Well, NASA has a WMS service that serves up a global landsat mosaic. I wouldn't agree with your statement whatsoever. You can load this data up and make it your base to start with.
Or were you looking for geocoded street data for the Congo?
Things are coming together. Got a bright idea? Get some folks together and make a prhttp://spatialguru.com/maps/apps/global/'toposal to geoconnections.ca TIGER didn't just happen. I propose a global effort of having local folks map their community and consolidate it with others.
This next 12 months will see several projects that finally come together to dispel those claims to a greater degree.
There are enough pieces that they can all work together. I fear that maybe the real question is around user interfaces. It's funny because I will be introducing some excellent mainly command line tools like ogr2ogr (heard of that?;) and PostGIS commands, etc. to my colleagues. I know it won't look at "usable" as other commercial options - but eventually they'll realize that there are VERY REAL open source alternatives that start to look a lot like AML (but soo much more).
So I think once we get over the CLI vs GUI warz in the OSGIS realm, then we'll feel we've made it further.
I think that's our job. You know where your house is, where your work is and the street you drive down every day.
What I want to see is an Open Data Consortium where joe-users create their own data and pool it. I'll take responsibility for my town, you do yours, you others share the city with even more.
If you really like geometric data types checkout PostGIS - a full, power implementation of spatial data types. Load some points, buffer them, intersect them with lines. Then serve up a web map with MapServer. The power is yours!
Re:There's a quicker and more effective way (w/o G
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
I'll be on irc.freenode.net in a channel called openmap - if you happen to be around.
Re:There's a quicker and more effective way (w/o G
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
I can't find a way to reply to your journal - can you add me as a "friend" (ahh schuks, that'd make me feel good:)
Tyler
Re:There's a quicker and more effective way (w/o G
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
I would like to discuss this further with you. How can we touch base outside of slashdot? I'll open up an irc on irc.freenode.net where we can talk further. Channel #openmap - would that work for you?
It's worthy to mention that the mapserver mailing list is very active. Anyone who wants to get started but is intimidated, just drop a note to the list and get help. The next year, you'll see it get easier to install and setup. (windows binaries and various *nix binaries/RPMs are available!)
Re:Canadian feature data and rasters
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
Glad you brought it up. I've been using Manitoba's data and am impressed. From what I've seen (mainly BC and MB), they are a step ahead. The Canada framework base map data and a bunch of imagery, etc. is helpful too. See http://geoconnections.ca/CGDI.cfm for a good starting point.
B.C. is at least moving...finally...the core base map data (I mean TRIM) is not free, though you could most likely get into a data exchange agreement allowing you to have data if you also provide updates. That's not bad, but I'll believe it when I see it working well.
There is the B.C. web mapping tool (http://maps.gov.bc.ca) and most, if not all those layers are available through WMS as well. (but don't have the link handy sorry).
See you at the conference, come to my workshop:)
-Tyler
Re:There's a quicker and more effective way (w/o G
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
>> One more source, in which you will probably
>> have the most success is with your local
>> (city, county, regional) planning (GIS)
>> commity. Ask them for spatial data and tell
>> them how you are going to use it, so they can
>> make changes if needed.
Important point - thanks for bringing it up. Especially for the non-US group reading the thread. Start local - you probably aren't the only one looking for the info.
Better yet, start a local geospatial data or mapping club and invite folks who use the info. You'd be surprise who has what:)
-Tyler
PostGIS kicks butt. I'd recommend for the first time avoiding PostGIS and going right to MapServer which can read TIGER files directly. Then plan to come to the Open Source GIS and MapServer Users Conference, June 9-11 in Ottawa:)
-Tyler
That's a good overview of the options and issues, thanks.
The point that seems to be missed in the threads is that (as any fellow geocacher knows) street maps and topos just don't cut it for many applications.
Existing street mapping, etc. has some mass appeal and real utility, to be sure. But at many local levels, small private groups has whacks of spatial data that is never shared - and partly because no one would care anyway.
For example, forestry, environmental, regional governments and municipalities all have map reporting requirements (i.e. to gov't, public) - leveraging that data into the public domain provides excellent and more meaningful local information.
In short, folks need more than a good MapQuest. Show my the location of my house on a map and I'm slightly interested. Show me the path through the woods by the neighbour's house and I'll be impressed. Show me a localized plant hardiness map and I'll be excited.
Consider a geocache located in a landfill - Delorme ain't gonna warn ya!:)
-Tyler
Re:Making maps is not an esoteric science
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
Mapping is a lot of work and there would not be much of a point in duplicating the effort.
In general, duplication is silly, but look at all the posts - what are the options? Shouldn't the fact that the majority of the options (to the scale and features that the poster seems to be interested in) are only pointing to commercial options.
I believe mapping data, applications and tools ought to be free. But, I aim not for legislating liberty but to react to the situation by working together to provide free alternatives.
I support a community-based approach and would love to hear from others interested in the same.
-Tyler
Re:I'd suggest really old maps
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
Nice ideas with great merit. You've gotta see the "Historical Atlas of Amsterdam"
Mentioned on the MapServer mailing list
Or directly to the site HERE
The atlas shows eighteen historical maps of Amsterdam from 1544 to 2003, referenced to the present-day national coordinate system. The scans are very detailed; when you zoom in very deeply, especially on the older maps, you can see how wonderful they are as works of cartography. When
you pan around a bit, they really give the impression of flying very low over the city. If you are on a fast connection, you should certainly try this with a maximized map window.
-Tyler
Re:I'd suggest really old maps
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
Trust me, you aren't going to get anything usable from aerial photographs that were not created with this application in mind.
Granted the original post did connotate street level mapping and address matching, but depending on one's application a few aerial photographs can provide an extremely meaningful context for communicating mapping information.
-Tyler
Need a couple real good guys :)
on
Open Maps?
·
· Score: 1
> This is not something a couple of guys can collaborate on and come up with something meaningful.
I disagree on one side of that argument. That is of scale. A couple committed folks for a small city could do a heck of a lot -- and it would be a heck of a lot more meaningful to users in that locale.
I'll go off on a tangent in another thread - but I believe in a grassroots data collection and creative commons style approach.
What format does svg open use in the back-end. A WFS server with associated client-side wfs creation tools would alleviate the (apparent) MSIE/Adobe SVG client requirements wouldn't it? And allow others to write clients rather than depend on your svg interface. (Not to knock your interface though!!)
Tyler
Good points. Short of the swearing, I'd recommend the read to everyone struggling with the propagation of ignorance that's going on with the help of enviros and the United Nations.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, NASA has a WMS service that serves up a global landsat mosaic. I wouldn't agree with your statement whatsoever. You can load this data up and make it your base to start with.
Or were you looking for geocoded street data for the Congo?
Things are coming together. Got a bright idea? Get some folks together and make a prhttp://spatialguru.com/maps/apps/global/'toposal to geoconnections.ca TIGER didn't just happen. I propose a global effort of having local folks map their community and consolidate it with others.
Each person takes their own area.
It's called a format. I prefer to look at Word as a data format for open office documents. Oh yeah, that Msoft product can read it too. Neat.
This next 12 months will see several projects that finally come together to dispel those claims to a greater degree.
;) and PostGIS commands, etc. to my colleagues. I know it won't look at "usable" as other commercial options - but eventually they'll realize that there are VERY REAL open source alternatives that start to look a lot like AML (but soo much more).
There are enough pieces that they can all work together. I fear that maybe the real question is around user interfaces. It's funny because I will be introducing some excellent mainly command line tools like ogr2ogr (heard of that?
So I think once we get over the CLI vs GUI warz in the OSGIS realm, then we'll feel we've made it further.
I think that's our job. You know where your house is, where your work is and the street you drive down every day.
What I want to see is an Open Data Consortium where joe-users create their own data and pool it. I'll take responsibility for my town, you do yours, you others share the city with even more.
Interested?
Only if you are "searching" for those sticky notes :)
Now just start sticking notes to trees:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5159
What do you mean you need cell coverage 500km from town?
If you really like geometric data types checkout PostGIS - a full, power implementation of spatial data types. Load some points, buffer them, intersect them with lines. Then serve up a web map with MapServer. The power is yours!
I'll be on irc.freenode.net in a channel called openmap - if you happen to be around.
I can't find a way to reply to your journal - can you add me as a "friend" (ahh schuks, that'd make me feel good :)
Tyler
I would like to discuss this further with you. How can we touch base outside of slashdot? I'll open up an irc on irc.freenode.net where we can talk further. Channel #openmap - would that work for you?
It's worthy to mention that the mapserver mailing list is very active. Anyone who wants to get started but is intimidated, just drop a note to the list and get help. The next year, you'll see it get easier to install and setup. (windows binaries and various *nix binaries/RPMs are available!)
Glad you brought it up. I've been using Manitoba's data and am impressed. From what I've seen (mainly BC and MB), they are a step ahead. The Canada framework base map data and a bunch of imagery, etc. is helpful too. See http://geoconnections.ca/CGDI.cfm for a good starting point.
There is the B.C. web mapping tool (http://maps.gov.bc.ca) and most, if not all those layers are available through WMS as well. (but don't have the link handy sorry). See you at the conference, come to my workshop :)
-Tyler
Groovy. Tell me more!
Important point - thanks for bringing it up. Especially for the non-US group reading the thread. Start local - you probably aren't the only one looking for the info.
Better yet, start a local geospatial data or mapping club and invite folks who use the info. You'd be surprise who has what :)
-Tyler
PostGIS kicks butt. I'd recommend for the first time avoiding PostGIS and going right to MapServer which can read TIGER files directly. Then plan to come to the Open Source GIS and MapServer Users Conference, June 9-11 in Ottawa :)
-Tyler
The point that seems to be missed in the threads is that (as any fellow geocacher knows) street maps and topos just don't cut it for many applications.
Existing street mapping, etc. has some mass appeal and real utility, to be sure. But at many local levels, small private groups has whacks of spatial data that is never shared - and partly because no one would care anyway.
For example, forestry, environmental, regional governments and municipalities all have map reporting requirements (i.e. to gov't, public) - leveraging that data into the public domain provides excellent and more meaningful local information.
In short, folks need more than a good MapQuest. Show my the location of my house on a map and I'm slightly interested. Show me the path through the woods by the neighbour's house and I'll be impressed. Show me a localized plant hardiness map and I'll be excited.
Consider a geocache located in a landfill - Delorme ain't gonna warn ya! :)
-Tyler
In general, duplication is silly, but look at all the posts - what are the options? Shouldn't the fact that the majority of the options (to the scale and features that the poster seems to be interested in) are only pointing to commercial options.
I believe mapping data, applications and tools ought to be free. But, I aim not for legislating liberty but to react to the situation by working together to provide free alternatives.
I support a community-based approach and would love to hear from others interested in the same.
-Tyler
Nice ideas with great merit.
You've gotta see the "Historical Atlas of Amsterdam"
Mentioned on the MapServer mailing list
Or directly to the site HERE
The atlas shows eighteen historical maps of Amsterdam from 1544 to 2003, referenced to the present-day national coordinate system. The scans are very detailed; when you zoom in very deeply, especially on the older maps, you can see how wonderful they are as works of cartography. When you pan around a bit, they really give the impression of flying very low over the city. If you are on a fast connection, you should certainly try this with a maximized map window.
-Tyler
Trust me, you aren't going to get anything usable from aerial photographs that were not created with this application in mind.
Granted the original post did connotate street level mapping and address matching, but depending on one's application a few aerial photographs can provide an extremely meaningful context for communicating mapping information. -Tyler
> This is not something a couple of guys can collaborate on and come up with something meaningful. I disagree on one side of that argument. That is of scale. A couple committed folks for a small city could do a heck of a lot -- and it would be a heck of a lot more meaningful to users in that locale. I'll go off on a tangent in another thread - but I believe in a grassroots data collection and creative commons style approach.
What format does svg open use in the back-end. A WFS server with associated client-side wfs creation tools would alleviate the (apparent) MSIE/Adobe SVG client requirements wouldn't it? And allow others to write clients rather than depend on your svg interface. (Not to knock your interface though!!) Tyler
Good points. Short of the swearing, I'd recommend the read to everyone struggling with the propagation of ignorance that's going on with the help of enviros and the United Nations.