Learn how APIs and Web Technologies can improve your GIS

Web GIS: Principles and Applications, the latest offering from Esri Press, is an important resource for geographic information system (GIS) students and professionals who want to learn state-of-the-art concepts, architectures, and techniques for working with Web-based GIS applications.

The book presents both the origins and recent developments in this rapidly evolving platform. New Web concepts and technologies addressed include geospatial Web services such as REST Web services; geobrowsers; cloud computing; geoportals; mashups; mobile GIS; Gov 2.0; business intelligence; online virtual reality; volunteered geographic information (VGI); geotagging; geotargeting; the sensor Web; Semantic Web; and ArcGIS APIs for JavaScript, Flex, and Silverlight. The book is designed for GIS users of all skill levels. It can be used as a reference guide or for classroom instruction.

"Government personnel can learn how to use Web GIS to improve public services and enhance collaboration across agencies," according to coauthor Pinde Fu. "Private businesses can learn how Web GIS can create new business models and reshape existing ones; researchers can find new uses for Web GIS that will meet the challenges of the future."

Fu is a senior GIS application developer and project lead at Esri. He chairs the Education Committee of the Association of Chinese Professionals in Geographic Information Systems (CPGIS) and serves as a member of the CPGIS Advanced GeoInformation Science Training Committee. In 2008, he was named honorary director of the ArcGIS Education and Application Research Center at Henan University in China.

Coauthor Jiulin Sun is academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information Systems in China and the Scientific Database and Information Engineering Science Committee of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Web GIS: Principles and Applications (ISBN: 978-1-58948-245-6, 312 pages, $55.95) is available at online retailers worldwide, at esri.com/esripress, or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, visit esri.com/esripressorders for complete ordering options or visit esri.com/distributors to contact your local Esri distributor. Interested retailers can contact Esri Press book distributor Ingram Publisher Services.