ESRI Linking Geodata.gov (aka GOS) to Data.gov for Feds

Jack Dangermond shared that with NextGov last Thursday. Apparently the work started last summer and is expected to be complete within two months. A $50,000 contract signed this year as an extension to the geodata.gov one seems to be paying for the work, though it surely is costing more.  Dangermond “declined to disclose the cost to the company, but said it is in the range of tens of millions of dollars and involved three and a half years of work. ‘We can afford to do it through our software licenses,’ he added.”

ESRI will link the two and make mashup-making available to all via the free ArcGIS.com. That’s great advertising for ESRI’s site, and it’s noted ArcGIS.com itself has no advertising. I wonder if any other sites will pop up that make it easy to make maps via these mapping services? I would love to see an update of Intergraph’s WMSViewer (which by the way I’ve used since its launch to help people understand how WMS works in my both my consulting work and my teaching).

This is how NextGov describes ArcGIS.com:

Users can share their work with a defined group of people, sell their creations on their own websites or share them with the public to let others enhance them. For example, individuals with little or no programming skills can use ArcGIS.com to see how the oil spill could affect livelihoods along the Gulf Coast.

- NextGov via many folks on Twitter