Map Products, our mission is to help businesses of all sizes leverage and succeed with spatial technology. We were excited when mapping hit the public radar, and we’ve watched with enthusiasm and more and more people saw the light about spatial technology. But its only now that we think the universe is aligned for spatial technology to become what we’ve always imagined it becoming – a basic building block in the way businesses gather, organize and share information, analyze trends and make important decisions.

Why do I think the stage is set for a spatial technology revolution? Here are just a few of the reasons:

  • Several key economic sectors already count spatial technology as a core business tool and they are being joined by new industries and government users every day. For example, the real estate industry has always been on the forefront of using mapping information. Real estate associations and developers began displaying information about property in a location-based form – on a map rather than in a list. As the industry has used spatial technology, its sophistication has grown. Now, multiple listing services (MLSs) and forward-thinking real estate organizations are using interactive trend maps, advanced data visualization tools and the analytical power of location-based technology. Other sectors look to the real estate industry for innovative ideas around mapping applications.
  • Developers are creating exciting location-based apps to fit the needs of specific business sectors. Spatial APIs, basically mapping in the cloud, exploded in 2010 and will continue to grow in importance. Savvy developers are turning out exciting new sets of geo-data and mapping features that are ready to plug and play directly into your siteFor example, if your customers want to know about the school district that serves a particular piece of property, there’s an API for that (in full disclosure, we have an API for that!).. Not only are there more data and feature options from which to choose, but businesses no longer have to process, maintain and update their mapping additions themselves because their cloud provider takes care of that. Not only does the cloud help them develop a more advanced mapping application, but with the time they save, developers can focus on applying mapping to their unique business needs. The cloud breeds innovation in mapping.
  • Governments face an increasing demand for location-based services even as they face recessionary budget cuts. While the recession has slowed down some parts of the economy, it’s actually sped up the development and adoption of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. We’ve seen local governments turn to the SaaS models to help them offer do-it-yourself services to their residents: users can look up their trash day, research crime statistics and even report potholes. I think as the recession abates, companies that tried out SaaS services because of their cost-effectiveness with stay with them because they tend to be user-friendly and easy to maintain.
  • Data is coming from new sources, both experts and ordinary folks. Major disasters like Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Haiti have shown us all the power of crowdsourcing, or using spatial technology to pool our information, keep conversations flowing, and solve problems. Volunteers are mapping roads, buildings, and other location information and finding new ways to share it everyday. This seems to prove the public has embraced both “thinking in maps” and their new role in creating location content.
  • Developing spatial applications is becoming more affordable and more interesting. In the early days of GIS, building an application took a lot of experience and a major time commitment. The new robust cloud-based spatial development platforms reduce the cost and collapse development timeframes. As key players like Google and Microsoft provide base map layers, cloud-based development platforms allow developers more room to dream up novel uses of location information and creative ways to combine information to allow us to see it in ways never before possible.

We’ll keep watching the trends in this blog, and I think we’ll continue to see new industries embrace spatial technology, new frontiers open up in the way mapping applications are used by businesses and consumers, and entirely new sectors joining those that already understand the power of location-based information.

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