I’ve been messing around a bit with GeoCommons Maker! – coming to the public this week – sorry but you’ll need to wait to try it for yourself – thanks Sean! You may already be familiar with the cool, GeoCommons Finder! web service (http://finder.geocommons.com/) enabling users to discover a wealth of geospatial data being shared with the community. Well now, this week the developers will be rolling out even more functionality to the GeoCommons portfolio in a service called Maker! Using GeoCommons Maker!, users can create a user account, search and discover data, save their maps, and share them. Obviously, the key component of Maker! is the “create” component. Once logged in, creating your own map is a snap. Search the vast data holdings and preview data, then create a custom my by adding your own clever title, add data, them your data in a number of ways, select a base map of choice from a number of open data providers. You can read more about Maker! in this piece that I just cranked out… I’m sure you’ll enjoy Maker! once it’s live…
For more on Maker! See also http://www.geocommons.com/
free data
Find your data with Finder!
I messed with this one a bit while in Beta, now you can get your own invite and its way cool! From the developers… Finder! (a browser-based application for finding, organizing and sharing GeoData in common formats) has officially graduated from ‘private beta’ and is now open to everyone for finding, organizing and sharing geodata. To get started, simply sign up to create a free account. See also http://www.geocommons.com/
See also http://finder.geocommons.com/
Use the search UI to enter your search parameters i.e. “Colorado Parks”
Then access metadata, preview your data in Google Maps or Google Earth, or download as KML, SHP, or CSV
Grab the 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles from the Census Bureau
A tip if you like free stuff… I see that some of the “free” data websites are now flogging the free 2007 TIGER/Line files (SHP format) – I saw one site whoring out the data for $100+ bucks! OR…. you can always simply go to http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tgrshp2007/tgrshp2007.html for your self and take a few minutes to download these data yourself – sounds like a no-brainer to me! If you want to grab a bunch of data grab yourself gozilla and eat the ftp site while you have lunch!
About the data… The 2007 TIGER/Line Shapefiles contain current geographic areas (boundaries of governmental units as of January 1, 2007) and Census 2000 vintage geography. The shapefiles also contain some additional post January 1, 2007 feature updates reported in the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS).
TerrasServer.com VS Microsoft TerrasServer USA
I have to admit, I’ve wondered about this one for years. I recall stumbling onto the Microsoft resource and wondered “how do they get away with this”? What I mean is that commercial data provider terraserver.com is now finally taking Microsoft to court over their imagery project trademark. Should be interesting to see how this one pans out – most likely the big guy will prevail in court (don’t they always??)
TerraServer.com is a commerical imagery provider. Users can subscribe to their services and receive updates. Data can also be downloaded and posters and prints are also for sale. The site has a strong consumer focus (ie. want to buy a print of a celebrity’s home?) but there’s also loads of imagery available for a GIS base (ie. data from Pictometry and others). FYI, TerraServer was founded in 1997 in Raleigh, North Carolina with the simple purpose of finding a commercial market for satellite imagery and aerial photography.
TerraServer.com – Commercial Imagery providerMicrosoft’s resource (TerraServer USA) has been developed with a partnership in place with the USGS. Users can easily access topos and aerial photos. An online viewer enables you to easily browse USGS quads and then download for use. Personally, I don’t know of many users or orgs who depend on this site for their data.
Microsoft’s TerraServer USABoth sites serve a purpose, however, I’d go to some of the many other free data providers before these one (see http://gisdata.blogspot.com). There’s also USGS seamless data distn (http://seamless.usgs.gov/) or my favorite, the USDA Geospatial data gateway
Tip – National Geographic DataDoors portal
A data tip from NGS – Not exactly free, however, this is a fine resource for viewing data and imagery… National Geographic DataDoors portal (www.natgeodatadoors.com), customers can select the exact area of coverage they want and order National Geographic’s TOPO! maps and i-cubed’s USA Nationwide Prime Imagery on CD-ROM or removable hard drives, or as a download. National Geographic Maps has scanned over 58,000 United States Geological Survey (USGS) quadrangles, color corrected them to create a consistent look and created a seamless map that spans all 50 U.S. states. The TOPO! map data is available at 1:24,000 scale in the continental United States and Hawaii, 1:63,360 scale in Alaska, and 1:100,000 scale in the continental United States. Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data is also available to help visualize vertical terrain and conduct spatial analysis and modeling. DataDoors delivers TOPO! maps and i-cubed imagery in many open formats, including TIF, JPEG, SID and ECW, and supports the selection of projection and data.
Canadian and US topos from Touratel
Fugawi Touratel (aimed at hikers and outdoor enthusiasts) allows users to view and print Canadian and US topographic maps from Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The site contains NRCan maps in 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 scales for all Canadian Provinces, and USGS topographic maps for the USA, including Hawaii and Alaska, at all available scales, including 1:24,000, 1:100,000 and 1:250,000. Also served up are aerials and google maps. Finally, Touratel also offers up a mobile version and is available from Alltel wireless and Sprint. More on this app available in their latest PR
Zillow provides 7000+ Neighborhood boundaries via SHP format – CC license
This just in from the Zillow blog regarding free, SHP files downloads now available… The boundary lines for over 7,000 neighborhoods around the United States covering roughly 150 cities. These neighborhood shapes are now available, zipped up in the Arc Shapefile format, for anyone to download. According to Zillow’s lab, the company wants to share more than 7000 neighborhood boundaries with the community… these via SHP file format. This from zillow… ” The Zillow data team has created a database of nearly 7,000 neighborhood boundaries in the largest cities in the U.S. And we’d like to share them with you! We’re sharing these neighborhoods under a Creative Commons license to allow people to use and contribute to our growing database.” The fine print… You are free to use the files in this database in applications as long as you attribute Zillow when you use it. You may also make your own changes to the database files and distribute them, as long as you provide them under the same kind of license and give Zillow attribution. You can grab the boundaries here
Q and A: Where can I obtain VMAP data? Here’s a tip
This is a common one.. today I got a common request from a reader.. “where can I obtain VMap data? My response which may help some of you asking the same thing:
See the following:
VMAP1 and other global datasets are available from the NGA Raster Roam –http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
To access VMAP1 data see http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/vmap1_legend.html
see also these useful help docs:
Free Download of VMAP1 – Vector Smart Map FTP links http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/5535/
The search on GISuser yields some great results and you can try this custom Google GIS Data search DB that I developed
I would urge you to be careful buying this data online as most commercial resellers simply download from these FTP sites, cut to a CD / DVD and send to you.. save your $$. There’s many online sources of these data but these tips should get you started and atleast pointed in the right direction.
Q and A: Where can I obtain VMAP data? Here’s a tip
This is a common one.. today I got a common request from a reader.. “where can I obtain VMap data? My response which may help some of you asking the same thing:
See the following:
VMAP1 and other global datasets are available from the NGA Raster Roam –http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/rast_roam.html
To access VMAP1 data see http://geoengine.nga.mil/geospatial/SW_TOOLS/NIMAMUSE/webinter/vmap1_legend.html
see also these useful help docs:
Free Download of VMAP1 – Vector Smart Map FTP links http://www.gisuser.com/content/view/5535/
The search on GISuser yields some great results and you can try this custom Google GIS Data search DB that I developed
I would urge you to be careful buying this data online as most commercial resellers simply download from these FTP sites, cut to a CD / DVD and send to you.. save your $$. There’s many online sources of these data but these tips should get you started and atleast pointed in the right direction.
WorldMate now available free for S60 users (Nokia N95) and Zurfer is cool too!
Cool news for Symbian S60 device users (like the Nokia N95)… one of the most popular S60 applications is now available for free… WorldMate… the World’s leading smartphone travel companion. WorldMate’s feature set include weather forecasts, world clocks, a currency converter and a world day / night map. The new S60 WorldMate version also contains the Weathercaster service, the users’ favorite audio / visual tool that pushes weather updates to the user. Premium services include real-time flight status, flight schedules and satellite weather imagery, and are available for a subscription fee. WorldMate can be downloaded for free at http://www.mobimate.com or over-the-air at http://mobile.mobimate.com.
Note… if this apps is cool to you then I also suggest you check out Zurfer for S60. ITs a cool add on for mobile flickr users (like me) enabling you to set your location, view photos from your sets, your friends/contacts, and others near you… way cool! Zurfer comes from the Yahoo research labs
