Interoperability of Geographic Information: From the Spreadsheet to Virtual Environments

The extended use of GIS varies from simple map making to environmental modeling. In each, different users have specific data needs, formats, and most important of all they possess unique problems. As a response to this, the majority of GIS vendors supply a normalized GIS-in-a-box package, containing the data structure, formats, and geographic functions that will ultimately impose the vendor flavor in the design and operability of the problem. The user becomes limited in the design of his or her own problem to the functions supported by the vendors. On the other hand, the need to increase market share imposes a constant need to upgrade the spatial functions and data structures available. This creates an exponential growth in software complexity. In the long term the user depends on data and software standards and needs constant upgrades to training.