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

[Cameron Shorter]

I think Simon has made some very valuable observations:

1. Despite the fact that it would be really cool to switch our core 
datasets to the local FOSS4G city, this practically has a unobtainable 
maintenance cost for downstream tutorials and documentation.

As such, I think it is ok, to have one or two sample datasets which 
change with each foss4g city, but the majority of datasets, and the ones 
which are used for quickstarts should be static. (We have a OSM dataset 
which can switch to the FOSS4G city).

2. We need to have local datasets, while we would like to personalise 
these local datasets for local users, we need to face the fact that we 
have a global audience, and limited space, and as such local examples 
won't be local for most users.

So as I think most of us have been hinting at, lets pick representative 
sample datasets, then stick with them.



On 27/05/11 14:58, Hamish wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> so that we don't all individually reinvent 27 wheels using our own
> custom datasets, to start with let's take inventory of what we already
> have in the way of common datasets on the v4.5 disc:
>
>
> - natural earth shapefiles, + pre-loaded into PostGIS.  (global coverage)
> - natural earth raster DEM, 1:50M global relief         (global coverage)
> - OpenStreetMap extract of the host city, +pre-loaded into PostGIS.
>       (host city coverage)
>
> some apps also install general use geodata into ~/data/:
> - a couple small Barcelona kmz files
> - udig ships some nice shapefiles + geo-jpeg rasters for general use
> - in the raster dir, what appears to be 3-band LANDSAT (no metadata!),
>     and SRTM elevation data, both for Barcelona (2010 host city)
>
> -AND-
>
> - one month ago I added support for the OSGeo Geodata project's North
>     Carolina sample dataset. It includes shapefiles, geotiffs, and KML
>     files mainly focusing on&  around Hood County (bus routes, etc),
>     but also some maps at the State level to put those in context.
>    It's worth noting that this dataset was put together a few years ago
>    by osgeo people with the expressed purpose of being used as a sample
>    dataset for all OSGeo projects.. contact geodata at lists.osgeo.org
>    All licensed in the clear of course. see the links below for details
>    about the different vector, satellite, etc layers provided.
>    ~100mb total.
>
> trunk/bin/install_gisdata.sh:
> [...]
> #################################################
> #   TODO:  decide to ship the NC data or not.   #
> #################################################
> # Download the North Carolina sample dataset
> #  contact: geodata at lists dot osgeo.org
> # about: http://www.grassbook.org/data_menu3rd.php
> # license: Creative Commons
> # metadata index: http://www.grassbook.org/ncexternal/nc_datalist.html
>
> # grab shapefiles, geotiffs, and KMLs (~100mb total)
> FILES="shape rast_geotiff kml"
> BASE_URL="http://grass.osgeo.org/sampledata/north_carolina"
>
> cd "$TMP"
> mkdir nc_data&&  cd nc_data
> for FILE in $FILES ; do
>     wget -N --progress=dot:mega "$BASE_URL/nc_$FILE.tar.gz""
> done
>
> #and install them ...
> mkdir -p "$DATA_FOLDER/north_carolina"
> cd "$DATA_FOLDER/north_carolina"
> for FILE in $FILES ; do
>     mkdir -p $FILE
>     cd $FILE
>     tar xzf "$TMP/nc_data/nc_$FILE.tar.gz"
>     cd ..
> done
>
>
>
>
> it seems to me that for tutorials&  such we require:
>
>    - a global coastline etc (natural earth layers)     (done)
>    - OSM data for the host city, + some KML POIs       (done)
>    - multiband LANDSAT and SRTM rasters for host city  (done)
>    ^^^ all the above host city data symlinked to unchanging filenames
>    - a rich city/county scale dataset with .SHPs and geotiffs (propose NC)
>    - a dataset support team (osgeo's geodata committee seems like a
>       no-brainer to maintain/coordinate it all...)
>
>
> regards,
> Hamish
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

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