More than one would think is public domain. I happen to work for a credentialing company, and we deal with a lot of information from various state and federal institutions (ie. state medical licenses and the USPS ZIP code DB), and the biggest hindrance it would seem is a lot of states are still dealing with legacy systems, such as the old IBM tapes (6250s?), etc. In fact, most of the states we deal with are like this. We must send these tapes to be converted to CD. Now, personally, i am all for the freedom of information, and some states, such as Virginia have their information online. But some states are still dealing with older, bulkier, not as easily accessible systems.
However, there are some organizations, such as the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) that allow you to buy their directory for a reasonable sum, but if you need the data in an electronic form, like we do, they charge you, quite literally an arm and a leg. The CD that we bought (actually, rent, as they want the CD back), cost at least 36 times that of the bound version of the data.
Even all the data with their own GUI on it is approximately $1500 (i am making an educated guess), and that data cannot be easily exported to a usable format (only 200 lines at a time, and with 600,000 records, it's rough). My question is this: "Which is cheaper, the development time for this GUI, or to put the data in comma separated value files?" Surely, it is the latter. I assume it boils down to the fact that whomever controls the data, holds the upper hand.
Wasn't there a story a while back about a guy who was implanting chips in his muscles to see if they could control movement? I believe he is in Britain.
The Colossu s machine (used to break the German's "FISH" code during World War II is (in my opinion) one of the greatest hacks. The complexity of the project and the speed at which they brought it to light is admirable, and quite amazing to boot. All designed by a postmaster, too. Who knew?
Slashdot Mirror
However, there are some organizations, such as the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS) that allow you to buy their directory for a reasonable sum, but if you need the data in an electronic form, like we do, they charge you, quite literally an arm and a leg. The CD that we bought (actually, rent, as they want the CD back), cost at least 36 times that of the bound version of the data.
Even all the data with their own GUI on it is approximately $1500 (i am making an educated guess), and that data cannot be easily exported to a usable format (only 200 lines at a time, and with 600,000 records, it's rough). My question is this: "Which is cheaper, the development time for this GUI, or to put the data in comma separated value files?" Surely, it is the latter. I assume it boils down to the fact that whomever controls the data, holds the upper hand.
Wasn't there a story a while back about a guy who was implanting chips in his muscles to see if they could control movement? I believe he is in Britain.
The Colossu s machine (used to break the German's "FISH" code during World War II is (in my opinion) one of the greatest hacks. The complexity of the project and the speed at which they brought it to light is admirable, and quite amazing to boot. All designed by a postmaster, too. Who knew?
Can someone explain to me who these "Linux guys" are specifically? Who does make the decision to put something in?