Friday, December 14, 2007

KML in Government

I think we need to support the KML standard for geographic data exchange the same way we have RSS. I presented a simple demonstration of this in our statewide product management council. Take this kml file of Cache County (right-click and copy link location) and go to maps.google.com and paste the URL into the map search field. Voile, you have a map of Cache County that you can then supplement with your own personal data or with other information from the web.

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I also love the new terrain map feature that Google recently introduced. Here's a look at the terrain around Wasatch Mountain State Park:


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We've had some discussions about this with the state's Automated Geographic Reference Center and it appears that they will be able to create KML files from the SGID without too much effort. When you combine that with what they are already doing with webservices and some of the new mapping services on mapserv.utah.gov, like this map of the Farmington Cemetery, you see that the possibilities are endless in terms of producing GIS data that is much more friendly and reusable by the lay public.

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