Geodata Repository

The notes on the Talk:Geodata_Repository Talk page for this page describe the background to this effort

A full list of suggestions for public domain data sets that are nice-to-haves is maintained at Geodata Discovery Working Group.

= Interface Design =

In order to be useful to people, a geodata repository needs a way for users to become quickly + easily informed as to what kind of data they're getting: metadata about the data, and the quality/quantity of data involved.

For Raster images, one way to do this is to include an extent-wide image of the data -- http://openlayers.org/gallery/ has screenshots which show some of what I mean where, although more directed towards applications. By having a whole-extent screenshot overview, users can quickly and easily see what they're getting. Additionally, assuming this data is to be made available as WMS, setting up an OpenLayers instance to allow users to browse the rasters and see at a more detailed level would be beneficial.

Vector data/attribute data would also need to be described, in text or some other way. http://freemap.in/world/ is an example of a browsable map which displays attribute data -- clicking on a country fills the sidebar with data. This interface was set up in about 20 minutes, and given decent map files, this kind of set up could be largely automated, allowing users to (again) get an overview of the data they're looking at before they download it or set it up on their own servers.

= Data sources =

Sources of public geodata for initial setup in a repository.

VMap0

 * PostGIS storage for vector data.
 * Geoserver as a WFS
 * Ongoing generation of per-country and per-region shapefiles; distribution via HTTP and via geotorrents.org

Blue Marble NG

 * Mapserver as WMS

Landsat-7

 * Mapserver as WMS
 * Telascience already serving the raw data - http://onearth.telascience.org/

Metadata

 * Geodata Metadata Requirements - a baseline for what would be asked for / expected of data sets in an OSGeo repository
 * A simple metadata-in-GeoRSS webservice that is also as FGDC compliant as possible/desirable.
 * WCS?

Related efforts

 * MapDex offers a metadata search facility
 * GeoNames is a gazetteer and naming collection
 * http://www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.search
 * http://geoportail-geoportal.ainc-inac.gc.ca/metaindex_e.asp