Adam Estrada has posted a very interesting presentation that he and a colleague have each given, regarding a case study of setting a very small Colorado town up with GIS tools. He notes that there are many communities like this one across the country, who do not have the money or manpower to go the standard GIS route, with dedicated staff, servers, and expensive software installations, but who still have the same public service needs as a larger community.

The end result seems very impressive, but appears to depend very heavily on "the kindness of strangers." Most small towns are not going to be able to have custom software development done for them, nor the training and other equipment provided for them. This particular solution does not seem easily replicable across the country.

As is noted at the end of the presentation, small towns are underserved by the GIS market--what is needed is less expensive, more accessible and more user-friendly tools, so that communities like the one in the presentation can be more self-sufficient.

That's the type of tool we hope Depiction can be, and that it is already becoming in communities across the country.