Focus GeoWeb Distributed Collaboration The GeoWeb is a vision of Web GIS that incorporates the interactive presentation of Web 2.0. This movement has support at the highest levels. U.S. President Barrack Obama has said, "We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington, and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago." At the recent Gov 2.0 Summit sponsored by O'Reilly Media and TechWeb and held in Washington, D.C., September 9–10, 2009, it was clear that GIS was the technology best suited for making government more inclusive and responsive. Application after application showed the value and need for real-time location-relevant data. In the words of Andrew Turner, CTO at FortiusOne and a participant in the event, "Geography allows citizens to have one common view of government." This is not news to GIS users. Most of the information that governments deal with has a strong connection to place—property taxes are assessed by parcel, garbage trucks are routed on city streets, and polling place locations are related to the home addresses of voters. GIS has evolved from a tool for managing projects to a framework that governments use for understanding and responding to problems on scales ranging from local to global. Not only do governments benefit from considering geographic factors in the decision-making process, but these agencies also use the geographic framework supplied by GIS for organizing, analyzing, visualizing, and displaying all types of data that are germane to solving a problem, making a policy, or improving a process. Making Government More Available Using the Web as a means of improving the responsiveness of government is not new either. In its first iteration, the marriage of the Web and government produced e-Government, or e-gov. Designed to improve the level and quality of services that government provided citizens, businesses, and other government agencies, government Web sites quickly evolved from billboards with phone numbers and mission statements to more interactive sites with querying capabilities, online forms, and payment capabilities. However, providing an intuitive interface for accessing information proved challenging. Governments turned to a relatively new technology that had been used internally for improving processes through organizing and managing information by its geographic location: GIS. In the mid-1990s, in the midst of what has come to be called Web 1.0, online map services were adopted as a way for governments to supply maps on demand for many topics—planning, school district locations, legislative districts, and trash service areas. A single server broadcast map services to many clients. On the Web, GIS became a tool for collaboration, communication, and service that streamlined interactions between the government and its citizens, businesses, and other government agencies. From a business operations standpoint, Web GIS frees staff from repeatedly answering the same questions about where a polling place is located or which day trash is picked up and allows them to work on other tasks while shortening the time needed to accomplish processes. From a customer service standpoint, Web GIS provides specific information; is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and does not require a visit to a government office. Continued on page 10 ArcUser Fall 2009 9 www.esri.com