can view nearly all commercially available geospatial data associated with a geographic
location. ImageNet responds by initiating a parallel search of networked databases
worldwide and returns a collated list of databases with relevant information (http://
www.coresw.com/CST/).
Core Software Technology (CST), the premier provider of geospatial data management
solutions, announced its support for Oracle8i, the world's first database for Internet com-
puting in November 1998 at Oracle OpenWorld. With the integration of CST's TerraSoar
Web-based querying software and Oracle8iSpatial, the leading technology for spatial data
management, users will be able to perform complex queries accessing distributed geo-
graphic data located over any region of the world. Users also can seamlessly integrate
their spatial data into enterprise applications and fully leverage the scalability, reliability,
and performance of the Oracle8i database. The combined solution will also allow users,
over the Internet, to access any type of data sets ranging from text and sound files to video
and satellite imagery with a single query (http://www.coresw.com/CST/).
In addition to the efforts of CST, Oracle Corp. announced in January 1998 that it
was designating the University of Arkansas Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies
(CAST) as its first Center of Excellence for Spatial Data Management. As a member of
Oracle's Academic Alliance Program, CAST will integrate Oracle products into its exist-
ing academic curriculum and develop new curriculum featuring the Oracle8 Spatial Car-
tridge, Oracle's software technology for managing geospatial data.
The Center of Excellence for Spatial Data Management will help define the next gen-
eration of spatial applications and will provide students with the experience and knowl-
edge to address the complex spatial data management issues government and private
industry face today. In addition, Oracle's Spatial Cartridge product team plans to work
with CAST to develop short courses, seminars, and professional development classes, an
Oracle graduate assistantship tract, and a summer internship program on-site at Oracle.
According to Fred Limp, director of CAST, "We have decided to shift all our database
applications and research from Informix to Oracle." The decision has been based primar-
ily on Oracle's development of the Spatial Cartridge technology and the way in which they
have integrated geospatial data into their object-relational database management system
(RDBMS) and their support for the OpenGIS standards. It is clear that object-relational
DBMS provides substantial advantages over existing spatial data storage systems, and
Oracle has the best geospatial DBMS. Their Spatial Cartridge is a part of core Oracle
technology and Oracle is strongly committed to geospatial data--it is not a third-party
add-on to their system (http://techmall.com/).
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