Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Smallworld Welcome To 2013

I recently saw a tweet welcoming Smallworld-using utilities to 2007...
... while it may be true that the GE/Google announcement brings back memories of 2007, it is also true that Smallworld users have had the option of accessing web maps since at least 2009. You can see many examples of that here and here.

The web mapping world has changed a lot since 2007.  In my opinion, one of the cooler web mapping options involves MapBox.  I have blogged about them here.  MapBox provides a way for users to quickly create beautiful maps and host them on MapBox infrastructure.  You have access to pre-packaged Terrain, Satellite and Road layers that you can then customize to your style and visibility requirements.  In addition, you can create your own map layers and upload them to MapBox.

The following video clip demonstrates Smallworld access to MapBox maps with a specific example around styling your own contour lines and hillshading to integrate with your asset data layers.


While having Smallworld access Google map layers may seem "last decade", it definitely still has its value.  Extending Smallworld even more to access powerful platforms like MapBox solidly moves Smallworld users from 2007 into 2013.

Welcome to the future!  You can find out more about Smallworld web maps integrations here.