Thats great to hear. :-) I hope more municipalities follow! I'm happy to help you all out if i can!
Cheers, Sam On 9/10/09, Sam (Chief Zenbu Bloke) <[email protected]> wrote: > > Congratulations to Northland Regional Council and Ms Slako in > particular. > It's wonderful to see government taking an open approach. Let's hope > that other councils follow. > > On Sep 11, 9:49 am, Robert Coup <[email protected]> wrote: >> Hey folks, >> Northland Regional Council has released a bunch of geodata including >> Aerial >> Photography under Creative Commons licensing via Koordinates. Press >> release >> guff is below. >> >> *www.koordinates.com/maps/northland*<http://www.koordinates.com/maps/northland> >> >> As always, feedback is most welcome. >> >> Rob :) >> >> *NRC TO GIVE AWAY SPATIAL DATA* >> >> Northlanders are to be granted access to hundreds of thousands of dollars >> worth of aerial photography and other local authority geographic >> information >> system (GIS) data. >> >> In what is believed to be a first for a Regional Council in New Zealand, >> the >> Northland Regional Council has decided to grant access to roughly 90 >> percent >> of the data currently on its GIS databases. (The remaining data is either >> owned by other organisations, is subject to privacy issues or the Council >> cannot contractually release it.) >> >> Regional Council GIS Systems Analyst Marie Slako says as people have >> become >> more familiar with GIS applications in recent years, the Council has been >> receiving ever-increasing number of requests from people keen to secure >> its >> GIS information. >> >> “Developments like Google Maps, Google Earth and others have also >> increased >> public awareness around the potential of maps and mapping software.” >> >> Ms Slako says the Council – which has been investigating the possibility >> of >> releasing the information since late last year - expects its offer is >> likely >> to appeal to a raft of would-be users. >> >> “These include businesspeople, private individuals, farmers (who >> increasingly use farm mapping GIS software to manage their farms) >> planners, >> consultants, engineers, GIS professionals, ratepayers and others.” >> >> Ms Slako says both local and central government agencies had traditionally >> believed GIS information should be sold to meet or help offset what had >> often been the quite considerable costs of collecting it. >> >> “However, trends are changing…globally there’s a move to make data more >> available and affordable, which in turn encourages sharing, collaboration >> and empowers others to add value to the data.” >> >> Similarly, Northland aerial photography data – collected at a cost of >> several hundred thousand dollars between 1999 and 2006 – is now being >> superseded with much cheaper satellite imagery available from the >> Government’s KiwImage project. >> >> The NRC is now accessing that data from defence officials for just a few >> thousand dollars annually. >> >> Ms Slako says making GIS data more accessible to ratepayers – who can then >> source information themselves - will also free up considerable amounts of >> Regional Council staff time currently spent meeting requests for this >> data. >> >> A New Zealand-based company specialising in hosting map data has offered >> to >> host the NRC’s information via its website: *www.koordinates.com/maps/ >> northland* <http://www.koordinates.com/maps/northland> >> >> “There will be two types of data available. The first is NRC-produced >> vector data (which will be provided for free) and includes things like >> Regional Water and Soil Plan layers, Regional Coastal Plan layers, flood >> susceptible areas etc.” >> >> The second lot of information is the aerial photography which will be >> available for a small fee to cover Koordinates’ hosting charges. >> >> “It will probably cost someone about $2.50 to download aerial photos of a >> 200 hectare farm.” >> >> The Regional Council itself won’t make any money from the distribution of >> its data. >> >> *Further information:* >> >> - Marie Slako, GIS Systems Analyst, Northland Regional Council >> Ph: (09) 438 4639 > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "nzopengis" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/nzopengis?hl=en > -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- > > -- Twitter: @Acrosscanada Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/sam.vekemans _______________________________________________ Talk-ca mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-ca
