> From: "Luis aka Rigpa" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2003 20:18:12 -1000
Hi Luis, > I'm unfamiliar about the level of education you are refering to (K-12 or > college/university). K-12 is my focus. Both for students and the teachers who teach those students. Beyond that, I am open to trying to get programs that can benefit the community at large including at the college/university level. >Here is some info on an opensource Geographic > Information System software package. Cool! Actually, disseminating GIS training has been one activity of our HNLC grant. We are using commercial software (ESRI ArcView GIS) and GeoPDA software from GeoInsights. We have begun to explore out-of- the-classroom lesson plans for students using PDA/GPS units that can collect GIS information. I would love to learn whatever I can about Open Source GIS packages. GIS is not my specialty so I do not know all of those file formats of which you speak yet. We so far use the standard ArcView formats including .SHP, .DBF, etc. > One science related opensource package I've been messing with is GRASS GIS > (http://grass.baylor.edu/). Comercial GIS packages carry a hefty price tag > of over $20k per license which makes GRASS a very appealing GIS package for > education do to savings in cost. Regardless of the cost, GRASS is a very > powerful GIS package in its own right, with 3D and volumetric visualization. > > A pet project I want to get going soon is putting together a native GRASS > GIS database for the state of Hawaii. It will be based on USGS DLGs, DEMs, > DRGs, and DOQs. This would provide a starting jump for those people wanting > to get their feed wet in the area of GIS. Starting a GIS database from > scratch is a little dauting, so having a native database for the state would > provide people with a base system to start off from. The state wide > database would be provided free in order to promote GRASS opensource GIS. Yes! That sounds great! I would love to be kept informed of the status your project. Maybe sometime you would be willing to help get me started with some of the progress you have already made. > Hope the info helps some. Absolutely. > Luis. Thanks for your info, --Benjamin
