This week I came across an exceedingly simple yet extremely robust Web GIS application Built as a companion to the book Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe, by Harvard University professor Graham Allison, this application has held up to millions of hits over the past two years peaking everytime Allison demonstrates the application on national television. The blast maps site is so robust because it was built by R7 Solutions a company based in Houston, Texas, that specializes in complex, mission-critical Web GIS applications for government agencies and large energy and real estate companies.

There are three. Number one, the ability to integrate all of these disparate data sources into a single map-oriented interface very rapidly, without modifying anyone else's system. Number two, the ability to use geographic tools to drive non-geographic analyses and vice versa. Number three, the democratization of GIS to make it available over the web; people don't need to install special software or undergo special training. [We are] helping to push out GIS data and functionality to everyone.