Plexis Group Director Addresses GIS Conference.

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 2, 2001

Plexis Group, LLC director Scott Stephens was a featured speaker at the North Carolina GIS Conference 2001.

Stephens addressed attendees as part of the conference's special segment on GIS and information systems integration. He gave a presentation entitled "Linux Powered GIS: Two Case Studies."

Stephens' presentation illustrated two very diverse uses of GIS through the Linux operating system. The first user, Landmark Information Group, Ltd., employs a 1 Ghz Linux PC to run Linux GenaMap, a product of Gena Warehouse Ltd. Using this operating system and software, Landmark Information Group provides free access to first edition historical ordnance survey maps of Great Britain, between 1846 and 1899. The web site gets as many as 50,000 hits per day. Visitors can choose to simply view maps, or they may also be purchased online. Maps are printed on parchment paper to maintain the appearance of age.

Stephens also talked about the city of Bloomington, Indiana, a client of Plexis Group. Bloomington is a city of about 80 square miles, with 2.2 gigabytes of map data and 18.4 gigabytes of image data. Until last year the city's municipal water, wastewater and stormwater utility had a Novell IT system powered by 14 old servers with only 25 gigabytes of storage space. Remote and home users were required to use a dial-up account. In 2000, Bloomington upgraded to a new IT system with about 500 gigabytes of storage space on 12 Linux servers. They now have eight remote locations connected by ISDN, and home users can now connect through VPN.

So why do these two very different entities both use Linux to power their GIS? According to Scott Stephens, the answer is the open source software, which makes operation much more efficient. Its free distribution and user access to the source code make it more secure and reliable. And Linux has a history of high performance and stability combined with low price -- which makes it the fastest growing server operating system available.

The semi-annual conference, "A Spatial Odyssey," was held March 1 and 2 at the Benton Convention Center. The conference was first held in 1987 and is sponsored by the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NC GIA) and the North Carolina Chapter of Urban and Regional Information Systems Associations (NC URISA). The CGIA is the state agency charged with coordination of geographic information in North Carolina. Each conference has surpassed the previous one in attendance and scope. Organizers exercise close control over the design of the program by inviting speakers instead of issuing a call for papers. Success in bringing in "big name" presenters allows the program committee to attract national and international talent to North Carolina. The program strategy offers a mix of in-state and out-of-state speakers. Including presentations on North Carolina activities and applications allows conference participants get to see what their peers are doing.

Plexis Group is a young company with a rich heritage in technology and service to public agencies. The company provides a wide range of technology-related services, including development of custom GIS applications, consulting, training/support, and data migration/conversion. For more information about Plexis Group's abilities, contact Tom Longest at [phone] or visit www.plexisgroup.com.