At 01:16 PM 12/23/98 -0500, Dan Munson wrote:
>I am a MapInfo reseller, and we also create products like On Target. Both
>Mike Hickey and Rick's postings really hit it on the head.
>
>There is a great deal of time & money spent to convert, polish, document all
>of this stuff.
>
>One thing that Steve doesn't seem to understand is the value of TIME. Being
>in this business, I still purchase data from Mapping vendors that is "FREE"
>from government sources. Why? Because the amount of time necessary to
>convert it, etc. would cost me more than what the vendor charges.
>
>This gets right down to core competencies. The world doesn't know how to
>write converters. Heck, most people have trouble just figuring out how to
>use MapInfo!
>
>My real shock is that Steve's boss let's him give this stuff away! They're
>paying to train him, paying his salary, etc., and he's giving it away. This
>could be a real competitive advantage for his company! Talking about
>helping the competition!
To be honest with everyone on the list, it was comments like this about a year
ago (when I started posting some of my first data sets on the MI-L FTP site)
that really got me started on this "free data" kick.
As I recall, I found the World Vector Shoreline data at
http://seaserver.nos.noaa.gov/projects/shoreline/shoreline.html and the data is
in BNA format (looks almost exactly like a MIF/MID) It took a few dozen lines
of code to re-write it and put it out for free. I got flamed by Dan about my
comments about free data. When I looked at his domain name from the e-mail, I
found out why. He was selling the same data for $295 per state ($1,500 for the
US) [ http://www.cdsys.com/shore1.htm ] that I was giving away for free.
Then, I went to MapWorld '97 in Orlando and saw the presentation On Target did
on hazard data. Instead of being a 75 minute useful presentation, it was a 15
minute sales pitch (with a fair amount of misapplication of data thrown in for
"effect"). I noticed that many of the data sets they were offering were things
I had seen on government web sites, so I made it my hobby to convert this data
on my lunch breaks, and even at home on my own time. You see, I'm a GIS junkie.
When it comes to me "helping the competition," I have turned down numerous
requests to make presentations, write articles, etc. because our
implementations of GIS are trade secrets. If I wanted to help the competition
so much, I would put my own copy of the Florida Windstorm Underwriting
Association's data out for free. Considering that was only about 4 hours of
work, and the FWUA uses my own file because it is more accurate than the one
the consultants did for them, that would make my time about $1,000 per hour at
what CDS charges for the same data.
Sorry to rant on so much. I guess I am naive to think that making a modest
profit on more individual sales is better in the long run for the company (of
course, the user would love it too). There have been 1,597 zip files downloaded
from my site since mid July 1998. At a conservative estimate of $200 per file
(by others' standards), that is $300,000 of possible revenue that some partner
lost.
Whatever the result, I'm enjoying the process of finding, learning, using and
sharing. I call that being a good citizen in the GIS community. Any corporate
members or partners care to join me?
Steve Wallace
Habitual Trouble-maker
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