Subscription Web-based service allows smaller governments to take advantage of GIS without paying a fortune.

Traditional wisdom about GIS is that its significant benefits come at a prohibitive cost for many small cities or agencies. The price of hardware and software is just the beginning. When staff costs and procurement of geographical data are factored in, developing the geographical database can account for 60 percent to 80 percent of the total GIS deployment costs.

Moreover, GIS has little value if insufficient resources are devoted to planning and managing the system, keeping the data maintained and current, and developing applications for end-users who work routinely with the system as part of their jobs.

Add to this the inevitable need for training — sophisticated systems require specialized manpower with GIS skills and training for other users as well. All this adds up to a simple fact: It generally takes a GIS department in an agency or city to make GIS a valuable proposition.

Easy Does It

That conventional wisdom is being challenged, however, by Digital Map Products (DMP), a company based in Costa Mesa, Calif., which developed CityGIS, a GIS platform accessible through the Internet with a simple browser interface.

By Blake Harris

Full Story: http://www.govtech.net/magazine/story.php?id=93227