Geospatial tools offer killer app for Gov 2.0

If the idea of government 2.0 revolves around using government information as a platform for enabling public discourse, then geospatial technologies are one of the killer apps, Jack Dangermond , president of ESRI, said today at the Gov 2.0 Summit in Washington. Maps and geospatial information systems are becoming richer, smarter, and more pervasive, Dangermond said, but government agencies still need to do more to convert data into services that can populate mapping applications. There is still a barrier between FTP data sets and government sites that make data available as a service, he said. "What's behind maps are geographic data sets that can be 'server-ized,' or turned into services," Dangermond said. "That could introduce a whole new wave of applications; where tabular data will be geo-coded, and where the map interface will become what might be the killer app of Gov 2.0."