[OSGeo-Discuss] Web project feedback wanted

[Randy George]

Hi Kathy,

	I think you would really benefit from looking at open source. A
combination of PostGIS http://postgis.refractions.net/ on the backend with
GeoServer in the middle tier, as an open standard WMS service,
http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOS/Home would provide a lot of power with
no license costs.

The browser client could be as simple a custom html wrapper on the WMS call
or a complete interactive client like MapBuilder, or a more interactive
custom SVG client. 

TIGER polygons are free so all you need to add is the contribution data
fields. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html 
(PostGIS includes a shp importer)

Some additional benefits:
	1. map views are completely user customizable by field filters
and/or geospatial boxes

	2. You can stack the thematic zip polygons on other OWS layers like
TIGER streets, USGS Atlas, TerraServer DOQ/Urban imagery etc which may help
with interpretation.

	3. You can export GeoServer WMS to KML for Google Earth layers with
no extra effort.

	4. You can allow the users to create their own map styles

	5. You can even get really out on the edge and let local political
groups update their own data, publish their own views etc 
Community GIS from the grassroots up is still just an idea but WFS-T
(included with GeoServer) provides a technical framework for it.

Here is an example of an SVG client for thematic views of Census
Demographics coupled to OWS services. It uses public OWS services as well as
GeoServer to let a user stack layers under the thematic views. This is just
an example of the kinds of things that can be done with open source.
http://www.web-demographics.com/Census

Downside:
1. You would have to be able to load PostGIS and GeoServer on an http
server. 

2. You would have a learning curve moving from ESRI products to Open Source
software

Either of these may be a showstopper for you but it's worth noting that
there are lots of choices besides ESRI/Oracle these days.

Randy George
www.cadmaps.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Kathy Cashel [mailto:kathy at cashel.net] 
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 3:49 PM
To: discuss at mail.osgeo.org
Subject: [OSGeo-Discuss] Web project feedback wanted

I'm in the planning stages of an online mapping project, and 
wondering if I have chosen the best tools for the job.

The goal is to present political campaign contributions amounts at a 
zip-code level for the state of Virginia. I will need to create 
hundreds of dynamic maps: one for every county, congressional 
district, and senate district in the state. I then need clickable zip 
code polygons colored according to how much money came from that 
area. Each of these hundreds of maps could then be drawn hundreds of 
different ways, depending on which politician you're looking at.

The organization is a nonprofit and can't afford a full-on ArcGIS web 
solution, but has a copy of ArcView 8. In fact the web site is on a 
shared server, so there is no way to install new software at the 
current web host. My plan is to use ArcView's DSMapBook extension to 
create static vector maps with landmarks (highways etc.) for each 
district, and then use WorldKit (http://worldkit.org/) or something 
similar to draw the zip code polygons on top and present the whole 
thing in Flash. Geocoded polygon data would be stored in XML files 
for each district, and presented in the Flash WorldKit wrapper. 
(Flash having the advantages of being a common plug-in, making adding 
other interactivity / animation easy, and being easily embedded into 
the current web pages.) The contributions data for the zip code 
polygons is in a SQL database, and would be displayed on the fly. The 
last hurdle is to get latitude / longitude boundaries for each 
district map out of DSMapBook, which may not be possible.

If there are other issues I haven't thought of, or better ways to do 
this, or if you think this is a good plan, it would be very helpful 
to hear about it. This is a non-commercial, non-charging project 
which will make this information freely accessible to the public; any 
help or advice you have to offer is very much appreciated.


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