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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | re[2\: GISList: Manifold 5 IMS or GeoMicro's AltaMap Server |
| Date: |
01/10/2002 10:02:59 AM |
| From: |
Jeff Cole |
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Anthony,
I'm the president/founder of Blue Marble Geographics. You may want to cons=
ider including BeyondGeo in your knowledge-base of what's going on within t=
he IMS/ASP marketplace.=20=20
BeyondGeo (http://www.beyondgeo.com) is a service that is a very simple, co=
mmon-sense, and extremely affordable means for organizations to publish the=
ir GIS projects online. BeyondGeo has been hugely successful to date - wel=
l beyond our expectations - with a large number of real sites "live" and a =
building mass of new subscribers. This is a service that fits many.
We've invested in building a great solution around our own great technology=
(GeoObjects) that really works. It's not enterprise-wide "GIS" - it's for=
anyone who wants to publish an interactive GIS project online with the fea=
tures that visitors to their site need - and what do you know... subscriber=
s absolutely love it! They love the simplicity, the cost, and the fact th=
at it works without their investment of weeks/months of time and without ha=
ving to host a server on the Internet (a huge initial and downstream cost).=
They use their existing GIS projects directly (without data conversion/tr=
anslation) and compose their maps online within the BeyondGeo subscriber si=
te. They're amazed at how quickly they can get their projects online with =
features that they need to offer to visitors to their web site.
The traditional GIS IMS solution idea is fundamentally flawed in a few resp=
ects - but isn't it absurd that you have to host the IMS application yourse=
lf if you go with a traditional GIS IMS solutions - be it from ESRI or Mani=
fold? How many organizations host their own web sites? Most outsource the=
hassle and bandwidth to a web site hosting company - it only makes sense. =
We're doing the same for organizations who want to embed their GIS project =
into a page on their site.
You're a smart guy - make up your own mind as to the viablility of this typ=
e of product/service - but you should know that we have absolutely no VC mo=
ney in our business or outside investors. You should know that we are prof=
itable. You should know that the BeyondGeo service "model" is working toda=
y - both in terms of revenue and satisfied customers. And we're having fun!
Jeff
jeff.cole@bluemarblegeo.com
Blue Marble Geographics
http://www.bluemarblegeo.com
http://www.beyondgeo.com
>> 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 wh=
om
>> 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 suspe=
ct
>> 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 f=
or
>> 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 f=
its
>> 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 toget=
her
>> popcorn style and published to a URL and called "internet GIS".
>> Technology and a glut of bandwidth allow users with ArcView, or any ot=
her
>> 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 t
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