Data has to come from somewhere. In the multi-billion dollar geospatial industry, collecting data is expensive. Features visible from aerial photography need to be plotted, and features not so visible on a workstation need their GPS coordinates collected in the field. Your time is valuable, and data collection won't happen on its own.

But what if you could get others to do the work for you? What if you could create a website that let other people collect the information? Trained workers could document utility lines, or concerned citizens could report problem locations in town. By using volunteer data collection, you can quickly collect the data you need.

ArcGIS Server provides not only data visualization on a map, but editing capabilities as well. Services can be created, and applications can be built around them, which allow users to add items to a map, change their shape, edit their attributes, and even delete them. ArcGIS Server also gives the creator of the...