Re: MI SUM - World Cities Database

[Warren Vick, Europa Technologies Ltd.]

Hello James,

Can I just append my company's world data offering onto your excellent sum:

Europa Technologies has a series of world data sets which includes the popular Global 
Insight 
product line. The entry level product in this family is Global Insight Lite - a 1:3m 
scale up-to-date 
political map combined with a places layer of over 19,500 places. Locations are 
generally 
categorised into capitals, major cities and cities/large towns. Lite is a "soft 
product" which is 
downloaded from the web. A login/password is assigned and is valid for one year during 
which 
customers can download free updates. Single user costs are GBP245 or USD415.

For heavier gazetteers, there is Global Insight and Global Insight Plus (>345,000 
places). Full 
details at http://www.europa-tech.com

I probably don't need to tell you this James but here are some general points for list 
members 
considering world gazetteers:

1) Strictly speaking, a gazetteer is simply a location look-up. It does not guarantee 
that, when 
visualised on a map, it will inter-match. e.g. Coastal places may be in the sea!

2) Many free gazetteers are not maintained but the world changes politically every 
year.  A 
vendors history and commitment to maintenance is important to ensure one does not buy 
a 
dead-end product.  Old Digital Chart of the World type gazetteers list Victoria 
instead of Harare - 
a change that happen a very long time ago!

3) Few gazetteers have a grading system to allow differentiation between "important" 
places and 
"less important". There is no unified population model for the world and combing 
straight 
statistics from national census agencies does not always gives an apples-to-apples 
comparison.

4) In addition to place name and location, a good gazetteer will also provide rich 
attribute 
information. Administrative area will help ambiguous place name searches and will 
importance 
classifications. e.g. Troy, USA will have many matches but Troy, New York, USA will 
only have 
one. Coding systems like FIPS and ISO for data processing may also be important.

Needless to say, Global Insight products address all of these issues!

Regards,
Warren Vick
Europa Technologies Ltd, U.K.
http://www.europa-tech.com
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