Development: Web Mapping Enabling Technology - Are Flash and Silverlight dead?

This is the 4th post in the Web Mapping series examining the technology that will change the boundaries of what is possible for geospatial applications. In this post we will take a look at Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight as technology enablers for Web Mapping. The post will illustrate concerns over the future of these technologies, examine their adoption for GIS and Web Mapping and review the direction of the key technology vendors.

Technology: PostGIS v2.0 a game changer?

PostGIS for PostGres

For many years there has been a limited choice of geodatabases when looking for a single solution for all geodata models. Only Oracle Spatial and ESRI offered comprehensive coverage of spatial models. Oracle Spatial provided database models and algs for vector, network, raster and topology in addition to the usual database refinements and in database geocoding. ESRI offered ArcGIS Server with comprehensive support for Vector, Network and Raster models but left topology to the clients and had no offering for geocoding.Competitors such as PostGIS, MapInfo Spatialware, Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL only offered support for vectors.

It seems the status quo may be about to change....