MAGIRT (Map and Geospatial Information Round Table ) Round Table

I’m working on an article that discusses some online mapping tools, and can not find a definition of GIS-Lite.  It is a term we all use with each other---I hope you will share your opinions and help me work toward a definition.

1. Do interactive mapping sites that utilize self-contained data such as Simplymap, Social Explorer, and Proquest Statistical Datasets count as GIS Lite? 
2. What about the interactive mapping sites found at so many government agency websites fall in the GIS Lite spectrum? Such as EPA Eviromapper, Earthquakes Map, National pipeline Mapping System, etc.
3. How much interactivity and customization should be possible before we'll call a mapping tool a GIS-Lite tool?
4. Another kind of GIS lite utilizes outside datasets that are made, found or bought such as ArcGIS Online and Scribble Maps

Bradley Wade Bishop offered up the term "Geoweb" for consideration. 

This might make a good umbrella term for web-based geo-oriented sites.

Geoweb applications that fall short of being GIS Lite could be those that dish up and display canned geospatially referenced data with little or no customization or output options.  If all you can do is pull up data, pan, zoom, and take a screen shot, then it might not be GIS Lite. 

By that distinction, google maps is geoweb, google mashups are geoweb.  Google Map Maker is GIS Lite because we may add points lines and polygons.  Maps better for small geography though because google maps are so busy and you can't erase extraneous details.

GIS Lite could easily be a standalone program, and I think there were some in the 1990's.  But can we think of one now?  I can't, but if you can think of one let me know.  So

I think of GIS-Lite as web-only applications designed for the lay user.  I would define GIS-Lite as any web-based map application that also contains data in the form of variables that can be queried, which does not require coding or backend work on the end users side.  While Google Maps certainly has data that can be queried, it doesn’t really contain what I would call variables.  In Google Maps you can add points, lines and polygons, but you can’t really create a map that displays variables without using fusion tables or doing some coding.  So, I guess my qualifiers for GIS-Lite are: web-based, queryable data, and no programing required.

Joe Hurley
Data Services, Geosciences, Gov't Info, Maps and GIS Librarian
Georgia State University Library
404-413-2854
jhurley@gsu.edu 

I can go for this as long as 'queryable data' doesn't only mean polygon attributes  --but more the ability to turn on and off layers.  Other functionality might be the ability to filter a layer and the ability to draw/create features.  The ability of the user to affect the display and output is key, as is the 'no programming required'. 

My ancient textbook from grad school (Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective by Aronoff) says that a GIS has 4 capabilities: 1. Input; 2. data management (storage and retrieval); 3. manipulation and anlysis; 4. Output. 

Those all seem like reasonable qualifications for a geoweb app to earn membership in the "GIS Lite" sub-category.  In GIS-Lite however, the input and data management steps were executed and locked down by the provider, leaving the user to horse around with the manipulation and output capabilities.

OK I'm going to heave myself out of my chair and visit the other wing of my building which is where the circulating GIS books are kept.  Will look for newer definitions of all these ideas.

I pawed through some recent books on GIS and found the following definitions.  We're not obliged to adopt them, but here they are from "Web GIS: Principles and Applications" by Pinde Fu and Jiulin Sun. ESRI Press, 2011.

“Web GIS is any GIS that uses Web technologies” (p. 13)

GeoWeb or geospatial web refers to the “emerging distributed global GIS, which is a widespread distributed collaboration of knowledge and discovery...” (p. 15)

All the literature is focused on the production end -- creation of data (including VGI) and creation of services.  Hardly anyone talks about what users need in the way of a GIS that is easier to use than a full-blown GIS.

One exception is a book Tracey Hughes turned me on to - a National Research Council book "Learning to Think Spatially" which calls for an easier GIS to use in the K-12 curriculum.  They propose that 10 grant-funded programmers spend 3 years to develop a program, which I think is a mistake, but at least they're addressing the problem. The book was published 6 years ago, maybe they'd say differently now.  I think web-based is a better approach, and I think the private marketplace is already stepping in to fill the need at least partially.