[OSGeodata] FOIA and VMAP1 anyone?

[Jo Walsh]

dear Ned, Chris, all,

On Fri, Jul 07, 2006 at 05:16:40PM -0400, Chris Holmes wrote:
> >data because they resided on CDs that contained restricted data. They
> >claimed that the amount of work required to extract these data from the CD
> >was too great to qualify for a FOIA request.
> Interesting.  Do you have a list of what countries don't have 
> 'restrictions'?  I'll forward this information on to my friend, see what 
> he thinks.  But basically he's kind of in to harassing the government 
> for things like this.  And I don't think he'd consider the fact that it 
> resides on a CD that has restricted data a good enough argument, and 
> would be willing to try to prove it in a court of law.
> >If you're interested I'm happy to share the somewhat outdated material that
> >I have (letters, contacts, CD index map, VMAP 1 CD availability). 
> That'd be great.

This cound be a good place to start - collecting case histories
from those who have tried and been stonewalled. If one started a wiki
page / archive as a place to stand, I reckon quite a few people with 
related histories would put their hands up. 

My sense about this is; this debate has been going on a long while[0].
It's likely a apt time for another attempt. Wikipedia mentions a "Free
World Maps Foundation" working on this, but the only trace of them
left is a now-defunct MSN groups page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector_Map#Debate_about_availability_of_data

But, I am not sure that FOIA is the best vehicle for this. 
>From what little i understand, agencies are not obliged to release
data under FOIA if it requires processing to release it from
exemptions. One possibility would be to offer to sign an NDA as a
trusted party, and do the processing to make the data fit for public
release. This could be a useful stance for OSGeo to take, but could be
a lot of overhead as a project. I reckon it would also be really
helpful to have a good, detailed use case for what would be done with
VMap1 - not just "we want the data on principle" but "here are the
educational / social purposes we'd put it to". How useful *is* VMap1
really going to be, given its age? (we can't know, right? ;/) 

(A related fun story is Mike Frumin's attempts to get Metrocard
transit-usage tracking data out of the New York transit authority via
FOIL, to make optimal-path maps of subway journeys - 
http://research.eyebeam.org/projects/nyc-metrocard-foil )

Last year I talked to some people from the OSI who seemed very
interested in the idea of carrying out "impact litigation" to get
VMap1 into the public domain in full; it is possible they would
respond positively to a funding approach. (Chris, maybe you've joined
the dots there already?) 

I hope in any case to open a conversation with NIMA/NGA about VMap* on
behalf of OSGeo and this group - Markus suggested we contact them to
attempt to get definite, reproducible word as to the extent of the
non-commercial copyright that ESRI claims it holds in VMap0.
 
cheers,

jo

[0] http://lists.directionsmag.com/discussion/read.php?f=13&i=15&t=13  
[1]
http://69.17.46.181/manifold/manuals/5_userman/mfd50Public_Access_to_Public_Data.htm