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Coding GeoSpatial Data
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:40 am
by cj5
I am aware of a PEAR package for parsing GIS E00 files, basically for effectively representing geospatial data using PHP. But where is all the open source data? I've a few sites so far that offer up data, but it's out-of-date, and generally useless to learn on because corrupt or incomplete data. I would like to get an initiative going for opening up more mapping resources for coders, so that we can explore this area of technology, and create some forward movement with this aspect of information. Any thoughts?
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 8:55 am
by feyd
Last I checked, the data wasn't exactly freely available online. The USGS has the US data, which often is available on CD, largely because the data sets are gigantic. I don't remember them being all that cheap either.
Yes, yes I know
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:11 pm
by cj5
With all due respect, thank you for pointing out the obvious. But isn't there old data that is open for use. I'm not sure that you are aware of a little thing called FOIA. This is great good for the promotion of technological growth. It just seem anti-progressive, to have this information all locked up for know to study and practice with.
Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 12:16 pm
by josh
There is the us tiger line data available on
http://www.esri.com, they also let you grab small samples of the DCW for personal use, most non-commercial applications do just fine with google maps and if you're ready to make the step
http://www.mapinfo.com has a worldwide basemap available in mapinfo format. There are tools available for converting from all the major map formats, I have a class for reading ESRI .shp files into an array for PHP if you would like it, I also have a class for drawing maps out of them but I can't give you that, it wasn't hard to write though.