Mapping Software Technology?

[Keebler Elf]

Is anyone aware of any software on the market that can be used to delineate geographic boundaries on a map? For example, creating zones throughout Ontario based on inputs like street names and/or longitude/latitude.

I'm thinking there must be something that municipal and provincial governments use...

 

[tightfit]

you might want to look at "mapinfo".

 

[rellevart]

For commercial solutions, also take a look at ESRI software (www.esri.com/).

Many awesome open source solutions exist as well, such as QGIS (http://www.qgis.org/), and uDig (http://udig.refractions.net/).

Also check out Google's various tools (http://code.google.com/apis/maps/documentation/services.html) for geocoding street names, postal codes, and such.

 

[Knave]

MapPoint is very good

I work with MapPoint and it is very good for commercial applications

 

[xix]

Try

GIS is something the gov'y uses not sure on copyrights.

also and free
http://www.openstreetmap.org/

OpenStreetMap is a free editable map of the whole world. It is made by people like you.

OpenStreetMap allows you to view, edit and use geographical data in a collaborative way from anywhere on Earth.

or

One of OpenStreetMap’s greatest advantages is that we don’t just give you a beautiful draggable map - we give you the data, so you can do what you like with it. Well, this weekend, that just got a whole lot easier.

OpenStreetMap now has an ‘Export’ tab, joining ‘View’ and ‘Edit’ at the top of the screen. It gives you an instant way to get the map data in a format you want.

Want a static map for your blog, without having to spend hours fiddling with JavaScript? No problem - just export in PNG or JPEG. Want a map for a book? PDF or SVG are the perfect formats - fully vectorised, so they look smooth on high-resolution printers at any scale, and are easy to restyle or edit. Want to play with the raw data? Get it in our easy-to-parse OpenStreetMap XML format. Here’s an example of a simple PNG streetmap generated in just two clicks.

 

[kih]

Thanks for this information on maps.

kih