Christopher O'Malley
The symbiotic sciences of mapmaking and demographics--otherwise known as charting the social and economic lay of the land--on computers have long been the domain of specialists in GISes (geographic information systems). But with increasing frequency, companies are making their GIS products available for personal computers.
Desktop mapping programs let you pair predrawn maps or map outlines with tabular data to describe one or more aspects of a particular region (e.g., a map of San Francisco might use colors, symbols, and labels to illustrate average income distributions throughout the city). The supporting data is usually kept in a separate file, either in the mapping program itself or in a spreadsheet or database.
Due to their graphical nature and often large
data sets, mapping software has traditionally run on workstations, minicomputers, and mainframes. But with PC processing power and the demand for demographic data on the rise, mapping programs for desktop computers are increasing in popularity (see the chart).
Strategic Mapping's Atlas GIS (Santa Clara, CA, (408) 970-9600) and MapInfo's MapInfo (Troy, NY, (800) 327-8627) are two well-known names in the field, but the field is getting crowded. Environmental Systems Research Institute (Redlands, CA, (800) 447-9778), a developer of high-end GIS products, recently introduced a desktop mapping product called First St., which it will market with Wessex (Winnetka, IL, (800) 892-6906), a supplier of CD-ROM-based data products. First St. provides a set of data on 22 CD-ROMs that includes all the streets in the U.S., over a dozen levels of census boundaries, and all the results of the 1990 U.S. census for $1995.
Although these products are expensive by PC standards, a price war may happen. Strategic Mapp
ing recently reduced the list price of Atlas GIS from $1595 to $495. At this writing, MapInfo lists for $1295. But these prices are inexpensive compared to the thousands of dollars that GIS programs for larger systems cost.
Because it relies on tabular data, mapping is also finding its way into spreadsheets. Lotus's latest version of 1-2-3 for Windows includes a mapping tool that lets you plot spreadsheet data as a demographic map. You can also buy maps and data from Strategic Mapping, Lotus's partner. Software Illustrated (Pleasanton, CA, (510) 463-9898) makes a mapping add-in for Excel and Quattro Pro for Windows called MapLand ($99.95).
Sales of GIS software are expected to keep climbing. About $625 million worth of GIS products will be purchased in 1995, and that number should double to $1.2 billion by 1998, according to forecasts from industry research firm Daratech (Cambridge, MA). James Rapinac, Daratech's industry analyst for GIS, says that the percentage of GIS products for the desktop
will likely increase, due to lower prices of software and high-powered PCs and Macs and the friendly GUIs of desktop GIS programs. A greater level of interest in demographic data, which has become grist for colorful charts in newspapers and magazines, is also fueling demand, Rapinac notes. These products, coupled with spreadsheet mapping features, make GIS much more approachable for businesspeople than the specialized software of old.
Illustration: Desktop mapping lets you combine maps with a wide variety of demographic information. Here, ArcView 2.0 for Windows ($995)--slated to ship this fall with Unix, Mac, and Power Mac versions to follow--provides a detailed map of the eating habits of Bostonians.
These Maps Lead to the Desktop
