[mapserver-users] professional MapServer services list? / ArcIMS-MapServer choice

[Mark Phillips]

Hi List,

I'm interested in compiling a list of companies and individuals who
provide MapServer support and development services.  If you are such a
company or individual, could you drop me a note?

Is there such a list already in existence, by the way?  If so, could
somebody point me to it.  If not, then Steve would you be open to
adding a list to the MapServer web site?  I'd be happy to compile the
list.

I'm also interested in hearing about options for hosting MapServer
applications.  Are there any companies out there that offer web
hosting services that include MapServer capabilities?  (Either
directly, as an "official" part of what is offered, or indirectly, in
the sense that customers get enough access to the server to install
and use their own copy of MapServer)?

The reason I'm interested in these things is that I'm currently doing
some work for an environmental organization that wants to set up an
interactive map on their web site.  They are trying to decide between
using ArcIMS and MapServer, and I am trying to advise them on this.

I personally don't need to be convinced.  I've developed several
applications with MapServer and I love it.  I can cite lots of ways
that I think MapServer is technically superior to ArcIMS for what this
organization needs.  The folks who will make the decision, however,
are non-technical administrator types and are somewhat uncomfortable
going with a free software product that doesn't come with guaranteed
support from a well-established company and an easily identifiable
pool of programmers trained to use it.  They're worried that if they
use me to develop this application in MapServer, and down the road I
move on to something else and am not available, they'll have a
difficult time finding consultants with MapServer experience who can
help them maintain and/or modify the application.

Another consideration is that they'd like this project to be
replicable.  They'd like to be able to make the basic application,
once it's developed, available to other environmental organizations.
So a similar concern arises: even if I continue to provide MapServer
support myself, there's only one of me.  If a bunch of other
organizations decide they want to deploy the application on their web
sites, will they be able to find MapServer-qualified programmers who
can help them?  Will they be able to find an ISP who will host it, if
they don't own their own server?

I believe that the answers to these questions are all "yes", but I
need hard eveidence.  It would be helpful if I could point to a list
of companies and/or individual consultants who provide MapServer
support and development, and ISPs who will host MapServer
applications, to make the case that MapServer is in fact a
well-established product and that organizations who choose to invest
in it will not find themselves stranded in the future.

I'd also be interested in hearing any other thoughts, or stories about
similar experiences, that people out there might have about the
decision to go with MapServer vs ArcIMS.  I'm mostly interested in
things that would make sense to an administrator or manager, rather
than technical details.

(One obvious issue is cost, of course: ArcIMS costs $$ and MapSever is
free.  However in the particular case I'm dealing with right now, ESRI
has donated a copy of ArcIMS.)


Thanks in advance!

--Mark

Mark Phillips @ Geometry Technologies, LLC
P.O. Box 1170, Black Mountain, NC  28711
Phone: 828-664-1748
mbp at geomtech.com       http://www.geomtech.com