Location Is Key

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Geographic referencing is becoming central to managing state and local government. Virtually all data that governments use can be referenced by location. This central commonality translates to endless possibilities for more efficient databases and applications that can automate government tasks. For 37 years, ESRI has driven the revolution to make spatial analysis the anchor of efficient government.

State and local governments are now implementing server-side applications, like ArcGIS Server, which enable departments to centralize user-friendly GIS data so employees can access the information online.

The concept of referencing by location makes possible applications that incorporate geographic data from various departments into unified information systems and make that data available via the Internet. Departments no longer need to host desktop GIS applications on each employee's computer and individually update them when departments refresh the software.

As more departments deliver applications to employees through Web portals, desktop GIS applications will primarily be used by GIS specialists.

"We see the desktop as an authoring tool for data, maps, models and metadata," said Jack Dangermond, ESRI's president. "We see the server platform as a way to provide access to what the desktop products create."

As programmers develop increasingly sophisticated uses for GIS, tools such as ArcGIS Server and the premiering ArcGIS Explorer -- a free geospatial information viewer -- will enable programmers in other departments to cherry-pick from those functions and data sets, match them to their own business needs, incorporate them into their own applications, and easily make the data available to employees and citizens.

"I foresee a library of geoservices that provides a platform for building applications within each department," Dangermond said.

That library would be part of a state or local governmentwide Web services suite that would slash project approval time by automatically containing each department's considerations for every location, including water, sewage, law enforcement and others.

"It would be a breeze administratively because the development processing work could be streamlined," Dangermond said. "There would be more collaboration because departments would have explicitly defined their rules for development in that geoservices library."

As GIS tools show departments their profound connectedness, the value of eliminating project development stovepipes in favor of collaboration becomes obvious.