Given the introduction of web mapping services such as GoogleMaps, Virtual Earth and others, there is a far greater community awareness of spatial data in the form of simple-to-use web maps. This has been a ‘watershed’ period for the geospatial industry that, as a result, has arguably elevated its importance in the broader community and created greater demands on its capacity to deliver reliable, accurate and current spatial products. This in turn has created opportunities for the private sector, however, in the past the private sector’s role in distributing Government data has been mostly limited to some value adding for specific applications and/or physically distributing spatial data into the mostly spatially-aware market place. As demand for online simple-to-use maps grows within the broader and largely spatially-unaware community, so will the demand for new applications of spatial data not currently well provided for in such a commoditised and simple-to-use way.
This paper outlines how NuMaps is using a Government data set and building value added products that are in turn published on the internet as web services for access by subscribed customers. The architecture and rationale behind these technical and business decisions will be described. By way of a live demonstration, the presenter will show how end users can connect to these services and integrate them with their own spatial and non spatial data; and how one government department is utilizing this service to help them with their operational decision making purposes.