The vision of GIS technology filtering into the masses has long been a goal of many GIS professionals. The advent of desktop GIS solutions combined with a drive to offer public access to government data and the growing popularity of the Internet is taking this vision a reality. However, the path to successfully implementing applications for casual users can sometimes take some interesting twists and turns. Like many organizations, the City of Ontario, California, has joined the crusade to develop applications the casual user can utilize via "kiosk" oriented interfaces. The final products include public access GIS through the municipal library, reusable applications, and front counter kiosks. The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of kiosk development, to convey the reactions of the casual GIS user, and to demonstrate examples of Avenue based interfaces.
Providing public access to GIS data has long been a goal of the municipal government agencies which have been creating and maintaining these systems. The high cost of the necessary hardware and software has kept most agencies from providing this service. During the past year, a public access system was designed using ArcView for the Jefferson County Property Assessor. The assessor has been providing public access for many years, but this information has been limited to the tax roll only. The large parcel database (280,000 parcels) has only been available in the form of standard tax maps. A system was designed to provide the public access to the GIS which combines both the map and tax roll. This paper outlines the process of designing such a system and highlights the successes and difficulties which occurred along the way.