You might have opened a Pandora's box viz access to geodata in the US, but I'll
be brief ;)....
The US government can't hold copyright (ok, there are exceptions--sort of, but
not relevant here) protection. The Census works with states & municipalities to
produce TIGER line files and they are freely available for whatever purpose you
desire...They have been converted to SHP by various parties but that is not
their native format.
I'm not sure what sort of confirmation you are looking for. You can start
reading here: http://tiger.census.gov/
ESRI has made TIGER data easier to access and converted to SHP. It can be found
here:
http://www.esri.com/data/download/census2000_tigerline/index.html
The experience outside of the US is (vastly) different and stands in great
contrast to open and accessible geodata. OpenStreetMap is a great example of a
'mega-work around.' Jo Walsh and others can better speak to EU policies, open
initiatives
I heard about a report that tried to measure the value added to national base
map data--in the US this is significant (given the initial cost). In other
countries, not so much, given the cost to access such geodata. Not sure if I
read about that on this list...
i
Ian White :: Urban Mapping, Inc
690 Fifth Street Suite 200 :: San Francisco CA 94107
T 415.946.8170 :: F 866.385.8266 :: www.urbanmapping.com
----- Original Message -----
From: Landon Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2006 9:01:48 AM GMT-0800 US/Pacific
Subject: [Geowanking] Two things...
The first thing is a question.
I have heard that one of the things that enable GIS to start in the United
States was the availability of the TIGER Shapefiles from the US Census Bureau.
Is this correct? Does anyone know where I might find some published or online
information confirming this? I’m putting together an article on a concept I
call “community Mapping” and I’d like to verify and include this information in
my introduction if possible.
The second thing is an announcement. I’m going to try and get a GIS user group
started here in the north end of the San Joaquin Valley. (It might end up as a
chapter of the OSGeo???) I’ve still got a lot of work to do to get the thing
off the ground, but the ball is rolling. You can visit the website for the user
group here:
www.eastdeltagis.redefinedhorizons.com
Right now the site just points to a wiki, but I hope to have something a little
more artistic there after the holiday break. If any wankers are hanging out in
the California Central Valley I’d love to have their participation. This will
not be a user group centered on a single company’s GIS software, which means
its agenda won’t be driven by corporate dollars. I actually hope to promote
open source GIS efforts at the user group.
The Sunburned Surveyor
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