Slashdot Mirror
FreeGIS Project Makes Mapping Better
Bernhard Reiter writes: "The
FreeGIS-CD's sixth edition (v1.1.0) adds geographic
information processing capabilities to major GNU/Linux distributions.
Hey a couple of centuries ago maps were only for the very powerful,
now you have the data on your GNU-system." With hundreds of thousands if not millions of consumer GPS units in the U.S. alone, adding hyper-local information (like individuals' landmarks) to freely available online databases of GIS information will keep making the world a bit smaller. And since most GPS units come with Windows- (and sometimes Mac-) only software, especially useful for those with Other Operating Systems.
I think this is something that has been lacking for quite some time. I have experience in the GIS packages from ESRI (ArcInfo, ArcView, etc), which are decidedly NOT free, and I've always wondered if there was a decent free alternative to it.
This looks to be a step in the right direction, and it looks, from the homepage, that there is still much development being done.
What I wonder is if the data is easy to get to. I cant remember if we had to pay for the USGS data or not...
Lots of smaller cities are starting to use heavy duty GIS to help manage their public services. For example there is a city in colorado (Ft. Morgan) who are using ArcInfo and a load of other addons to provide field workers with data about specific power line segments, and they even have WAP functionality so they can enter data from their palmpilots!
I think there is yet to be a real big interest in this type of databasing/mapping, which is too bad. there is so much cool stuff you can accomplish with these types of tools, and it looks like FreeGIS is helping make it widely available.
--onyx--
Yes, this US Census map data is probably good enough for producing detailed maps in most cases (unless you want to get down to the detail of every pothole and fire hydrant) - that was its intent (detailed street maps down to the block face for census purposes). However, there are some caveats for using this data. An important issue is that this TIGER data is certainly not updated very frequently and I suspect it reflects roadways circa 1999 when the digital map data was finalized. In urban areas such details are constantly changing. Keeping such data up-to-date is expensive. Commercial companies tend to keep on top of this (although my experience with the various on-line mapping web sites is that they don't!). This TIGER data lacks other information, such as the nature of the roads (e.g., one-way, multi-lane, nature of intersections, etc.) that would be useful in producing real-time or interactive driving maps.
Sounds like this would be a great starting spot for an OpenStreetMap project. Certainly we could make better maps than mapquest or mapblast, and certainly keep them more accurate. I'd start something like this, but I know I don't have anywhere near the time and energy needed to get something like this going. :-(
---
At least mafia-owned pizzarias make excellent pizza. Compare to Bill Gates.
Mapmakers figured out ways to enforce their copyrights a long time ago. Usually any map will have some very small, mostly irrelevant distortions -- like perhaps the driveway of the cartographer will be shown on the map as "Fred Lane". It's pretty simplistic but if you see "Fred Lane" on any other map, then it must be a pirated map.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
Well, GPS has been a topic of frequent discussion here on Slashdot. Of note, the degredation of civilian users was turned off last year.
For more information, click here.
Where do I get world files for the maps that ESRI draws?? Without world files, the maps are useless to a GIS application.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
And pygps supports gpsd. It's got moving maps, and logging.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
pygps interfaces to your gps receiver via gpsd (see freshmeat). Once it's talking to your gps receiver, it shows you which satellites it's receiving, how well it's receiving them, and shows you your lat/lon easting/northing location. You can log your track for later playback, mark waypoints as you go, and view your location on maps.
It's designed to run on the Linux iPAQ, so it supports 320x240, 240x320, and 1024x768 screens, automagically selecting the right one for your screen resolution.
It doesn't create any maps, but instead selects the best available map from maps you've entered into its database.
It's listed on freshmeat.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
Is it open source? I want to rip off bits for pygps. Gonna have to write a data stripper so that the data set will fit on an iPAQ.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
It looks like the project offers the 1997 TIGER line files for U.S. roadways. The 2000 data, for any interested, is available from www.census.gov as well as documentation on how to interpret it (it's a bunch of text files, one line per record with fixed-width fields. a nuisance to work with). The data is good enough for producing basic maps, but it's not detailed enough to produce the kinds of street maps you'd use in RL. Street data of that caliber is only available commercially, I think. (If somebody knows otherwise, please respond!)
I wonder how close to a target some of these software can actually get. I know with just about all (if not all) GPS devices, the government in the United States does not allow them to have pinpoint accuracy out of fear it would compromise military positions.
For those who don't want to download something like this may I suggest Cartome, which is Cryptome's companion that deals with mapping. They have a slew of links about products, free online services, etc.
Want Root?
I've been wanted to start game project for a worldwide Illuminati multiplayer game, but I had a hard time tracking down free map vector data to base the game from. This sounds like a potential spot. The main screen of the game was a 3D view of the globe, so you can see how it was important. I've been waiting for something like this for a while now.
Someone you trust is one of us.
Furthermore, all the software and data on the CD is also available for free (well actually for whatever the download costs you) on various web-sites, all of which are linked from the FreeGIS project.
Disclaimer: I work for Intevation, but this post only reflects my personal opinions.
There are tons and tons of FREE DATA out there for you to grab and peruse. One caveat, most data will be proprietary formats, such as ARC export, ARC shapefiles, ERDAS, and others. SDTS (spatial data transfer standard) is "open" but a pain in the neck to use. I note with glee that FreeGIS has conversion tools for all these formats.
Some places to start your search for FREE GEO DATA, places that I found very handy:
- Starting the Hunt
- USGS Geospatial Data Clearinghouse
- GIS Data Depot
- Global Topographic Data
- EROS Data Center - satellite/remote sensing data
- Earth Explorer
Hopefully, this'll get you on your way. Good luck, and have fun!I thought GRASS only ran on Unix platforms...
--
An honest question: the CD contains geographic data (e.g. rivers, coastline, etc.) but I saw no mention in the article or web site of the availability of political data (e.g. streets, city, state, country, etc.) Is there a free (beer) source of this info that is EASILY integrated with this CD?
Also, an observation, though it's called "FreeGIS", according to the order form: http://freegis.org/order.en.html , it costs $US25.00 for just the software, $US45.00 if you include the manual (in German). So, this is not free as in "free beer".
I implement Autodesk Mapguide for a living, and Mapserver is very close in features and performs comparably to Mapguide with the LiteView extension.
I looked at the GRASS package for a bit, and it is very complicated, even for someone who does GIS professionally.
If you want to do basic GIS manipulation, get a copy of ArcView, MapInfo or Autocad Map.
FME from Safe Software is a fantastic converter for most data formats, and has an 15 day trial.
It rocks.
Whatcha doooo with those rollin' papers?
Make doooooobieees?
There is a big big difference between maps and a GIS. With maps you can find your way (maybe), with a GIS you can plot cruise missile courses, delineate ideal habitat for pandas etc, and snoop on your industrial competitors via satellite imagery, and much much more. Get a klue.