The first initial maps were just simple hard
copies of the data generated in our office. These could not be updated,
nor could all of the information be viewed at the same time, whereby it
would take several printed maps to see multiple layers. This turned out
to be very time consuming, and to a point, uninformative when it came to
updates. We still do a large number of hard copy maps, this will
always be a needed resource and will never be phased out.
RAPC's next opportunity to publish maps to the public
was initiated through an extension to the already popular software
Arcmap, called ArcPublisher.
This made it possible for us to publicize these
maps in a digital form, but on a "read only" environment. By
producing maps digitally, mass numbers of people can receive the data,
and updates can be incorporated in half the time it takes to print out a
new map. Arcreader software, is the public version of ArcMap, and
is a free to anyone. At this point RAPC is able to hand
anyone interested all of the Geographic resources within
Rapides Parish. This was distributed on a cd. In its self, this
had its problems. We could not compress all of the possible information
onto a single disk, especially with the intervention of areal
photography, and other rather large add-ons. Before too long
we were issuing multiple cd sets through the mail and the recipient had
to put all of the data together, this was a headache for both parties.
Now we are at the third goal of four, The Internet.
This first took off with emails. All persons that requested the data
were sent an email with links to the data that was stored on a dummy
website. From here you can download everything you needed. This cut
down on some of the problems but still had a few hurdles of its own.
There is so much information to make available, and from this many
mistakes were being made. Trying to make it easy for everyone seems to
be harder that just making the maps. Now that
rapc.info
website is off the ground we hope to alleviate all problems. The final
goal will be to post our GIS online with no downloads.
RAPC's GIS History, Goals, and Structure
