Did life as an “Air Force-brat” influence David Bradshaw's love for geography? You bet. With five Air Force moves during his childhood, it's no surprise that as a student at Radford University, Bradshaw gravitated to a class in geography and developed what he calls “a passion for cultural geography as well as the technical side of map-making.” Both led him to launch a business in March of 2008.

Located in Blacksburg, Virginia at the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, InteractiveGIS combines data and space. InteractiveGIS uses MapServer® technology, originally developed by NASA and made available through an Open Source licensing agreement, as the core of its spatial mapping engine.

A geographic information system, GIS, joins maps and databases in a way that allows access to the details stored about a particular location on a map. “Basically, it's your data, our technology, one solution,” said Bradshaw.

Clients of InteractiveGIS range from government agencies and non-profits to the private sector. The company's services have been used for mapping everything from location data of fire hydrants, to targeted lists for Christmas card mailings. According to Bradshaw, “Anytime you have something and want to see its relation to others, or you want to visualize data, then you need InteractiveGIS.”

Using the fire hydrant as an example, Bradshaw explains that details such as location, pounds per square inch, PSI, working condition, and type of hose connector are all critical things to know. “That's valuable information firemen can access while en route to a call.”

As if interactive maps aren't cool enough on their own, other cool-factor features InteractiveGIS includes are:  endless query combinations, innovations in mapping, maps you can draw on using their online-hypermarkup program (which can be sent out via email), and the “Just the Facts” feature which provides information about a single item on the map, relative to its surroundings.

Through InteractiveGIS, Bradshaw has created a way to view the world, not just as a map, but as a world of data just waiting to be mapped.

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The Rackspace Tech Showcase is sponsored by Rackspace (R) Hosting.  Rackspace Email and Apps is a division of Rackspace located in Blacksburg, Virginia. 

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