[OSGeo-Discuss] Geodata & Education

[M.Blackmore]

On Fri, 2006-03-24 at 09:19 +0100, Markus Neteler wrote:

> The problem are not the costs, but digitizing is usually illegal
> unless the paper map isn't published under a free license or
> in public domain.

Excuse me if I am asking stupid questions - I am an utter newbie to the
cartographic world so don't know zilch ... so assume nothing can be
assumed when educating me, if you see what I mean! 

So, if in the UK we could find an old 2 inch/mile or larger Ordnance map
from the 1920s or 30s or 40s or whenever they are out of copyright, one
could get some poor sod in India (or wherever currency exchange
craziness makes it cheap to first world economies) to digitise it and
then it would be yours to update as appropriate?

That could work, I suppose, where there would be unlikely to have been
any major changes in topography like contour lines or rivers and so
forth, which would be the case around here I should think. Central
England is geologically stable over 60 years eh?

And probably not that much other change in the case of a rural area:
woodland cover not too dissimilar, nor a vast amount of road building or
new construction of dwellings or commercial buildings.

What would be the issue of adding in "by hand" or whatever, onto this
mapping base, of stuff seen in later surveys by the OS, using aerial
photos and so forth?? 

So ... could an old base map do for an environmental project where one
is trying to record vegetation and habitat, in an area where there
hasn't been (I suspect) that much gross change. Or is that simply
pipedreaming? Would it be worth the candle to play that game?