COVER STORIES GeoWeb a window into the wide-ranging collection of geographic knowledge authored by the GIS community. The GeoWeb is also changing user expectations. The definition of a good map has evolved, from paper-based and digital maps to intuitive and interactive maps served on the Web. With traditional GIS maps, the emphasis has been on the information and analysis behind the map. Now with the GeoWeb, the map itself is increasingly the focus of attention; it is a rich, stand-alone information product that must be designed carefully for end users. Even within complex government organizations with vast collections of geographic knowledge, only a limited number of these information products are needed. These organizations have standard cartographic symbols and layouts that are used to support various workflows. It can also be said that whole classes of organizations (cities, for example) share the similar workflows with respect to their need for standard map products. This has led to an effort to design and share a series of common templates for mapping with desktop GIS and the GeoWeb. The Technology Exists to Do This Now Esri has been aggressively designing products to effectively leverage the Web 2.0 environment. The centerpiece of this effort is ArcGIS Server, the first full Web 2.0 GIS platform. ArcGIS Server supports fast, high-quality mapping; globe services; and powerful geoprocessing services. ArcGIS Server also provides easy-to-use, consumer-style mapping with a variety of REST-based Web APIs (Flex, JavaScript, and Microsoft Silverlight) as well as capabilities that promote sharing of geographic knowledge and collaboration between and among users. ArcGIS services can also be easily mashed up with other Web services to support development of cutting-edge applications. Other technologies in Esri’s Web 2.0 strategy include ArcGIS Explorer, a powerful, free GIS viewer, and ArcGIS Online, which provides content and sharing capabilities for GIS users to leverage. Success Is Growing Many successful GeoWeb applications have already been deployed, and many more are emerging. The applications are richer, more dynamic, and more collaborative. We are seeing new styles, patterns, and techniques emerging, helping to disseminate geographic knowledge and the concepts of geography to ever-widening groups of users. The GeoWeb promises to explode geospatial applications and the usefulness of geographic knowledge. Leveraging the large investments already made by government and others, serving geographic knowledge will better connect government and citizens, encourage more collaboration, and ultimately realize a more open form of government. We believe the evolution of the GeoWeb is just beginning, and it is becoming a strong multiparticipant framework. But with all this emphasis on geoservers and the GeoWeb, desktop GIS will continue to grow as the solution for most spatial analysis projects and the fundamental authoring platform for creating the majority of the geographic knowledge consumed on the GeoWeb. Conclusion The Web environment is a fantastic visualization and content-delivery platform for information about the world we live in. As people become more familiar with visualization tools and their voracious appetite for geographic knowledge increases, they are beginning to ask more intelligent questions about the world, and the work being done by GIS professionals in creating geographic knowledge has never been more important or appreciated. The GeoWeb revolution will have lasting repercussions well beyond the GeoWeb itself. As geographic knowledge becomes embedded in every device and changes our way of thinking, it presents an opportunity for GIS professionals to expand geospatial literacy toward sophisticated analysis and spatial decision making. The Web is a strong platform for GIS, distributing geographic knowledge everywhere and leveraging this content to serve the needs of multiple users. differences between the authoritative content developed in a professional GIS workflow and the casual content volunteered by people on the GeoWeb. Both types of information can be valuable, but we need to remember that certain types of decisions need to be made from verified, authoritative content to ensure reliability and accuracy of the decision. GIS Professionals Are More Relevant Than Ever Geography and GIS bring together information from many different fields and sciences—physical, social, cultural, and design—and integrate the resulting geographic knowledge across disciplines through mapping and modeling of spatial relationships and patterns. Geographers and GIS professionals then apply this knowledge across government and industry. GIS is an integrative platform that brings information together and facilitates coordination and cooperation across organizations and disciplines. The result is a new approach to problem solving: The Geographic Approach. The Geographic Approach can be characterized as quantitative, systematic, analytic, and representative of integrated thinking. GIS professionals provide the skills and understanding to apply this approach in ways that are responsive to the needs of their organizations. Demand for these talents is increasing rapidly because most people trained in domain-specific disciplines do not have the same level of exposure to multidisciplinary problem solving and integrative thinking as geography and GIS professionals. Today’s GeoWeb environment gives GIS professionals many opportunities to share their geographic knowledge. The Web is helping expand the relevance of GIS and make it more pervasive, and GIS professionals are the people already creating and managing this infrastructure. This offers many new opportunities and challenges—building new partnerships, learning how to collaborate, sharing information, etc. In this sense, GIS is just beginning. GIS Technology Is Evolving The popularity of Web-based mapping has increased the awareness and value of what GIS professionals do. This, together with the advances in Esri’s Web mapping technology, makes the