MoreMinnesota MetroGIS DataFinder (www.metrogis.org) took top honors in the 2001 Geography Network Challenge sponsored by ESRI and the National Geographic Society. Metro GIS DataFinder, a collaborative organization representing more than 250 local governments and associations, provides access to a number of map services through the Geography Network. The organization was awarded $5,000 of ESRI credit for the first-place win.
The National Geographic Society and ESRI, a developer of GIS software, designed the Geography Network Challenge to increase awareness of Internet mapping services and to recognize the most innovative Internet mapping applications. It is a site-to-site competition open to all organizations hosting live map services or spatial solutions on the Geography Network (www.geographynetwork.com). Sites were evaluated based on creativity, performance, documentation, user-friendliness and visual clarity.
Second place winners included the Chicago Police Department, Iowa State University, Spatial Data Integrators, the City of Tucson’s Office of Economic Development and the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service. Each received $2,000 ESRI credit. To see the complete list of all 46 Geography Network Challenge winners, go to www.esri.com/gnchallengewinners
