GIS WebTech Announces Clearinghouse of Free GIS Resources for Economic Development

During a series of webinars held last week in partnership with the International Economic Development Council, GIS WebTech announced that it is now hosting a single website providing direct links to free GIS resources for economic developers to utilize during the current public health and economic crisis.

“Working with our partners at Esri, we are able to provide links to a full suite of powerful GIS apps, data, templates and interactive maps – all designed to assist economic developers in supporting their communities,” said Ron Bertasi, CEO of GIS WebTech. “This site and the resources it links to are entirely free for all economic developers.”

The site is accessible with a single click from giswebtech.com, and acts as a presorted clearinghouse for free GIS tools and data. From the site economic developers can quickly and easily link to maps and dashboards pre-populated with data for their communities, templates for producing visual displays of local data, training guides, learning tools, and more. These tools are all designed for ease of use and require no prior GIS expertise.

These data and tools are constantly evolving, so the GIS WebTech team screens them daily to make sure all links are up to date and include only those relevant for economic development. Best of all, these GIS tools are all built on the Esri platform, providing the most accurate demographic data available through the world’s most powerful GIS platform. GIS WebTech is a certified Esri partner and the only Esri partner focused exclusively on economic development.

The familiar Johns Hopkins dashboard, the source of record for the media and for many Americans in this crisis, and nearly all other popular dashboards displaying spatial information were built using Esri data and tools.

“We are the economic development sector’s GIS experts, and with our new clearinghouse we are able to bring to the entire economic development community a full set of resources built on the Esri platform,” said Jason Elliott, GIS WebTech’s founder and CTO. “Esri is fast becoming the standard in GIS for economic development and the crisis has only accelerated this trend.”

The clearinghouse also includes a link enabling economic developers to register for a free 6-month subscription to Esri’s ArcGIS Online, allowing them to utilize the world’s leading GIS platform for their communities and experience first-hand the powerful capabilities it provides. This free subscription includes additional Esri features complementing ArcGIS Online that support communities in the current difficult situation.