Abstract

Developing Your GIS Web Presence: An Audience-Specific Approach
Track: Web and Server
Authors: Nick O'Day

A wide range of options exist for a GIS professional desiring to build a web presence for his/her municipality. There are three different APIs from Esri (each with a buffet of example apps) and now ArcGIS Online to choose from, not to mention the Google API and others. While all of these options enable a customized approach, not much clear guidance exists in terms of building GIS web apps that truly focus on the needs and abilities of the average web user. This paper will draw on experiences during the City of Johns Creek's ongoing GIS web mapping project and will discuss: (1) the power of developing audience-specific GIS web applications that have the right balance of functionality and tools, (2) the need to tightly integrate this GIS task with a municipality's traditional web/communications staff, and (3) marketing GIS web apps to maximize usage by internal staff and external customers.