PPT slide deck on web GIS state of the art, current trends and state of the art. Presented at NEARC 2011 in Saratoga Springs, NY.

1. GIS Web-sites:
Current trends, future directions
and the state-of-the-art
Version 8
Michael Terner
Executive Vice President

2. Overview
• History of this talk
• Issues of the day
• Mobile devices as a driver
• HTML5 vs. other immersive technologies
• Impact of cloud-based hosting
• Capitalizing on cloud-based map/tile services
• Customization vs. templates
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 2

3. History of this Presentation: the web is constantly changing
8th variation since 2000
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 3

4. Mobile devices as a driver
A plethora of new devices and more ubiquitous broadband
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 4

5. People want maps on their mobile devices
But how do you get them there?
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 5

6. HTML5 vs. other immersive technologies
• Flash and Silverlight are waning
• Plug-ins are less desirable
– Notably on mobile
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 6

7. Recent announcements on Flash/Silverlight
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8. HTML5 vs. other immersive technologies
• What is HTML5?
• W3C standard
• Puts onus on browser makers to
ensure there is compatibility
• Avoids need for 3rd party plug-ins
– Like Flash & Sliverlight
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 8

9. Some characteristics of HTML5
http://www.w3.org/html/logo/
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10. HTML5 allows for adaptive/responsive design
Can run in full
browser mode on a
PC, or on a phone
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 10

11. “Phone apps” vs “Phone web apps”
• Pure phone, e.g., “iPhone app”
– Takes better advantage of phone hardware
• Camera, GPS, accelerometer, etc.
– But, requires standardization on a single phone
• Or, building a different app for each phone
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12. “Phone apps” vs “Phone web apps”
• Phone-based web-app
– Relies on the phone’s browser app
– Web pages, HTML5, JavaScript
• Can be optimized for small screens
• “Adaptive design”
– Good access to GPS; camera not
yet supported (but coming)
– Examples of “minified web pages”
http://Maps.google.com
http://Touch.Facebook.com
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 12

13. Impact of cloud-based hosting
• You don’t need a data center to
host web apps
– Why buy, when you can rent?
– Not just hardware, but also:
• Bandwidth
• Air conditioning
• Can scale applications by adding
“virtual hardware” on demand
– Of course, software licensing
may not be so seamless
Image from Paul
Ramsay, used with
permission.
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 13

14. When do you need to scale?
What is a launch spike?
Data from WA’s broadband site launch
• WA State
Pales to FCC’s 1st day of
500,000 visits &
9,000 requests/sec; But
still a planning factor.
• Governor makes an
announcement
• Press release is issued
• Newspaper runs a story
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15. Cloud based hosting
Things to know
• Need to understand virtual machines and offerings
– IaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS
• Need to understand the cost model
– Fixed costs of virtual hardware ($’s/hour)
– Data storage cost
• $.14 /GB/Mo = $1,860 /TB/Yr
– Usage fees for data access
• $.01 /10,000 file accesses means 1,750,000 files = $1.75
• Pushing data onto the cloud can be a bottleneck
– How thick is your pipe?
– Can send physical drives
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 15

16. Capitalizing on cloud-based
map/tile services
• Use of other people’s
map services
– Often national or global
in scope
– Often for free
• Esri has them
• Bing, MapQuest, Google
• OpenStreetMap (OSM)
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17. Esri’s tile menu
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18. Documentation to find the tiles
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19. Things to understand about
cloud-based map tiles/services
• Some come with restrictions
– Sites must be publicly available
– Tiles must be delivered through our API
• The rules can change, and costs may be added
– Google’s recent announcement: it will cost you money if
>25,000 connections/day
• Most tiles come in the Web Mercator projection
– Cannot reproject tiles on the fly
– Performance penalty for reprojecting dynamic services on
the fly
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 19

20. Customization vs. templates
• Templates provide easier, out-of-the box capability
– Both Esri & partners may take this approach
– Can be delivered at lowest cost
• Write once; deploy many
• There are tradeoffs in being more generic
– Many applications will all look the same
– Can be difficult to customize
– Can be difficult to integrate into a workflow
– Integrate with a business system
– Excellence vs. mediocre
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 20

21. Customization vs. templates
• There is room for both approaches
• Some templates better than others
• Creativity and innovation matter
• Focused, workflow-based sites
• Site reflects what you want/need
– Your site is a public representation of
your organization and can be a good
place to invest
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 21

22. Conclusions
• Web technologies are constantly moving
• Standards (W3C, OGC) can be important
hedges against technology change
• Know your options & make informed choices
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 22

23. Thank You
If you have any questions:
Michael Terner
Executive Vice President
mgt@appgeo.com
617-447-2400
If you’d like a copy of the presentation, please leave me a
business card and I will email it to you.
©2011 Applied Geographics, Inc. Slide 23