ESRI UC Day 2 - A Framework for Implementing GIS on the Web

Dette indlæg bliver kun på engelsk ...

This session was hosted by Clint Brown. Before getting started he made a small survey - how were first timers a the conference, how many have been here more than 5, 10, 20 times. Quite a few had been more than 10 times!He also talked a bit about he coming of age and how he found it harder and harder to see and hear. 'I'd probably buthcher some web apps during this session'. He may be getting older but he still do think fast ...

The subject of this session were how to design, create and maintain a web app in the new 2.0 world. In short a web app is made up of these 4 parts:

1) The GIS application
2) Base maps
3) Operational layers
4) Tools and tasks

He started by adresssing the concept of base maps. Consider map scales and remember that each cached map layer in a sense are individual maps (labels and cartography may differ a lot). When choosing a base maps there are a couple of options.

Google, Microsoft, ArcOnline or your own. Some times you will need to mix base maps in order to leverage the quality of the map. On the top of the base map comes the operational layers. They are those layers you want users to interact with using tools and tasks. The GIS app surrounding it all can be one of many - the geoweb now makes it very easy to go ahead with mash ups. With a few lines of code you can get an app up and running. When doing so don't forget who your target audience is. Make apps targeted at your user group in mind. Don't over engineer it.

Before getting this far you will have probably already been through thinking about the new concept of making information consumable and accessible. No matter that you make an app the can consume your data, remember to make your data and tools
useable by others. Your are not only exposing your web app your are also exposing he services underneath. You use services others have made so it wokr both ways.

In the web 2.0 world consumer created content becomes more and more the norm. That is good - that is how the web was ignited in the first place, but it is important that authoritative institUtions play a role and makes sure that people can verify the correctness of the information.

He didn't talk much about live maps but I guess they sit together with operational layers. He did mention sensor feeds however. In order to keep your app up and running and maintained data through feeds may be the future.

/Sik