It would seem that Microsoft partner, ISC, is carving out quite a niche for themselves supporting agency economic development efforts through mapping applications that integrate the Microsoft Bing Maps platform and their MapDotNet UX platform.

ISC recently developed an application for the Northwest Florida Rural Area of Critical Economic Concern (NW RACEC) that, as part of the requirements to receive stimulus funding, needed to include map graphics showing a number of different data spatially in their submissions to the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP) and Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). Data types  included demographic data from the 2000 Census at the Tract, Block Group and Block Level levels, fiber LIT building locations, existing fiber networks, exiting towers, existing businesses, schools, proposed middle-mile and last-mile project locations.  Naturally, ISC turned to Bing Maps for the mapping platform for this application.

Using Bing Maps along with the ISC MapDotNet UX Data Analysis Template—a  configuration driven Silverlight 3.0 application—ISC was able to rapidly setup an application for the RACEC to start using.  ISC provided further data analysis services by collecting and aggregating a variety of spatial data and loading it into SQL Server 2008 for overlay on top of Bing Maps Road, Aerial and Hybrid tiles. 

Features of the Data Analysis Template include:

-          Integration with Bing Maps data via the Bing Maps Web Services

-          Completely configuration-driven with no programming required

-          Thematic (choropleth) maps

-          Feature Querying

-          Shapefile export

-          Printing

-          Drawing and collaboration using MapShare

-          Rich interactive application with intuitive navigation and tiled maps

 A demo version of the application can be found here: http://demo.mapdotnet.com/FBBPMap/default.aspx?branding=NW

The different spatial data layers can be found and toggled on/off in the right hand panel. For the purposes of this explanation, I have zoomed in on Holmes County and selected the MyFloridaNetwork layer that contains all the data points for Stage owned properties in that county known to have internet connectivity.

Then in the panel found on the left side of the page, you will find application features that include “Data Anaylsis” tools.  These tools allow you to not only markup and annotate the map with points, lines, polygons and text boxes, but to also use those shapes to define areas for spatial data queries.  In the screenshot below, you can see that I used the “Circle” tool to define a cluster of datapoints in the MyFloridaNetwork layer and then clicked on the “Query” and “Done” buttons to pull up the location data on those points. Just to test the “Point” tool, I added a point and then used the “Text Box” tool to add a description to that datapoint.  Note that the application keeps a record of your actions and when you use the “Clear” button, it un-does those actions in reverse sequential order. Very cool.

The “Collaboration” options allow you to share the data either through email or through print. The “Navigation” tools allow you to quickly advance or return to map locations you have viewed as you work in the application.

I understand that the NW RACEC is still waiting to find out if they will be awarded stimulus funds, but there is no doubt that they had the best looking maps of all the submissions!

-=Virtual Jerry