Geospatial Data and Content Management for School Projects

August 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

It has been a long time since I was matriculating at my [alma mater](http://www.asu.edu) but clearly I can tell that school is starting up for a lot of people. My inbox is full of emails from students asking where they can find data for their projects[ref]I like students who are proactive and not reactive to their school work[/ref].

[WeoGeo](http://www.weogeo.com) has over 8 terabytes of free and inexpensive data available in the [WeoGeo Market](http://market.weogeo.com/#/regional_navigation) for inclusion in your analysis. Just this week we uploaded some great data from the State of Hawaii on [Hawaiian Natural Areas](http://blog.weogeo.com/2011/08/17/data-blog-hawaiian-natural-areas/) and data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on [U.S. Diabetes and Risk Factor Prevalence](http://blog.weogeo.com/2011/08/10/data-blog-us-diabetes-and-risk-factor-prevalence/).

![Hawaiian Natural Areas](http://images.spatiallyadjusted.com/HawaiianNaturalAreas-WeoGeo.png “Hawaiian Natural Areas”)

We’ve also have the complete [USGS National Hydragraphy Dataset](http://blog.weogeo.com/2011/04/04/data-blog-usgs-national-hydrography-dataset/) and [USGS Earthquake, Fault and Seismic Hazard](http://blog.weogeo.com/2011/07/11/data-blog-earthquakes-faults-and-seismic-hazard-us/) data [available for customization](http://wiki.weogeo.com/index.php/Order_data_on_WeoGeo_Market#Customize). Bonus points for using the [WeoGeo Tools for ArcGIS](http://www.zekiah.com/index.php?q=weogeo) to import these datasets into your ArcMap projects.

Another great option for students is our [WeoGeo Library](http://www.weogeo.com/library_info). Generally after the end of the school year, students need to archive off their projects to some personal stoarge device. Students using WeoGeo Library know their projects are available semester after semester no matter where they are. Since WeoGeo Library is a system of record, you’ll always have them at hand. My masters thesis was stored on a Brother Word Processor which meant that the minute I lost access to that hardware device, I lost all my hard work[ref]At least I remember it as hard work, ’twas a long time ago[/ref]. That’s why a real geospatial content management system like WeoGeo is the best way to manage your school work. Plus you can [get started today](http://www.weogeo.com/signup), for free.

![Browsing WeoGeo](http://images.spatiallyadjusted.com/WeoGeo-BrowseMarket.jpg “Browsing WeoGeo Market”)

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Google Public Data Explorer

March 8, 2010 Leave a Comment

Google’s [Public Data Explorer](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/statistics-for-changing-world-google.html) continues their push to integrate their simply awesome [visualization APIs](http://code.google.com/apis/visualization/documentation/) with searchable datasets. Think big though:

>If you’re a data provider interested in becoming a part of the Public Data Explorer, contact us.

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Tempe Responds to GIS Data Request

December 1, 2009 53 Comments

I got a response back from the City of Tempe.

Hello Mr. Fee,

 

Here’s some information that I hope assists with your specific request and also clarifies the city’s policy and state law with regard to production of this information. Tempe’s policy is guided by state law (available at this link) which allows for the purpose of a commercial request to be asked.

Non-commercial

You mentioned that your request is for a presentation to a Tempe elementary school, which sounds non-commercial. Please contact Wendy Springborn in our Engineering Division (480-350-8250) in order to discuss exactly what you’d like to request. The city does not charge for non-commercial requests, except for the production of CDs to deliver the records. Some records might be deliverable via an emailed PDF, but that depends on whether the requester wants to be able to manipulate the record. If they do, that cannot be delivered via PDF because of the limitations of that format. Wendy is ready to assist with your request if you’ll let her know what you need.

Commercial

Tempe bases its commercial rates in part on a fair approximation of market value. As described in the state law above, municipalities and other entities are able to ask the purpose of commercial requests and to deny improper requests upon the approval of the governor. The statute also establishes the ability to seek damages if records obtained for a non-commercial purpose are then used for a commercial purpose. You noted a few cities’ elected representatives have chosen to make all of this information searchable online; that would be a policy decision rather than staff action. It seems that some of your concerns with the city’s GIS records policy are grounded in the state law requirements rather than independent city policies.

Tempe places a high priority on transparency and customer service. We make every effort to fulfill records requests of all types across the many city functions and departments. Please let me know if I can assist in answering any other questions.

Regards,

Nikki Ripley City of Tempe Communication and Media Relations Director

So there you go, at least they are going to let you have it for personal use.  Good, at a minimum that is good news.  I’ll be making my request ASAP.  The part that causes me to pause is this, “Tempe bases its commercial rates in part on a fair approximation of market value”.  I couldn’t disagree more with this statement and it is nuts that they think that this data is worth $100,000.  Nothing in the state law says Tempe should charge $100,000 for their data.  Fair market value for public data shouldn’t be 6 figures.   This is why people don’t go to the source to get data but third party providers who don’t have the accuracy of Tempe’s data.  I’m disappointed in this response so it shows how much more work we have with local governments.

 

Update:  I submitted a public records request, so we’ll see how this goes.

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Trying to unlock transit data

August 24, 2009 17 Comments

Something that has been bothering me somewhat these last few months is transit data and how we as a community can have access to it.  Here in Phoenix, we are unlucky enough not to have access to Google Transit, Valley Metro is locked in to the 1990′s with their system and you should see how bad the mobile version is.  So many of us here have been trying to free the Valley Metro data to get it incorporated into OpenStreetMap or even Google Transit.  Since I’m not blogging about how successful that effort has been, you can guess that we are stuck back in the last decade still.

But that isn’t the whole story right?  Just getting transit data into Google Transit is great for users of Google services, but not good for the community at large.  Google has been really good at getting data locked up behind government bureaucracy, but they’ve done nothing to help free this data beyond using their own APIs.  But at the same time, is this Google’s responsibility?  Google seems to say they try to get people to share it, but it isn’t their job.  I think I tend to agree with them.  If an organization is willing to share data with Google, why aren’t they willing to share it with the public?  That is where these organizations fall down and it would appear where public transit is a huge problem.

Public transit organizations are looking at protecting their data from being used by others.  It isn’t everyone, but it does send a message that if you as a member of the riding public want to access public data, you need to do so under an application approved by that transit organization.  I find it amazing that DMCA can be applied to public data and it should send chills to anyone who wants to use data they as a taxpayer are funding.  Google is able to negotiate deals because they have the money and the eyeballs that transit organizations want.  I just don’t like the path that we seem headed down where if I want to access public data that I helped create… I need to do so using a commercial API and possibly have to pay a vendor (paying twice is a tax on a tax) the right to use what should be free.

Stay away from that slope, you wont like where it will lead!

Keep away from that slope, you won't like where it will lead!

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