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Posted by GISuser on January 6, 2006, 8:38 pm
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Hello All, regarding free data (I hope you don't mind me posting this
here)... The USGS SDTS list has seen some activity recently which questions
the decision (once again) of the USGS giving 3 companies cart blanche to
serve up and hold hostage (if you will) the USGS SDTS DEM data.
The USGS stands by their decision, however, it seems clear that the
companies are not providing adequate access to these data and furthurmore,
their agenda is rather, to leverage the data into sales and other "premium"
services.
Now keep in mind, anyone of us could apply to register as a DEM provider,
although that doesn't mean it will get you approval, however, anyone can
register at any time. I'm curious, what are your thoughts regarding the USGS
continuing to have commercial outlets host the USGS DEMs and what would you
suggest as a better solution. Below you will find a response to the list
from the SDTS list moderator ...
Regards
Glenn
I'd be curious to hear your opinion on this? Please send your feedback to
editor@gisuser.com
PS: happy new year all!
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Original message response from USGS list......
We greatly appreciate the comments and suggestions from the members of the
list. Many of you have been around longer than me, and I've been a part of
the list for about six years now. Your participation and suggestions have
been a large part of why the SDTS DEM dataset remains an important and
viable dataset. Thank you.
Although going through our commercial venders for SDTS DEMs may not always
be the easiest or most efficient method, they do provide the data free of
charge. It would have been great if the USGS was able to continue serving
these data via USGS ftp site, but unfortunately we were not. Please keep in
mind that commercial venders are in business to make a profit. I, for one,
greatly appreciate the time and effort put forth by our three venders,
MapMart, GeoCommunity, and ATDI, to continue to offer USGS SDTS DEMs free of
charge.
I'm not sure what the going rate is to host and maintain a server with
several hundred gigabytes of data, and handling hundreds of thousands of
file downloads in addition to providing monthly maintenance, but it must be
substantial.
We welcome other entities to partner with the USGS in serving SDTS DEMs free
of charge to the public, but for now, MapMart, GeoCommunity, and ATDI have
been the only three to enter into an agreement with the USGS.
Again, thank you for your support and Happy New Year!
Elizabeth A. McCartney
SAIC/US Geological Survey
1400 Independence Road
Rolla, Missouri 65401
573.308.3696
573.308.3810 FAX
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This message from Elizabeth came in response to this
Dquestion.................
Subject: I thought thisSDTS DEM data is supposed to be FREE???
I'm very new at mapping so excuse my ignorance if I'm totally off base.
I read this about getting SDTS DEM files on the USGS webpage:
1) The original DEM 7.5 minute tiled data available only in Spatial Data
Transfer Standard (SDTS) form is available at no cost via downloads from the
GeoComm International Corporation at http://gisdatadepot.com/dem and from
MapMart.com at http://www.mapmart.com , and from Advanced Topographic
Development and Images (ATDI) at http://www.atdi-us.com
And the reasoning for this is:
The decision to provide SDTS DEMs through the GIS Data Depot is consistent
with the USGS goal of making more public domain data available at no charge
while enabling the private sector to have a greater role in the distribution
of USGS data. SDTS DEMs placed on media in response to customer orders will
be sold by the GeoCommunity at a price less than the USGS currently charges.
Looking at gisdatadepot, it costs $995 to buy SDTS DEM on CD for the entire
USA. You can download it for free but you have to click a million links to
do it and they don't allow web spiders to get the data automatically. It'll
take months to manually download it all.
Looking at mapmart I can't see any clear way to get it for free.
And looking at atdi-us you have to select a lat/long, again making it
difficult to get the entire data set.
Can we just have a FTP server where we can get the entire lot? These private
sector implementations are either very poorly implemented or purposely
designed to make it very difficult to get the entire data set.
\\\\\\\\\\
Glenn Letham
Founder, Managing Editor
www.GISUser.com
editor@gisuser.com
Spatial Media LLC
ph/fx: (250) 751-8737
txt me: 2506185037
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\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\
Glenn Letham
Founder, Managing Editor
www.GISUser.com
editor@gisuser.com
Spatial Media LLC
ph/fx: (250) 751-8737
txt me: 2506185037
Register for the GISuser Today Newsletter
Keeping you informed about GIS & Geospatial
See http://www.GISuser.com/gisusertoday/
GISuser.com "Taking You Beyond The Map"
We also suggest you visit our partner sites:
www.MAPuser.com - land surveying
www.theamericansurveyor.com - surveyors
www.SymbianOne.com - mobile users & developers
www.LBSzone.com - mobile geospatial
\\\\\\\\\\
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