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| GeoCommunity Mailing List |
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| Mailing List Archives |
| Subject: | Re: GISList: Cost of GIS Data |
| Date: |
11/18/2002 02:02:59 PM |
| From: |
Glenn Letham (GeoCommunity) |
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FYI,
regarding the statement
"... If not, then that would truly be a hard pill to swallow. Better yet,
it's sort of like paying a premium to download USGS DEMs that were once free
to download"
Anthonly is ofcourse refering to the datadepot serving up DEM data (not the
first time he's voiced his displeasure with this).
DEMs have been and still are freely downloadable from
GeoComm/GISDatadepot.com.
You are confusing the premium download mechanism which is a paid for option
enabling users to access the data on higher speed, dedicated pipes.
DRGs and DOQ data is only available via the premium method.
Note: several other commercial outlets also act as nodes for the DEM data -
access various and may require a login process, however, generally, the data
is still free.
As for cost recovery, many government agencies seem to have some kind of
cost recovery mechanism in place because, believe it or not, data is
expensive to serve up. Offering unlimited band-with and unlimited options
only serves to encourage traffic, much like a new freeway that is at
capacity for traffic even before it has been completed - add more lanes and
more cars will come! Charging huge fees like the person mentioned in a
previous thread is crazy (although not uncommon), however, charging a
nominal fee ensures that only people really needing the data are grabbing
it. Serve it for free and everyone grabs all they can regardless of ever
needing it - those desperately requiring data will wind up waiting in line
for access.
my 2 cents
Glenn
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glenn Letham, Managing Editor
ThinkBurst Media, Inc
ph: 850-897-6778
fx: 850-897-1001
GeoCommunity - http://www.GeoComm.com
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Wireless DevNet - http://www.wirelessdevnet.com
For news enquiries and submissions see
http://spatialnews.geocomm.com/submitnews.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Quartararo" <ajq3@spatialnetworks.com>
To: <gislist@geocomm.com>
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 12:31 PM
Subject: RE: GISList: Cost of GIS Data
> Rich,
>
> All I can say is Wow. Usually, Government organizations typically hide
> behind the "cost recovery" argument in charging nominal fees for
> existing GIS (or any other data for that matter), and price usually
> varies by medium (CD, paper, etc.). However, your county seems to have
> reinvented the US Mint in their pricing structures listed below. A
> quick number crunching exercise reveals the county would make a little
> over $1.2 million if someone wanted to purchase all the layers/themes
> listed, presuming that one might be so foolish as to actually want roads
> with names and addresses, rails with names, and parcels with attributes.
> It would really burn me up if I were a taxpayer in this county and I
> wanted to obtain this, paying for it once is sufficient, paying twice is
> a problem. Is there a different structure for general public consumer
> and corporate usage (say like GDT, ETAK, etc.)? I would also question
> how a county could charge this, when, I am presuming that their source
> data is not all generated within and by the county themselves. For
> example, DTM points? Landcover? If the county shared the initial costs
> with either the State and/or Feds, I am sure someone at those levels
> would like their cut of the "cost" recovery when they start selling it
> at these premiums. Lastly, you'd probably want to ask the county GIS
> folks or whomever mandated this budget whether or not all that "cost
> recovery" money is going to go back into the GIS program and help
> maintain and improve the technology, salaries, quality, etc. of the GIS
> data and associated resources. If not, then that would truly be a hard
> pill to swallow. Better yet, it's sort of like paying a premium to
> download USGS DEMs that were once free to download. Sorry, to good to
> resist.
>
> Cheers.
>
> Anthony
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Leeson [mailto:rll@ddcinc.com]
> Sent: Monday, November 18, 2002 12:47 PM
> To: gislist@geocomm.com
> Subject: GISList: Cost of GIS Data
>
>
>
> Hello List,
>
> I have a question. The county I live in is going to start charging for
> GIS data. I was hoping to hear from other counties, cities, users, etc.
> I am trying to find out if other counties even charge for data, and if
> so their pricing structure. The county pricing structure is listed
> below, and this seems like a lot, considering there are about 583 tiles
> in our county. We were told this is based on the pricing structure of
> other counties, including Richland County here in South Carolina. Thanks
> in advance for the replies and
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