Many organizations have reduced their budget 
for discrete GIS applications. The information 
centric model in which all sorts of integration 
is required to meet ultimate goals would 
appear to have an expensive price tag. As the 
public sector attempts to tum around deficits 
and the private sector attempts to be more 
competitive, management is hesitant to 
embark on new projects. Those organizations 
that have begun integrating GIS and other 
applications have found that multimedia 
information-centric development is far less 
expensive than originally anticipated. 
With standards-based software and hardware, 
integrating a multimedia ^ environment 
becomes an exercise in using proven off-the- 
shelf applications. These applications would 
include standard office automation programs 
such as word processing, database, 
spreadsheet and presentation. They would 
include specialized GIS, graphics handling, 
raster to vector conversion, and video 
interface tools. Unlike traditional 
development, the organization is not asked to 
re-invent an application like electronic mail in 
order to move GIS images to many people, 
Instead, tools like Visual Basic for Applications 
can link a standard Microsoft Windows-based 
E-Mail program with virtually any kind of data 
using DDE, OLE and others. Microsoft 
Windows is the conduit that will bring GIS 
data to most desktop computers because of 
its built-in integration capabilities. 
One of the limiting factors to integrate GIS in 
the organization is the proprietary nature of 
data provided by different manufacturers. 
There have been tools developed to allow for 
the conversion and viewing of GIS data. The 
explosion of multimedia technology has fueled 
the need to use data from multiple sources. 
Therefore, one is more likely to find tools that 
read and write bitmap, CAD, and GIS, data in 
the multimedia world than in the GIS world. 
In this way, multimedia is driving the 
integration of GIS. 
Icon-driven or object-oriented programming 
allows developers to see varying kinds of 
information as entities that can be invoked 
given conditions and rules. Authoring a 
multimedia ^ environment involves the 
collection of data and the setting up of rules. 
Programmers are no longer faced with the 
394 
task of command-line, non-portable low-level 
code. This allows an organization to 
prototype an idea quickly and gauge benefits 
in a fraction of the time of traditional 
computer programming. 
5. Technical Challenges 
There are a number of technical issues that 
make the implementation of a corporate 
multimedia environment difficult or expensive 
at this time. These issues relate to some 
missing pieces of the multimedia puzzle only. 
These include the difficulties relating to 
transmitting video and complex graphics 
through standard LAN wiring. This can be 
resolved today in a number of ways including 
hardware and software compression. Video 
information can be also be elegantly 
controlled and routed through a separate 
video network. 
Software compression is improving as the 
power of desktop computer expands. At this 
time, there are performance and quality issues 
relating to software compression for video. 
However, still frame software compression 
will meet the quality and performance 
requirements for most applications. 
Reluctance to move ahead with the 
technology because some of the technical 
issues involved would show a lack of vision. 
Not all GIS applications will require the 
broadcasting of high quality video information. 
In those applications where video connectivity 
is crucial, it is likely that the expense can be 
cost justified with current products. 
6. The Role of “Information” 
GIS applications can be loosely categorized as 
those with a significant computational and 
analytical component and those with a more 
general corporate information component. A 
system charting weather conditions would be 
in the former category whereas a system 
keeping track of corporate facilities would be 
in the latter. This category will see significant 
long-term growth in GIS. That is not to say 
that there is no overlap. Base map and 
computational results are useful to others 
within the organization. In addition, the 
analysis of GIS data can be filtered down 
throughout the organization. 
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