2009/3/5 Charles Greer <[email protected]> > You're right on all counts of course! GIS data _is_ a public good and > should be available. I think it increases the overall value of the data to > spread it around too. >
I agree with you, but it is hard to talk about freely available data without also talking about the liability associated with publishing the data. "Free" can be a relatively easy sell compared to "Free without license agreement". > Do we have any civil service folks on this list at all I wonder? It felt > at the county that the ESRI user conference was the only place all the gvt > types mingled. > I work for a local government, though of course I'm not speaking for them here. I think what it comes down to is that it doesn't matter how easy or cheap a solution is if you find yourself unable to maintain business continuity when key staff leaves. There are opportunities for open source server side solutions, and sometimes forced switches (such as end-of-line technology) present re-greened fields, but in general the lack of a trained workforce and (understandable) resistance from users familiar with proprietary systems really limit open source adoption. Jason
_______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
