Im's IMS

I recently sat down with Wansoo Im, of Vertices, and talked about some of his firms online mapping projects. Vertices specializes in a variety of online mapping applications some of which are run on Im's own spatial software, some as ArcIMS variations, and some as GoogleMap Hacks. An example of this support for a variety of projects is the Mappler site. He has also started the web site PPGIS.Info as a launch point for projects that connect in that direction.

One that serves an interesting policy role as a PPGIS project is his Legislative District Data Book On-Line with the Center for Government Services. He also has some YouTube videos that help work through this application.

Another high-profile public policy application was the NJ Highlands Council Interactive Map that is offered as a genuine effort to make people more familiar with the data behind the policy debates and lend some sense of transparency to a charged political process.

But some of the Internet Mapping project support much smaller programs.

He has launched a web site called IMRivers.Com designed to help watershed and stream groups connect with this new technology. The taglines are “Interactive Maps for Your Watershed” and "Empowering Environmental Communities with Interactive Mapping". This has resulted in about 20 different river or stream mapping custom apps that show the potential for this as an increasingly bottom-up technology.As part of the Bike N' Walk Blog, Im has mapped bike crashes in the New Brunswick area and mapped a route for the Rutgers Cycling Team.

Custom map apps are changing expectations about mapping online. And they are even changing expectations about what people expect from the navigation systems in their cars.