Special Project - MAIN

Introduction | Purpose | Maps | Scope | Finding the Data | Summary

Overview

Many organizations have invested resources to map the railroads, roads, bridges and classic transportation routes. Planners, government officials, communities and businesses use this data to visualize the transportation infrastructure. However, both information and the networks that carry the information are becoming as crucial to our communities and economy as other infrastructure such as roads and bridges. Information and the digital networks that carry the information are often forgotten when a federal, state or local government considers its infrastructure. 

The Department of Information Systems launched a project to map the public information networks in Arkansas and their end points. This effective visualization tool will aid network planners, educational planners, and distance learning planners in deploying these resources. Equally important, the results will serve as a powerful economic development resource for attracting knowledge-based companies. These companies, unlike their manufacturing and industrial cousins, require locations and facilities near information transportation.

Four Tasks of Project MAIN

1. Capture ENCs (Existing Network Consumers) Completed September 1999.

2. Capture PNCs (Potential Network Consumers) Completed December 1999.

3. Organize all ENCs, PNCs and the Network into one system. Completed December 1999.

4. Design an online interactive mapping web site. Completed.
   

Introduction | Purpose | Maps | Scope | Finding the Data | Summary