Geodata Repository
Why should OSGeo be running a geodata repository?
Without data, Open Source Geospatial Software isn't much use.
OSGeo has been generously offered use of the facilities at Telascience - http://osgeo.telascience.org/
Data sources
These are suggestions that have been offered to the group so far.
Well-known sources of publically collected and maintained geodata
- Landsat (OnEarth mirror already at telascience)
- BlueMarble / BMNG (ditto)
- VMap0 - very generalised vector data for many features
- GSHHS - coastline data from the NOAA
- TIGER/Line - street and addressing data for the US
- RNF - street and addressing data for Canada
Lesser known or less widely distributed sources of publically collected geodata
- Local government departments which are putting geodata into the public domain (MassGIS, Manitoba)
Privately contributed / collectively constructed geodata
- OpenStreetmap makes data available through a HTTP based XML interface. They've also been getting requests for shapefile and GML output of their data.
No data without metadata!
An important factor for telascience is to have better metadata management facilities, and this is something that OSGeo's collective intelligence can really help with. During their data support efforts for Katrina hurricane relief data was being collected in "a very ad-hoc fashion". To be sure that OSGeo has the rights to redistribute data that it collects, a base level of metadata indicating contact details and license terms has to be established.
Common metadata standards
US Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata stipulations are the baseline. Working agreement is that what we should collect, should be at least FGDC compliant.
Potentially useful toolsets
- http://www.dlese.org/libdev/dcs_overview.html
- Any open and free implementations providing a WCS interface?
Data+metadata transmission standards
- OGC Web Catalog Services
Related efforts
- MapDex offers a metadata search facility
- GeoNames is a gazetteer and naming collection
- http://www.fao.org/geonetwork/srv/en/main.search
Initiated after the second Public Geodata Committee meeting.