Metadata and Online Mapping
April 3, 2007 3 Comments
All Points Blog brings up a topic that I’ve touched on a couple times over the past year. If we are to perform an sort of analysis using these free online tools, we’ll need to know more about the metadata and sources (and accuracy). As Adena points out, people are beginning to see the need for it and are calling for GYM to start providing it.
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So I wonder which metadata is most usefull and needed nowadays? Not only in US, but also Europe where I live. Is there a market for companies selling updated metadata as webservices and do you have any examples of this?
Thanks for a great blog and happy easter!
“Selling metadata”? Metadata should be provided by the data provider, as a matter of course. The web service standards already exist, such as CSW, et cetera, and the format standard already exists (for US governmental data as FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata).
There isn’t much reason why any online mapping application shouldn’t offer a hyperlink/popup/other option in the data layers table of content to provide info on data source/accuracy/currentness/et cetera… I am making a big push to do so with the agencies I work with even as we speak.
This gets into the area that we saw last week with Google testifying on The Hill to the House Committee on Science and Technology and taking flack about how Google Maps was providing too little information. Perhaps a “metadata” tile layer needs to be established to meet the public’s demand for metadata and to stave off any future liability?