[Live-demo] Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: [Gvsig_english] New site demonstrating the use of Free & Open Source Software

[Helena Mitasova]

Just to add to the discussion:

For introductory material a simpler, basic data set may be more useful than the rather complex nc_spm_08,
for example,  here is one in GRASS format (47MB)
http://grass.osgeo.org/sampledata/north_carolina/nc_basic_spm.tar.gz

I have prepared this data set because I thought that it would be useful
 to have a set of simple data sets for different regions with standardized names of data layers
so that we can use the same tutorial with data sets from different regions. 

So Simon, if you are going to create a data set for Australia to go with your tutorials, 
it would be great if you could use the same names as in our basic data set (or if you have a suggestion
for a different name, please let me know - at this stage it will be easy to change it on
our side). Then we can use your tutorial with our nc data set and students/users
in Australia can use our tutorials with your data set. We can have this for many countries
and many different software packages we just need to agree on the names for data layers.

There are certain tasks that are region specific, such as the coordinate systems,
but many tasks, from display to analysis, would be the same.

In the nc_basic I have used the following names (I will be happy to modify whatever is needed):

raster data:
basins elevation elevation_shade  geology lakes landuse soils

vector data
boundary_region/    elev_points/        geonames/           railroads/          streams/
boundary_state/     firestations/       hospitals/                 roadsmajor/         streets/
census/             geology/            points_of_interest/        schools/            zipcodes/

We can provide the data set in other formats (similarly as we did for nc_spm_08)
and add additional type of data such as orthos or landsat.

There is a brief CLI tutorial available for GRASS with this data set
but I would like to prepare some screencaptures on "Getting started GRASS with wxGUI"
with this data during the upcoming GRASS community sprint in Prague
(where I can hopefully learn everything that I might have missed about the ne GUI  
and we can capture its proper use).

The larger data set nc_spm_08 is much more complex and goes with the GRASS book and
I am also using it for my course. I plan to release some additional, applications
oriented mapsets for this data set, but this all goes beyond the intro tutorials. 

So I very much agree with Simon that we need diversity in the data sets
both in terms of scale and geographic location, but it would be useful
to use standardized names to facilitate broader reuse of both the data sets and the tutorials.

Helena



Helena Mitasova
Associate Professor
Department of Marine, Earth, and Atmospheric Sciences
2800 Faucette Drive, Rm. 1125 Jordan Hall
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu





On Apr 29, 2011, at 8:55 PM, Simon Cropper wrote:

> On 30/04/11 08:47, Hamish wrote:
>> you're in luck, for some years the North Carolina dataset has
>> been collected and made available by and for OSGeo projects
>> exactly for this purpose. I believe the main contact/coordination
>> for that is Helena and Markus via thegeodata at lists.osgeo  mailing
>> list. GRASS already uses the grass-ified version in its tutorials
>> and ships+uses that on the OSGeo Live DVD, see
>>   http://www.grassbook.org/data_menu3rd.php
> 
> Hamish,
> 
> My comment "we now have some data" was aimed from one Australian to another Australian.
> 
> I was aware of the North Carolina datasets when I ran my pilot. They are an excellent resource.
> 
> Personally however, they did not reflect the type of vector or raster data typically available in Australia and I was interested in getting local datasets in local CRS rather than one for the northern hemisphere. For example, it is impossible to demostrate transformations from AGD66 to GDA94 using the North Carolina datasets.
> 
> My hidden agenda is to demonstrate that "my typical work" can be completed from start to finish using fosGIS. It is hard to discuss the nuances of datasets you don't usually use.
> 
> But lets face it, diversity is great, people now have a variety of resources to practice on. I have no problem with using the NC dataset in my tutorials, and will when the tasks being demonstrated call for data I currently don't have access.
> 
> -- 
> Cheers Simon
> 
>   Simon Cropper
>   Principal Consultant
>   Botanicus Australia Pty Ltd
>   PO Box 160, Sunshine, VIC
>   W: www.botanicusaustralia.com.au
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