Fwd: Re: [Live-demo] What common datasets do we need?

[Simon Cropper (The fosGIS Workflow Guides)]

Hi,

I am new to this list. I have registered today to follow the 
conversation regarding use of data on the LiveDVD. I am actively 
involved in the gvSIG community  and have been on the OSGeo-Discuss and 
Education lists for a while.

I would like to make the following comments on what Alex said ...

Before I do this however I would like to preface my comments with the 
statement "Acquisition of appropriate and suitably licensed geospatial 
data for education purposes is a big issue and was the primary reason 
for my project (http://gis.fossworkflowguides.com) stalling for close to 
a year". So, my comments are not flippant remarks rather observations 
based on over a year of experience in doing what is proposed here.

 > The problem we haven't tackled is how to make the context local to the
 > conference each year.

Is this really necessary?

My expectation would be to have 'typical' data for each of the major 
regions of the world (Europe, USA, Oceania, Africa, ...). The greater 
the variety - both in resolution, data type, projects, etc the greater 
the potential of engaging new users.

I think the effort required to acquire data for each conference would be 
overwhelming. It took me many many months to negotiate data out of the 
Victoria Government. It would be a full time job for a volunteer to do 
this for every upcoming conference.

 > What I'd like to see is a list of the type of data people want, so that
 > we can try to find data that meets those needs ...

I agree. It would be good to approach the broader osgeo community to 
decide on some focal points and desired datasets (regions, CRS, data 
type, resolution, theme). Maybe a poll would be a good way of doing this.

OTHER THOUGHTS

Something else that might be worth pursuing. When a conference is 
planned I presume various people put their hand up for the privilege. 
Why can't OSGeo make it a prerequisite of getting the conference that 
some 'typical' data be supplied.

Tutorials take time to create. Consequently most get made once and are 
rarely updated -- especially as the shear logistics of updating a file 
puts most people off. If you changed your datasets for each conference 
it is implied that you would update all your tutorials so the images 
presented reflect these datasets, otherwise why acquire new data? As 
noted, it is very rare to see derivatives of any type for educational 
material. Updating every quickstart and introduction document every time 
there is a conference is quite an effort. Assuming also that you would 
need to wait until all the legalities are resolved before production is 
started, that gives the people creating the derivatives even less time 
to prepare/update the documents.

I believe, legalities aside, that any tutorial reflect typical user 
tasks on typical data, and that this data is readily available for any 
reader to download and experiment on. If a particular package is 
typically used to make world maps then use world data, if a package is 
typically used to create 1:1000 to 1:25000 maps then data relevant to 
that scale should be available. Each project needs to define a usage 
profile and data acquired so suitable tutorials can be developed.

Sorry for chiming in unannounced.

-- 
Cheers Simon

    Simon Cropper
    Website Administrator
    http://gis.fossworkflowguides.com
    The fosGIS Workflow Guide