A Few new GIS and enterprise technologies
These components can be used with Visual Basic, C++, and other common software
development tools to rapidly build custom, object linking/embedding (OLE)-compliant
applications, or to add GIS functionality to existing applications, such as spreadsheets or
databases. The components are programmable OLE automation objects which work with
OLE custom controls (OCXS) to permit embedding of GIS functionality in Microsoft
Windows applications. They meet the intent of the Open GIS Consortium with respect to
GIS fimctionality.
The components provide an application development environment which permits the
embedding of dynamic map displays in all kinds of Microsoft Windows programs, and
which greatly reduces the programming needed to deliver customized applications.
Component Object Technology for the Internet/Intranet
A related technology has also recently become available for those who want to develop
GIS capabilities for new or existing Internet and World Wide Web applications.
Advances in HyperText Markup Language (HTML) and the introduction of Java and
Active X now allow not just text and images but also active content to be accessed and
interacted with over the Internet; this advance can be applied to permit interactive
mapping and GIS functionality: databases can be published on the Web; client computers
can make requests for information, analysis, and maps; and existing applications can
become spatially enabled.
This component technology is available on a variety of system architectures, for one or
many servers, and permits the monitoring of system performance and the efficient
brokering of client requests through request brokering architecture.
The component technology provides many mapping and GIS fictions; uses standard
HTML-based Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator, including
ActiveX controls and Java applets; and supports standard inforrnatiordcommunication
servers.
Data formats include various commercial GIS data formats and many image formats.
125.The result is a cost-effective means of sharing spatial information in customized
applications within an organization’s intranet, or sharing worldwide on the Intemet,
Metadata Standards
Of course, as these and other recently developed GIS-related tools become more widely
used, and users increasingly want to access spatially-referenced data, it is essential that
better information about the spatial data in the databases be made available. At the
present time a good deal of effort is being put into the development and implementation
of metadata standards and the means for organizing such metadata and accessing it,
especially by means of communications networks.
Applications
The availability of these new technologies will facilitate some existing AM/FM
applications of spatially-referenced information and will open the way for new
applications as well.
The ability to treat many applications of spatial data as transactions against a database
should allow wider use of spatial data for AM/FM, allow the leveraging of the
investments already made in spatial data, and improve the accuracy and timeliness of the
use of such data at all levels of AM/FM-using organizations. GIS has proven useful for
policy-making, planning, monitoring, decision making and management, and making it
easier and faster to apply should be helpful throughout organizations.
Spatial engine technology should make it easier to make data available to those dealing
directly with customers in many areas including demographics-based marketing, trouble
calls, incident reporting, and call-before-you-dig. By speeding responses to requests for
spatial information and spatial analyses, the engines may facilitate responses to system
failures and assist during the management of emergencies.
By creating easy-to-use interfaces, the use of componentized object technology should
facilitate use of intranet and Intemet access by government regulators and other
government staff, customers, the general public, and others who might be granted some
access to AM/FM databases for such purposes as regulatory compliance, environmental
monitoring, and providing responses to proposed development plans. Easy-to-use
interfaces, especially where the spatial-operators can be concealed from users, will also
make company staff more willing to use information systems.
As a result, it maybe possible to think about increased data sharing with outside
individuals and organizations. This may provide many benefits. Giving people access to
more information about proposed routes, the location of new facilities, or the information
on which decisions are based, may head off delays caused by opposition to planned
development where that opposition is based on incorrect perceptions or
misunderstandings. It’s possible that providing more information, more readily, to
126.customers and the public, and so helping people better know the utility serving them, will
be one way for utilities to meet competition from other service providers. For some kinds
of utilities, such uses of the Internet may become a key to expansion and profitability.
