Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html To the folks at Caliper: I share Dick's concerns about HUD's unfortunate decision and the current "trend" (?) toward web-based mapping solutions as a panacea for more and better geographical analysis. I can imagine how many public libraries and school systems could be stocked with Maptitude and on-line access to a data warehouse for the investment in limited web-based solutions. I'm sure there are useful and appropriate web-based mapping applications, but I suspect these would still only whet the appetite for more and ultimately frustrate the potential user base unsatisfied with the limitations of a "canned" data retrieval/mapping system. Moreover, I too encourage Caliper to explore the marketplace and choose a statistical package partner in order to enhance Maptitude another quantum leap forward. Hey everybody in the US: Don't forget to vote today! Kevin Byrnes Va. Department for the Aging Health Maps wrote: > Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html > > Agencies do not realize that Internet/Intranet mapping does not hold many > solutions for users beyond a novice and even trivial presentation of > geographic data. Not clear vendors are all that much better in that > understanding. > > There is someone in our agency who has spent a zillion hours developing an > Intranet mapping solution with MapObjects that satisfies about 5% of the > needs. its cute at first pass but then as soon as I ask a relevant question > ... it simply is not there. Of course by the time you pay the salary of the > developer, the hardware, and salary of all the web people to get it running > you could have bought 100, more like 200 copies of Maptitude for serious > users and set up a data ftp site for the data. > > Server side mapping is NOT the solution except at a certain level of need > and likely this will disappear as users become more sophisticated and need > more extensive solutions. Broadband is not here yet, and no matter how wide > broadband is, it will not keep up with the demand except for a few days when > it's introduced. There is a fundamental physical law that governs this > stuff, its in the legislation that was passed regarding thermodynamics when > the universe was created. Thermodynamics has more to do with information > than it does heat. > > Mapt for the web is great, but very soon any serious user of geographic > data is needing more. Desktop software is not dead or even ailing. > > The solution is to have: Web mapping for some initial exploratory data > analysis, then data/layer access through the Inter/intranet. Then having a > useable GIS package on the desk top. Why would I want my word processing to > be web based? Would I use SPLUS or SAS on the web? Ease of use? really > folks, if someone who needs to do even vaguely serious analysis can't use > Maptitude then we are talking about a more fundamental problem than the > software. To generate the NUMBERS where the goody really lies in analysis > requires (often) a somewhat comprehensive capacity with a statistical > software package; in no way can anyone say that Maptitude (even AV for that > matter) approaches the difficulty of use of SAS, SPLUS, STATA, etc. > (Incidentally, Mapt could do well in hooking up with a stat package. AV has > done this with SPLUS and its not too bad) > > Curious how web based apps that attempt to do serious things are trying to > dummy down apps for users. But the result is just the opposite, they in fact > dummy up. > > Richard E. Hoskins > WA State Department of Health > 1102 Quince Street > Olympia, WA 98504-7812 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > tel: (360) 236 - 4270 > fax: (360) 236 - 4245 > GMT -8 > > Note: All messages to and from the Department of Health may be disclosed to > the public. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Peter H. Van Demark [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 7:56 AM > To: Maptitude > Subject: Re: [Maptitude] Future of Community 2020 > > Maptitude - http://research.umbc.edu/~roswell/maptitude.html > > All: > > You may be interested to know that HUD decided that, in the future, > Community 2020 would no longer be a packaged software product. Rather, it > would be completely Internet based. This was disappointing, because of the > great success that has been achieved with the packaged solution based upon > Maptitude. > > Caliper did not believe that this was the right strategy for HUD. We > thought that a combination of packaged product and Internet access was the > best solution. However, HUD's IT people wanted tight control over what > users could do and an easy way to maintain live data. Consequently, users > will get much less functionality if HUD follows through with that approach. > Also, if the Internet service is interrupted, users will get zero > functionality. > > You should all be reminded that Community 2020 is based upon Maptitude 3, > so that it could run under Windows 3.x. This is now a very outdated version > of Maptitude. One major limitation is that it will not run under Windows > 98. Caliper offered to move the software forward to Maptitude 4 for a very > small amount of money, but HUD declined. Instead, HUD had Caliper develop > the E-Maps solution that is currently on their web site at > (http://www.hud.gov/emaps/emapsintro.html). This application, which was > featured on CNN last weekend and received 250,000 page hits, runs quite > effectively on two cheap boxes. It is a good example of the power of our > web technology and the Maptitude mapping engine. > > In order to provide a reasonable alternative for Community 2020 users, > Caliper has been offering a $150 upgrade to the current version of > Maptitude. We are also still providing limited support to Community 2020 > users at our own expense, as HUD has discontinued its support contract with > Aspen Systems. Many Community 2020 users have switched quite successfully > to Maptitude 4. > > Peter > > ---------------------------------------------------------------- > Peter Van Demark > Director of GIS Products and Training Phone: 617-527-4700 > Caliper Corporation Fax: 617-527-5113 > 1172 Beacon Street E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Newton MA 02461-9926 Web site: http://www.caliper.com > > ______________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Taking Care of Business is always a snap when you shop with the > world's largest seller of office products. From pencils to PDAs, > Office Depot has what you're looking for, plus FREE delivery on all > orders over $50. 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