Field vs. Web: Is there a difference

Web, Field - Whatever: What is the problem?
Web GIS and Field GIS applications have a lot in common. Both provide low cost access to complex data held in a “host” GIS. As such, they are attractive for organizations wishing to get full benefit from their investment in GIS data. If they both do the same job, why can’t you just choose one product and use it for all your needs?

Although there are very real differences between the systems, for any sweeping generalization, there will be individual products that are exceptions to the rule. A good analogy would be classifications of vehicles – there are many different designs out there, and although you could choose one type to cover a multitude of different needs, the chances are that you will be better off buying different models for different drivers. If linemen need trucks and salesmen need passenger cars, you don’t have them all drive a Chevy Suburban.

What is a Web Solution expected to be?

From a User Standpoint

Easy to use, point and click interface.
No training or manual is required.
No installation –just point the browser and go.
Just one of many information resources/applications that may be accessed.

From a Technical Standpoint

Expect to have little local storage, none of which is persistent
Expect to leave all or almost all fimctionality up to the server
Expect a relatively high speed, reliable and continuously available network link to a hostiserver.
Expect to have a simple UI. Usually this is built with HTML or Java on the fly. People do not generally expect 50-100 menu options, multi-page dialogs, large tables of data etc. This is because all of these things are difficult and time-consuming to create in “pure” web applications.

Finer technical points are that web apps normally download information in discrete chunks (files) which are owned and managed by the browser, and may be deleted at any time. They are requested and transferred using a standard protocol (HTTP).

A web application is normally expected to be downloadable in a matter of seconds. Some web applications make use of client-end plug-ins. The download time for the plug-in is often not counted, which some vendors have exploited by making their plug-ins quite large (more than 1 or 2 MB).