Got WMS?

I discovered a great resource last night as I was looking for a catalog of Web Mapping Services (WMS) to consume while standing up an Open Source GeoServer Stack.  Back in 1994 the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) established a number of standards for geospatial data formats and services.  The Web Map Service has become essential for the exchange of geospatial data through the web.  Worldwide there exist thousands of WMS services offering data with hematic content.

Mapmatters.org is a service that catalogs and tests WMS feeds.

Mapmatters has cataloged more than 1000 WMS services.  Through text or geographical extent searches users can find layers of interest.  Each layer can be previewed on a map or with pre-compiled thumbnails.
In addition to the catalogue mapmatters  also assesses performance and reliability of  WMS services.  For many layers information is available, for instance, how long it takes to download maps from the service and how many times a request failed.

Mapmatters is both a tool for the end-user to find a WMS service that fits the needs of a specific application with respect to the thematic contents and the required technical quality and a tool that tracks how well the service performs and to quickly be notified in case of failure.

Mapmatters is currently in a beta stage and will be extended continously.  Mapmatters.org is a project by GeOps

Use ArcGIS Online to Manage Your Own Custom Map Gallery

Here is a link to a super post by ESRI's Keith Mann in the Fall 2011 edition of ArcUser magazine that provides a tutorial on how to customize your Map Gallery on ArcGIS Online.  This should help organizations bring their own look and feel to what is an otherwise bland map gallery provided by ESRI at ArcGIS Online.  The ability to customize should help us who use ArcGIS Online eavery day to bring our own flavor to our ESRI hosted maps.  Kudos to ESRI for providing the capability to customize our ArcGIS Online galleries.

Esri's Community Maps Program

Esri has started a Community Maps Program where individuals or organizations can contribute  geographic content to become part of a community map that Esri publishes and hosts online. Your data is integrated with data from other providers and then published through ArcGIS Online as a map service.

This program is available to any Esri user organization and other geographic data providers interested in making their data content broadly available.

Benefits

• Users inside and outside of your organization, including the local business community and the general public will be able to use the online maps with ArcGIS for Desktop, ArcGIS Explorer, ArcGIS for Server Web mapping applications, or a standard Internet Web browser.
• Eliminates the costs associated with making the data widely available, such as setting up and maintaining the infrastructure.
• Map data is hosted and maintained by Esri at one or more data centers in the U.S. to ensure high availability and performance.
• Your organization retains all ownership of its data.
• Access to your map data through an online map.
• Esri can provide the data in ArcGIS for Server map cache format that your organization can publish for internal use with ArcGIS for Server.

Watch a video to learn more about the benefits of participating in the Community Maps Program.

Introduction Of Usage Limits To The Google Maps API

Strange turn of events in my last two blog posts.  In this post Google announces the introduction of usage limits on their Google Maps API.  This post comes just after the ESRI Insider post highlighting ESRI's effort to offer free web-based GIS For Everyone by Anyone.  Google has made their pile of money through advertizing while offering free services to their many users, and ESRI has made their pile of money through very high priced, but incredibly good, mapping software.  These two posts are opposite of what I would expect.  Kudos to ESRI on making crowd sourcing and community mapping a new part of their corporate direction.  They have talked about it for years and now they have done something about it.  Congrats to Bern Szukalski and the ArcGIS Online Team.

Google has made some changes to their Google Maps API Terms of Service.  Google has added usage limits to the free API and will begin charging for usage that exceeds the limits.  I hope they will reverse this policy now that ESRI'sArcGIS Online offers capabilities similar to those of Google Maps.  Competition is a good thing, something that Google excels at.  Who would have thought with the history of both companies that Google would be charging for a service similar to one that ESRI offers for free.

Here is the entire GeoDeveloper Blog post as written by Thor Mitchell:

When the Maps API Terms of Service were updated in April of this year we announced that usage limits would be introduced to the Maps API starting on October 1st. With October upon us, I’d like to provide an update on how these limits are being introduced, and the impact it will have on your Maps API sites.

The usage limits that now apply to Maps API sites are documented in the Maps API FAQ. However no site exceeding these limits will stop working immediately. We understand that developers need time to evaluate their usage, determine if they are affected, and respond if necessary. There are three options available for sites that are exceeding the limits:

• Reduce your usage to below the limits
• Opt-in to paying for your excess usage at the rates given in the FAQ
• Purchase a Maps API Premier license

To assist in evaluating whether your site is exceeding the usage limits we will shortly be adding the Maps API to the Google APIs Console. Once available you will be able to track your usage in the APIs Console by providing an APIs Console key when you load the Maps API. If you find that your site does exceed the usage limits each day you can opt to pay for your excess usage by enabling billing on your APIs Console project. We will then start billing excess usage to your credit card when we begin enforcing the usage limits in early 2012.

For very popular sites Maps API Premier is likely to be a more cost effective option. It also offers a number of additional benefits, including terms that permit for-fee and internal use, enterprise technical support, a Service Level Agreement, fixed and invoiced annual pricing, and increased quotas for the Maps API Web Services. For more information on how Maps API Premier could benefit your application please contact the Sales team using this form.

We will announce the availability of the Maps APIs in the APIs Console on this blog later this quarter, and provide more details on how to set up an APIs Console account and update your Maps API application with an APIs Console key. We will also provide at least 30 days notice on this blog before enforcement of the usage limits and billing for excess usage begins.

We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning. However with the continued growth in adoption of the Maps API we need to secure its long term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable. By introducing these limits we are ensuring that Google can continue to offer the Maps API for free to the vast majority of developers for many years to come.

Posted by Thor Mitchell, Product Manager, Google Maps API

New Route 66 Community Map Added to ArcGIS Online

We finished digitizing the primary Route 66 highway from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California on ArcGIS Online.  You can see the map on ArcGIS Online at:  http://bit.ly/ouLaKV or view it from the applet below.

The entire route is digitized along with selected roadside attractions along the route in Illinois.  We would like to solicit your favorite content (places, pictures, postcards, etc) from places along the route.  If you have content you would like to see added to the map please let us know at rick.marshall@verticalgeo.com

You can follow the progress on the Route 66 Community Map on our Digital Route 66 Blog located at: digitalroute66.blogspot.com/


View Larger Map

The Rise of The Globe in Web Mapping

Great post on the georelated.com blog that outlines the rapid rise in use of globes and how WebGL can help provide globe-like mapping solutions on the web. Great summary of why globes are important and why they have become so popular.

ESRI TV: What's New in ArcGIS Online

ESRI just released the latest in their ESRI TV video services.  The latest shows us "What's New in ArcGIS Online."  I really like the capability ArcGIS Online brings to those who don't have a server to publish their work online.  I think as this capability matures it will help ESRI catch up to the head start they have given Google Earth and Google Maps.  It is very interesting to see the race to capture the "economy and power of free." 

PostGIS Version 2: A Game Changer?

There is a great post over on GeoRelated.com about PostGIS Version 2 being a game changer. Good summary of how PostGIS Version 2 relates to PostGRES and the options PostGIS Version 2 provides.  Here's the post:

PostGIS Version 2: a game changer?

PostGIS for PostGres

For many years there has been a limited choice of geodatabases when looking for a single solution for all geodata models. Only Oracle and ESRI offered comprehensive coverage of spatial models. OracleSpatial provided database models and algs for vector, network, raster and topology in addition to the usual database refinements and in database geocoding. ESRIoffered ArcGIS Server with comprehensive support for Vector, Network and raster models but left topology to the clients and had no offering for geocoding.Competitors such as PostGIS, MapInfo Spatialware, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL only offered support for vectors.

It seems the status quo may be about to change. The elephant in the room has started to shuffle its feet towards the finish line. PostGIS version 2.0  not only has big plans but appears to a considerable way into delivering the promise of support for network and raster models. For those of you in the US a tiger geocoder is also available. It looks like the initial support will provide a reasonable coverage of raster and topological models but as always seems to be the problem with open source projects there is very little supporting visual tools.

Raster
Raster support is delivered through dedicated database data types for raster and GDAL based PostGIS drivers to support a wide range of raster formats. There is reasonably rich support for a first edition including:

• Range of functions to access raster metadata
• Raster band manipulation
• Raster processing
• Raster value manipulation/calculation (Algebra, reclass, value manipulation)
• Reprojection
• Vector to raster conversion
• Transform to GDAL formats

Topology
Support for topology is also provided using PostGres data types. The implementation looks less mature than the raster model appearing to offer predominantly CRUD and import/export style capability only at this stage. There are also limited support for transforming data into the topological model in the database.

Vector  Geometry, Geography and Linear Referencing
PostGIS already has comprehensive support for vector geometries including 2D, 3D and linear referencing. PostGIS also supports geography types often used for global representations in its vector model.

PostGIS v2 will be worth watching in 2012 as it heads strongly into the world of GIS. The open source community makes a strong step forward with this release.

Route 66 Collaborative Map Effort

VerticalGeo has started a Route 66 Collaborative Map on ArcGIS Online. Please help us by contributing your content to the Route 66 map. So far we have only completed the Illinois portion of Route 66, but we will be adding more segments as we complete them. You can see the contents of the map below or on the Route 66 Project Page in the VerticalGeo website. If you would like to contribute you can use ArcGIS Online to add content. The editable version of this map can be found on ArcGIS Online at: http://bit.ly/r7yW2e


View Larger Map

The Future of Cloud-based GIS Analysis with ArcGIS Online

Last August the ESRI Insider posted Bern Szukalski's ideas on the future of cloud-based GIS analysis.  We heard some of this during this summer's ESRI User Conference, but it is good to see it put in writing.  Here is the post:

The cloud is growing in importance for GIS professionals, with cost efficiency, scalability, and flexibility as major drivers. We can see the beginnings of cloud options for many organizations with the ability to run ArcGIS Server in the cloud and also via Esri's managed services in the cloud.

On a similar, but yet somewhat different and exciting frontier, ArcGIS Online is a key part of the Esri vision for ArcGIS in the cloud. However, up until recently the focus for ArcGIS Online has been on the data part of GIS - making and sharing maps, apps, and other resources, and organizing online communities.

At the 2011 Esri International User Conference we introduced new ArcGIS Online capabilities - hosted services from Esri that enable anyone, not just GIS professionals, to be able to publish Web services using CSV files, shapefiles, and other sources. These capabilities also enable GIS users to publish maps via hosted services directly in the cloud from their ArcGIS Desktop, leveraging data in their enterprise and making ArcGIS Desktop the premier dashboard for Web publishing.

Currently in closed beta, these emerging ArcGIS Online capabilities will enable anyone to publish geographic information in an efficient, scalable, and cost-effective manner. And perhaps most importantly, they will make publishing GIS services that can be accessed by anyone easier than ever before.

During the Esri User Conference plenary Jack Dangermond spoke about the evolution of ArcGIS Online, and Jeremy Bartley and I demonstrated new capabilities that included publishing web services directly via ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Desktop:

As significant as these capabilities are, they are focused on publishing maps and layers. But what about the ability to use ready-to-run geoprocessing tools and perform analysis via the cloud? 

To answer that question, here's an Esri Insider peek at some very exciting work in progress from the ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Explorer Online development teams. Below is a screen capture showing the current development version of ArcGIS Explorer Online using cloud-based buffer and clip services to find the locations of wells within 200 meters of any stream:

The capabilities will include a long list of what could be described as "classic" ArcGIS capabilities, before only available to GIS professionals but soon offered via cloud-based services to non-GIS professionals alike. These promise to change how ArcGIS can be used, leveraging GIS throughout existing organizations and empowering many new users with GIS capabilities.

These capabilities will also be available in a variety of applications including the built-in ArcGIS.com map viewer, configurable Flex and Silverlight applications, and Web APIs. Stay tuned for more announcements over the next few months.

By Bern Szukalski

GIS On The Web Is OK, Sometimes....

Mapbutcher has a great post on Web-Based GIS.  He makes some good observations and provides some great examples about how difficult and complicated the mapping tools have been in the past.  I appreciate what he has to say, and I have a some comments:

I think part of the frustration we have as GIS Professionals is that we sometimes fail to understand the separation between the data authoring tier of software and the data presentation tier of software in our GIS.  With the availability of cloud storage and a larger emphasis the last few years on data sharing through Service Oriented Architecture and OGC Data Standards I believe we have inserted the third tier of data sharing between the data authoring and data presentation tiers.  As a GIS Professional I hated it when advocates of Google Earth or Google Maps would talk about their system being a GIS.  Both programs are great data presentation tools, but not very good data authoring tools.  But, today I can author data using my favorite ESRI software and share it via web services so that the user can display it on their presentation tool of choice. I think the creation of the data sharing tier has helped many users have a more positive experience using geospatial data and at the same time has opened up what we do to an entirely new user base, one that loves using geospatial data, but doesn't want the complicated data presentation tools we have used in the past.

I think we currently have a good assortment of web-based data presentation tools (ArcGIS Server, Google Maps, GeoServer, ArcGIS Online). What I would like to do next is to create a community of GIS Professionals who collaborate together to produce a great set of free open source web-based data authoring tools that we can all benefit from.

I'd love to hear your comments either here or off-line.  If any of you would like to discuss off-line you can reach me at rick.marshall@verticalgeo.com

SlashGeo Poll: Esri ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder?

SlashGeo conducted a poll to find out which platform people preferred with regard to the ESRI ArcGIS Online vs Google Earth Builder debate.  The results are totally split.  Here are the results of the poll:

ESRI ArcGIS Online will prevail:  24%

Google Earth Builder will prevail: 24%
Both will be successes in their own way: 42%

Microsoft Bing Maps will rule them both: 2%

VerticalGeo is an avid user of both ESRI and Google Products.  This poll should have been a little more explicit in the question it asks.  ArcGIS Online and Google Earth both both do a great job with the presentation tier when producing geospatial data.  Neither do a very good job with the data authoring tier when producing geospatial data.  As far as VerticalGeo is concerned the ESRI suite of software products can’t be beat with it comes to authoring geospatial data.  The ESRI suite of software tools though is very expensive.  I believe there will soon be a proliferation of open-source geospatial creation and presentation tools that will compete against both ESRI and Google Earth.  What we really need if we want to develop a geospatial powerhouse are the robust tools that ESRI provides with the open source pricetag.

VerticalGeo will be venturing more deeply into the open source market to help provide just that.  We intend to combine cloud computing, open source tools for geospatial data authoring and maintenance, with a top notch presentation layer, all with a web-based interface, for free, in an attempt to help guild a community of geospatial users that will have a new alternateive to the ESRI vs Google Earth debate.

OpenLayers 2.11 Released

OpenGeo has announced that Open Layers 2.11 has been released.  VerticalGeo has been using Open Layers 2.10 and it has proven to be a powerful open source web-based visualization platform.  Open Layers does a great job of combining services and static content into a web-based map.  You can read the OpenGeo release article here:  Link.

VerticalGeo will be adding a “Maps” tab this week to our website where we will showcase what some of the open source mapping applications can provide.  We plan to open our “Maps” tab with an Open Layers Map.  These maps will not always be a finished product, but will contain some maps that are works in progress.