II. Rich Internet Software with Universal Access

StrataVarious software development is disciplined by the requirement that it be as universally accessible as possible.  To this end, the focus has been on pushing the envelope of the last wide-spread technology, in this case DHTML for most v4 browsers; and we have produced amazingly rich, fast, and useful Internet software for a wide array of highly interactive data visualization applications.

These are the prospective users who have inspired this effort and that represent our audience for universal accessibility:

	Local planning and conservation board members and community groups who are developing or reviewing land-use plans, in less-well-off, as well as affluent, communities.
	Local groups in third-world countries who need easy-to-use, yet sophisticated maps of local data so they can interact in informed ways with their governments and the large corporations whose policies affect their lives.
	High school teachers and students in inner city schools (in the mid-'90s they still had rotary phones in the school where early HyperMapping user-research labs were held.)
	The less-advantaged who are pleased to get a second hand computer with an older browser and operating system.
	The seismologist, a modestly-funded research scientist, out in the field who must access and add to maps from an internet cafe.
	The worker in a large bureaucracy whose MIS department is slow to upgrade computers and software versions.
	The small business owner with a large number of SKUs who needs a simple, yet powerful means to make them available over the Internet to the average e-shopper.
	The web user who is not technically inclined and doesn't care to bother with upgrading browsers (e.g. the wife of a former Telecom exec who for Christmas '04 shopped from home via Win 32 Netscape 4.76).

These "non-techies" are often experts in their area of knowledge.  They just have better things to do than fuss with a complex program or worry about the latest upgrade.  Given easy access to the tools, they will use data visualization to learn, discover, and make informed decisions about the important things in their worlds.

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