Lynchburg Web GIS with All the Bells and Whistles; Another Signal of Desktop GIS’ Demise?
Lynchburg, VA just updated its online GIS website. Among the new additions: the ability to document your markups, save measured lines, jump to Google StreetView or Bing’s Bird’s Eye views, and tools to better see the relationship between records and parcels. (See What’s New for details and screen shots.)
The app seems to be ADF-based ArcGIS Server apps and does not use Flex. WorldView Solutions did the consulting work.
The updates make sense when you learn that most common users of the site are “real estate agents, builders and others in development-related fields.” One agent who uses the site daily is still finding new features.
Costs: $228,500 for the changeover from the old system, $50,000/year maintenance (the same as the previous system, interestingly).
The more apps like this I see, the more I wonder about how quickly desktop GIS use will drop inside local governments. Apps like this are as easily used inside as well as outside local government. The question is when, not if, most gov employees will move off the desktop. The related question, then, is how this new business model will change revenues for software developers.
