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Written by Vector1Media
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Thursday, 07 August 2008 |
PR - When we first started Arc2Earth,
one of the primary goals was to bring the power of the web based
visualization to your average ArcGIS desktop user. By allowing them to
export KML to Google Earth and then later to create map tiles for
Google Maps and Microsoft Virtual Earth, we allowed our users to
publish their data to a much larger audience without the need for
servers or server software. In this regard, I think we’ve done pretty
well in serving the need, there is always room for improvement but for
the most part, we added another useful tool into our their bag of
tricks. We plan to continue building on this base but have also
embarked on a plan to provide even more powerful tools for our users.
After
exporting and publishing their data, one of the first questions our
clients usually ask is: “This is great but is there any way to search
the data?” or “Can I click on the features?” For the most part, once
our export took place, we had to rely on the functionality of Google
Earth, Google Maps or MS VE for ad-hoc searching/clicking or provide
additional custom programming to enable an application beyond the
exported data. The former will certainly get better over time but is
somewhat lacking right now and the latter, while lucrative, does not
fit with the original vision of “one click” export to publish your data
to the web.
So, another model is needed to provide this
additional, runtime functionality to those users who do not have the
time, expertise or funding for their own servers. To fulfill these
needs, we will be providing an online service that allows users to host
their maps and layers online while providing REST based access for
queries, editing and spatial analysis (limited as it may be). We will
also provide a new desktop application that automatically synchronizes
data between your local drive and online services. As edits occur
online, they are automatically pulled down into your original source
data (optionally of course)
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Vector1Media |
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