[PLUG] GIS/Mapping Newbie - needs help.

[John Todd]

>On Tue, 10 Jun 2003, John Todd wrote:
>>      I have installed this on several systems that my firm uses, and it
>>  works like a charm.  There's a firm in Maryland that sells Tiger
>>  datasets (the "raw data" files that contain the streets, zip, political
>>  boundaries, etc.) in ARC form for a reasonable figure, and he also has a
>>  Perl-based application that layers on top of mapserv that will do
>>  address-to-lat/lon mapping.  You can find them at:
>[snip]
>>  3) Nothing is free, especially mapping systems.  Despite the Open Source
>>  moniker, getting _quality_ data will cost you at least $2k for the whole
>>  project, excluding hardware.  If it's less, you win, but that's what you
>>  should bank on.  This is far less than commercial rights to any of the
>>  "professional" datasets out there, which are (for your purposes) just
>>  scrubbed Tiger datasets.
>
>So my dream of having a mapquest-like application that was aware of
>elevation changes (and, ideally, road quality) to punch in a couple of
>addresses and choose how much climbing you want to do to output a route
>for biking through the city is way out of the realm of feasibility right
>now?
>
>Why don't the MANY public agencies that compile and use this kind of data
>make it available to the public?
>
>One of the many problems with public agencies contracting private
>tyrannies, I suppose.
>
>J.
>--
>    -----------------
>      Jeme A Brelin
>     jeme at brelin.net
>    -----------------
>  [cc] counter-copyright
>  http://www.openlaw.org


Holding my comments on your later, more politicized reply, I will 
address your technical questions below.

As mentioned, ARC-formatted shapefile info is readily available from 
multiple states, for multiple services.  If you know where to look, 
and who to ask.  A consolidated form of this data is currently not 
available, and pointing to the Federal Government as a repository for 
this data is difficult, at best, as the volume of points and shapes 
is staggering.  It's a miracle enough that the Tiger dataset exists - 
most other nations have nothing even remotely resembling it.  Try 
getting maps for Mexico - that's good for a laugh or two on a boring 
day, and the concept of "free information" will get you laughed off 
the phone in almost every other nation.  Some enlightened nations 
have it, but most do not.

Topo data is even harder to represent.  There is a firm that has the 
entire USA in topo map form down to 1:25,000 format, and the'll be 
happy to sell it to you on a tidy little server running (surprise!) 
Mapserv.  It'll only set you back $35,000. 
(http://www.topozone.com/)  Or, you can do as I do, and simply pay 
them per map impression (another cool feature of mapserve is it's 
ability to render remote maps.)

The military has a huge advantage in this area, but they aren't 
releasing things as Linux-compatible "auto-conf" packages or RPMs, if 
they release their software at all.  And now, in this environment of 
"heightened security", we will undoubtedly see more map data that was 
once public being withdrawn for fear that it may be used by enemies 
of the US.  (Anyone recall the stories about maps of Moscow in the 
60's?)

But back to my point: the data exists, and is often even free, but is 
extremely fragmented.  If you are persistent, you will find that for 
which you seek, but it is not going to be found as a rainy-day 
project.  It will be found as the result of long hours of searching, 
phone calls, and confusing dead-end data.

JT