[OSGeo-Discuss] Introduction - hi; gis based wychwood work; pointers on how to enter "GIS" world?

[M.Blackmore]

On Mon, 2006-03-13 at 13:28 -0500, Ian Turton wrote:

>         
> 
> To get you started is this the sort of map that you could use?
> 
> http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision?version=1.1.0&request=getMap&layers=newpop%2Csmall_1920%2Cmed_1904&styles=&SRS=EPSG:27700&Format=image/png&width=450&height=450&bgcolor=cfd6e5&bbox=431269.31870141765,214598.0795610425,436619.11294010084,219947.8737997257&exception=application/vnd.ogc.se_inimage 
> 
I don't know - is it?? This data thing is going to be the real killer
for the idea/dream of doing self-booting educational CDs/DVDs for kids
or public participation stuff. 

Because there is a access for now to datasets from Thames Water (I think
it is they, can't quite remember the name, Thames something) who have a
sort of agreement with various environmental organisations in the
surrounding area to act as a central repository for mapping information
of conservancy stuff, this can be seperated from the issue of moving
Wychwood away from expensive and proprietary restrictions of Mapinfo
into an open source alternative, so that everyone can have a "GIS on a
desktop". Unless there is any per user or per computer restriction on
the OS maps and GIS overlays/database files (right terminology?) from
the Thames people being handed over to Wychwood and the other nature
bodies. Could there be such a limitation? Or would that be unreasonable
- sort of a site licence for anyone associated with the project.

At least getting them out of restricted proprietary software would open
up possibilities if data isn't per computer restricted. 

At the moment even the most basic thing like me going along for a couple
of hours a morning a week to enter data onto a mapinfo layer as
collected by volunteer surveyors (thus giving me a chance to play with a
GIS a bit and learn some utter basics) is restricted as mapinfo is only
on the Director's PC and he has to have somewhere to work so one of the
other staff has to be out of the office for him to shift over so I can
use it! Ridiculous situation for a project which has hardly enough core
funding to buy paper clips by the box...

OK. Back to the map reference you sent. Not that much has changed apart
from some more houses (wasn't the town small then??). Most of the major
woodland areas are there, and we wouldn't expect to see any contour
changes over that sort of time, I should think.

However, that map section covers just a bit of the whole historic
Wychwood area, which runs a lot further east towards Oxford, south
towards Witney, somewhat more west and north. Of course the bit you've
highlighted is the surviving (and for Britain a most major and
significant) chunk of old forest, but access is very restricted by Lord
Cornbury - and I'd better not go into the comments I've heard about him
since moving here from Oxford!

That looks like a 1 inch map. Also its an image isn't it? That isn't
"digitised" is it? 

This is where my ignorance shows through, profound ignorance. Does one
need it to be digitised? If not, how does it work to make a useful way
to modify and add changes to as we find them? Could one then "add in"
stuff by hand from more recent surveys and it still be out of copyright?
Is this feasible for an area of that size - the whole project area is
probably 4-5 times that large. Would one do this by voluntary effort or
dig in and find some grant money to send it off to the 3rd world to do
so thus enabling our own private dataset and digitised map?

I don't have a clue whats possible! The book I ordered through the
county library (their only item, Principles of Geographic IS, by J.A.
Burroughs, 1998 - any use?) hasn't arrived yet...

And thats the old 1 inch map isn't it - not sure that is detailed enough
for the sort of analysis that would be wanted in the long run... is it
enough or would one need to go to a larger scale - and if so, what
scale? Also, its not on the same sort of measurement metric
(terminology?) as the, err, metric maps is it? How does one deal with
that? And its not covering the larger area? One would need to find maps
detailing this wider remit zone for the project.

Are there larger scale maps from olden days covering this area that
could be digitised? 

What on earth does one do about all these obstacles, seeming obstacles
to me 'cos I don't know what is about what (being a clueless newbie)?


Oh dear, this whole bright idea is turning out to be a LOT more
complicated than I thought. I should know by my age that is usually the
case with technologically based systems...

HELP <glug glug glug>


> 
> It dates from the 1940s and thus is out of copyright! It might be
> enough to get you started - I'd reccomend Tyler's book and UDIG as an
> OS Desktop GIS. You should be able to explore the dataset I've pointed
> to above by opening http://vision.edina.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wms-vision? in
> the web map layer wizard.
> 
> Ian
> 
> 
> -- 
> 
> Ian Turton
> http://www.geotools.org
> http://pennspace.blogspot.com/ 
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