-----Original Message----- From: Glenn Letham [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 2:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: GISList: Comments on DEMS Greetings all, (sorry for the delay... I actually composed an even longer email yesterday afternoon, only to have my computer GPF me and shut down prematurely before I hit the send button!)..... ............ saved by GPF? Glenn I wish you luck with the responsibility to gather a fair value for free information. To paraphrase your recent comments .... "The site takes it roots in serving free data and that's not going to change".... But given "Most people would rather grab everything they can get" Geocomm will meter it "at a very nominal price that can't be matched. The main reason that the premium pipe is available only by $$ is that it would likely be abused if it was free". Lastly, Geocomm has "Lots of people (are) coming to the GISDataDepot for data as a result of this arrangement. Our logs show that the interest is not only in DEMs but a huge surge in DRG and DOQ downloads and sales has resulted." As you honestly admit, Geocomm is enjoying the complement of the lure of "free" data (code word for "loss leader") to drive Geocomm's business model as a source of geographic information for a fee. An interesting business model that only works as long as there is no truly free site with better service. Given the on-going WEB discussion of service versus value as you sort this out, I suspect the numerous issues involved will be a bit of a mill stone around your neck for some time. You have a great, no unique, platform to defend Geocomm's role and position. I am not certain you strike the mark on "just adequate" service for information defined as "public" to dive the user to your "for fee" premium server. Such a scheme seems simply anti everything the user community had hoped for from public data. I suspect the USGS is simply attempting to get in step with the current Beltway political currents. Your ambition does raise the level of public awareness in issues like this. I was talking to public GIS data advocate who is a historian within the USDA/Land Grant tradition. I was astonished to find he was aware of this recent USGS policy shift. Apparently the USDA is under pressure to off-load their Soil Survey information data in a like manner but that data has more a more complex public utility due to the involvement of State value. Apparently your currently exclusive arrangement is causing far more "equal information access" turmoil that you may guess. I could not pin my source down on the issues of the internal USDA policy debate. He did mention there is a "historic" reason and a deep legacy of public policy law confirming the role of the US Printing Office for information utility like this. FWIW MidNight Mapper _______________________________________________________________________ List hosting provided by Directions Magazine | www.directionsmag.com | To unsubscribe, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put "unsubscribe MapInfo-L" in the message body.
