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| Subject: | RE: GISList: Manifold 5 IMS or GeoMicro's AltaMap Server |
| Date: |
01/09/2002 07:18:42 PM |
| From: |
Anthony Quartararo |
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Well, I can't really resist now can I. Not a Manifold user...yet. I have
however been researching the ASP business model for some years now, and all
these "internet GIS, LBS, etc." services over IP are ASPs, even if that
acronym has fallen from grace in the dot-bomb world. (For those to whom
this acronym is still unknown, Application Service Provider).
I have yet to meet a GIS ASP that is profitable. I mean really profitable,
not funny-accounting "profitable". Part of the reason for this is the
technology in use. As Dimitri mentions, many, if not ALL web-based GIS
services are new products, with new GUIs, with sometimes new and suspect
technology claims, etc. For those of us weaned on ESRI in university, not
much about ArcIMS looks or feels like ArcView or ArcInfo. Same goes for the
other vendors too, without prejudice. Why spend lots of money, and I mean
lots of it sending staff, etc. to learn product, then ask them to implement
something that isn't what they learned. The whole value proposition of the
ASP model was (and should be, but isnt) that there is a product that fits
many. However, this is not possible with any product in use today, to my
knowledge, that serves as a "GIS" on the internet. What we get is
components (bits of pieces of other products) that can be tossed together
popcorn style and published to a URL and called "internet GIS".
Technology and a glut of bandwidth allow users with ArcView, or any other
traditional desktop/enterprise GIS to use it as-is right now without
changing a thing. Yes, I am talking about Citrix, Tarantella or other
thin-client tools to access the "GIS" back at the server farm. This in fact
is what is happening in several big telcos and utilties today, but the GIS
software vendors dont like to publicize it because, well because they have
to then take a back seat to the ASP. The licensing model for "internet GIS"
applications is appalling, so to the data licensing models put forth by
leading vendors. No wonder these GIS services (ASPs) are in over their
eyeballs in VC debt and will likely never make it out of the red. Anyway, I
digress far enough, but Dimitri, you did ask.
If anyone wants more specifics on what I am driving at, email me, I have
some white papers on the subject.
Anthony
-----Original Message-----
From: Dimitri Rotow [mailto:dar@manifold.net\
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 7:39 PM
To: gislist@geocomm.com
Subject: RE: GISList: Manifold 5 IMS or GeoMicro's AltaMap Server
> I posted a similar message over the holidays....
>
> Has anyone used either Manifold 5 IMS (www.manifold.net) or
> GeoMicro's AltaMap Server (www.geomicro.com). I'm interested in
> hearing people's experiences/thoughts about the products.
>
I use Manifold all the time, I'm not a professional programmer and even I
can create a web site using Manifold with zero programming. I am the
marketing product manager for Manifold but that doesn't mean I don't
appreciate the ability to create a web site without having to write and
debug a new application.
As a matter of basic philosophy, I think it's a real waste to have to learn
two different products to bring up a web site. With classic map server
architectures you have to learn a GIS to get your data in order and then you
have to learn to code a map server to bring your GIS project to the web.
That seems like a terrible waste of time to me. It's also a risk because
you can have two different vendors pointing fingers at each other if
something goes wrong. You also don't have the benefit of exactly the same
WYSIWYG environment in your GIS and your map server, so perhaps you'll have
to waste time re-formatting the data, etc.
I think it makes a lot more sense to procure and learn just one product, the
GIS, to create your project using the wonderful WYSIWYG interface of your
GIS and then publish it with a few clicks as a web page and know it will be
exactly as you created it. Building the map server into the GIS makes this
possible. It seems that once one company starts doing this they all will
have to.
What does everyone else think about this?
Note: For a third party opinion on Manifold, you might consider a posting on
Manifold-L, which is where most of the Manifold IMS users seem to hang out.
See http://www.manifold.net/news/news_set.html for links to get there.
Cheers,
Dimitri
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