Article: Canada's New Government Provides Free Online Access toDigital Mapping Data

[Dean Collins]

I've sent this email to Duane Groth, he has extensive experience in
building GIS mapping application and consults to a number of companies
in this space so maybe he can explain to us all of the ramifications of
the Canadian announcement.

 

Regards,

Dean Collins
Cognation Pty Ltd
dean at cognation.net
+1-212-203-4357 Ph


> -----Original Message-----
> From: community-bounces at lists.openmoko.org [mailto:community-
> bounces at lists.openmoko.org] On Behalf Of Igor Foox
> Sent: Friday, 6 April 2007 4:57 PM
> To: OpenMoko
> Subject: Article: Canada's New Government Provides Free Online Access
toDigital
> Mapping Data
> 
> http://www.news.gc.ca/cfmx/view/en/index.jsp?articleid=290039
> 
> "Experts and other users of digital topographic data will no longer
> have to pay to use digital versions of government maps and data...As
> well as waiving access fees, NRCan is lifting all cost and licence
> restrictions on the redistribution of the data. This will help ensure
> that accurate and consistent information is available for users."
> 
> That sounds pretty cool, especially being a Canadian. :)
> I'm no expert on mapping data, can anyone with more experience
> elaborate whether this is the sort of data that could be useful for
> building open source mapping applications and not have to agree to
> restrictive licenses on the data?
> 
>  From the site:
> "The geospatial data are grouped in collections and are compatible
> with the most popular geographic information systems (GIS), with
> image analysis systems and the graphics applications of editing
> software."
> 
> and
> 
> "The collections include raster data, such as satellite images or
> scanned topographic maps, vector data, such as national-scale
> frameworks (grouped by theme), and a database of ground control
points."
> 
> Igor
> 
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