+1 for GeoJSON. Having said that, conversion between these formats wouldn't be an issue given GDAL. Perhaps the bigger challenge would be for departments to comply with a format we suggest. Maybe we could say
a) "Here's a suggested format, but any other format that's readily available is fine too", or b) Offer them support to convert across these file formats. I'm sure some of us will be happy to help them with this. I certainly would -- just to see the data :-) Regards, Anand On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Arun Ganesh <[email protected]> wrote: > > My vote is for GeoJSON because: > > > - Full support on OGR, so trivial conversion to pretty much any other > existing GIS format. http://www.gdal.org/ogr/ogr_formats.html > - Web application friendly > - Human readable > > > > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 6:27 PM, Pranesh Prakash <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Shapefiles will not meet the the requisite features of standards used by >> the government as per the National Open Standards Policy. GML and KML >> would work well, and perhaps GeoJSON too. >> >> From the NOSP: >> >> 4.1.1 Specification document of the Identified Standard shall be >> available with or without a nominal fee. >> 4.1.2 The Patent claims necessary to implement the Identified Standard >> shall be made available on a Royalty-Free basis for the life time of the >> Standard. >> 4.1.3 Identified Standard shall be adopted and maintained by a >> not-for-profit organization, wherein all stakeholders can opt to >> participate in a transparent, collaborative and consensual manner. >> 4.1.4 Identified Standard shall be recursively open as far as possible. >> 4.1.5 Identified Standard shall have technology-neutral specification. >> 4.1.6 Identified Standard shall be capable of localization support, >> where applicable, for all Indian official Languages for all applicable >> domains. >> >> >> The desirable characteristics are: >> 4.2.1 Open Standard having multiple implementations from different >> agencies. >> 4.2.2 Open Standard widely used in India for which technical expertise >> and support exists in India. >> 4.2.3 Open Standard that has Extensions and / or Subsets meeting >> mandatory characteristics of section 4.1. >> >> The 'Interoperability Framework for E-Governance' (IFEG) doesn't mention >> any standard for geographic data. >> >> Sajjad Anwar [2013-02-06 15:13]: >> > GPX and KML are interesting and open. These formats are quite commonly >> > used during data collection through GPS devices. >> > GPX can represent waypoints, tracks and routes efficiently. When it >> > comes to complex geometry like polygon and multi-polygons, GPX is not >> > preferred. KML can take care of these geometries but I've always found >> > it difficult to deal with KML as a form of geospatial information >> > exchange. Plus, KML was introduced to work entirely with Google Earth >> > and their upward geospatial stack. I'm not quite sure whether we would >> > want to endorse them. >> > >> > Shapefiles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefiles) are extremely >> > efficient and widely used, but ESRI has a handle on them and they can >> > flip the switch to make it a closed standard any day (hopefully not). >> > If we are ignoring this, I would highly recommend Shapefiles. >> > >> > In fact, Riju and I spoke about this briefly yesterday and we think >> > the Geographic Markup Language >> > (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_Markup_Language) is a good >> > choice. It was developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium >> > (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Geospatial_Consortium) and is >> > widely recognised as an information exchange format. The GDAL OGR >> > (http://www.gdal.org/ogr/) library can help you deal with it in >> > whatever ways you want. Moving to a web paradigm, I prefer GeoJSON >> > over anything. http://geojson.org/ >> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeoJSON. They are fast, simple. Extended >> > from JSON. Modern maps libraries can easily store and represent >> > GeoJSON. >> > >> > My preference will go like this: >> > 1. Shapefiles >> > 2. Geographic Markup Language >> > 3. GeoJSON >> > 4. KML. >> > >> > Cheers, >> > Sajjad. >> > >> > >> > On Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 2:13 PM, Thejesh GN <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> Hi All, >> >> Team Data.Gov.In wants suggestions for GIS Open Data Formats. They >> would >> >> like to use some of those formats to publish GIS data on Data.Gov.In >> >> website. Please do send your suggestions by replying to this chain. >> >> >> >> >> >> Mine: >> >> GPX - GPS eXchange Format >> >> - Its an OpenFormat >> >> - Wiki : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_eXchange_Format >> >> - http://www.topografix.com/gpx.asp >> >> >> >> KML >> >> - Started by Google >> >> - But it became an Open Standard >> >> http://www.opengeospatial.org/pressroom/pressreleases/857 >> >> - Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyhole_Markup_Language >> >> >> >> There are many more listed here. Not sure how many of them makes sense >> in >> >> this context . >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Thej >> >> -- >> >> Thejesh GN | ತೇಜೇಶ್ ಜಿ.ಎನ್ >> >> http://thejeshgn.com >> >> GPG ID : 0xBFFC8DD3C06DD6B0 >> >> >> >> -- >> >> For more details about this list >> >> http://datameet.org/discussions/ >> >> --- >> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >> Groups >> >> "datameet" group. >> >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >> an >> >> email to [email protected]. >> >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> >> >> >> > >> > >> > >> > -- >> > Sajjad Anwar | W: http://sajjad.in | T: @geohacker >> > >> >> >> -- >> Pranesh Prakash >> Policy Director >> Centre for Internet and Society >> T: +91 80 40926283 | W: http://cis-india.org >> PGP ID: 0x1D5C5F07 | Twitter: @pranesh_prakash >> >> > > > -- > Arun Ganesh > (planemad) <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Planemad> > > -- > For more details about this list > http://datameet.org/discussions/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "datameet" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > -- For more details about this list http://datameet.org/discussions/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "datameet" group. 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