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FortiusOne clearly has a strategy aimed at bringing geospatial intelligence, GIS and the mapping world into the hands of the masses and to virtually any industry/government sector that can benefit from mapping data. We recently received a briefing on its Geocommons offering by Sean Gorman, who founded FortiusOne in 2005 when he was a student at George Mason University.

Side note: our readers may recall that in 2003, Mr. Gorman made the headlines for developing very detailed maps of U.S. infrastructure along with the fiber-optic network that connects businesses and government (all collected from public sources), which caused quite a stir.

Launched in May 2007, Geocommons is a destination site that allows anyone to explore, create, and share geographic data and intelligent maps. All based on open source data that is updated by a user community, the site provides free access to geographic data, and currently has more than 2 billion attributes, 35,000 variables, and 1,500 data sets.

As we mentioned, the applications for Geocommons are numerous. Here are some examples from the FortiusOne folks:

- A home buyer chooses best place to live with intelligent maps showing crime rates, school spending, number of school-aged children, and traffic.

- Concerned citizens gain insights into the 2008 presidential campaign with intelligent maps showing fund raising hotspots by candidate.

- Class investigates environmental pollution with intelligent maps showing toxic waste trouble spots, impacted wildlife populations, and weather patterns.

- Business executive finds growth opportunities with intelligent maps showing population demographics, infrastructure services, and potential competition.

We will certainly be watching this application take off and find multiple uses. In the meantime, to learn more about Geocommons, click here. We also recommend you check out their blog…lots of great posts on unique Geocommons applications, etc.

Tags: FortiusOne, Geocommons, GIS, USGIF