The study you referenced was
National Academy of Public
Administration, January 1998. Geographic
Information for the 21st Century:
Building a Strategy for the Nation, Washington, DC, 358p.
Certainly TIGER data contributed to the growth of the GIS industry but
before that was USGS DLG and DEM data as well as World Data Bank II all
of which were often available at nominal cost. All these made it
worthwhile to build systems to do geographical analyses but this was
before the internet and web mapping which has led to todays explosion
in uses and users.
Eric Anderson
Ian White|Urban Mapping wrote:
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
Warning:
Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed
against defects including translation and transmission errors. If the
reader is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any
dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this information in error,
please notify the sender immediately.
_______________________________________________
Geowanking mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
|
_______________________________________________
Geowanking mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking
