Re: Data source and editor recommendations

You've put your finger on the biggest issue facing users of spatial
software today. The data market is incredibly complex. US Gov't data
is generally available at distribution cost and carries no copyright.
Once you get some, you can do anything with it. State and local
government data can sometimes be more expensive. Commercial data,
which is largely derived from government data but is substantially
cleaned up can be expensive and/or carry strict licensing about how
many people are allowed to use or even see a copy of the data.

Once you find a data source or sources, you're then left with the
issue of tailoring it to your needs. And once you start to tailor it,
depending on how you got the original data, you may never be able to
get an update from the source again without having to go through the
entire tailoring process again.

Now imagine that there are many people around the world, each of whom
wants to do what you do but for a different region, for a different
purpose, with different accuracy requirements, etc. They each set out
to develop data sets for their own use. They each wind up with data
that even if they wanted to share, would be hard to share.

The Open GIS Consortium has been working on a couple of aspects of
this problem for a while. But the stuff they are doing really only
addresses some of the problems. The bigger issues involve how to
characterize the data (metadata), how to describe data holdings
(catalogs and inventories), how to access that data and do stuff with
it (services), in a more coherent way. The coherency will not
necessarily be addressed by looking at specific technologies, it has
to be addressed by a more gestalt oriented view of the whole
situation.

There are a number of organizations that are starting to do this. One
place to start is the US FGDC (http://www.fgdc.gov). Another is with
the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure effort (http://www.gsdi.org).
There's a conference coming up in Canada, the 2nd Digital Earth
conference (http://www.digitalearth.ca).

Also, take a look at some of the more grassroots things. A good
starting point is http://www.freegis.org where you'll find both
software and data.

Of course, you can also go to the big GIS vendors who will gladly sell
you data to go with their systems. You can also find translators
(www.safe.com, www.pcigeomatics.com) that will convert data quite
handily from one format to another. If you want to edit in a
commercial system and then use data in OpenMap, you can probably write
things out as shapefiles without too much trouble.

The bottom line with this one is that while you're thinking globally
and acting locally, make sure what you do can fit back into the global
part.

        Allan

> William Guynes wrote:
>
> Can someone offer recommendations for data sources and data editors?
>
> I'm no cartographer, but am willing to put the work in to get
> reasonably up-to-speed with the necessary skills.
>
> I've read through the OpenMap pages and studied the various
> layers/formats that OpenMap supports. I've also been digging for
> data sources. Conversion/editing is a bit heady for me right now,
> but am improving on this slowly.
>
> My requirements, as I see them, are:
>
> - Scope is continental USA.
> - I think I'm going to require vector data for cities, towns, state
> boundaries, county boundaries; with titles. (Is "vector" the
> correct terminology here? Please correct me if I'm misusing terms.)
>
> - Optionally, major interstates and/or state highways. I realize
> this might make the dataset too large for our use, but want to keep
> that option open.
>
> Sources I've looked at:
>
> - NIMA. Tons of information. Limited to 51MB download limit
> though, I think my scope is well beyond that. They don't appear to
> have a tool for me to expand the scope (full USA) but limit the type
> of data in order to get the download size to a reasonable level.
> Their dataset is so large, that I've had a hard time getting a
> concept of pricing, editability, and licensing issues
> (redistributing the data).
>
> - TIGER. Very targeted data; fits well with my scope, I think.
> Media is affordable if download isn't desired. Format is claimed to
> be "GIS", for which I can find no reference in the OpenMap pages.
> Conversion might be an option. (see my data editor problem below)
>
> We're not against paying for the data. TIGER looked pretty good as
> far as pricing. Is this going to be a killer pricewise?
>
> Big issue. No data source I find is going to have exactly what I
> need, so I understand I will probably be trimming data down,
> hopefully just removing unused detail. This assumes I have a nice
> data editor, hopefully with some limited data conversion
> capability. Our preferred platform is Windows for the editor, but
> I'll do what is necessary to get the tool.
>
> Any other pointers would be appreciated. Pointers to tutorials,
> references, documentation; all welcome. RTFM will be met with
> enthusiasm. *grin*
>
> --
> William Guynes

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