[Qgis-user] wishing for accurate lattitude/longitude from a cell phone

[chris hermansen]

Falk and list,

On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 11:55 AM Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu>
wrote:

> Dear Chris et al,
>
> ...by using certain specific/clumsy formats -poorly documented ones - you
> can virtually exclude
> people from data and from Remote Sensing data and GPS etc.
> Google Earth as a  classic example, and GARMIN as another, or ESRI files,
> certainly NetCDF or many R packages even.
>
> In reality, you will see that all what is shiny and new - in demand- is to
> be sold, and usually not well publically shared.
> It takes many steps to get around it, if even that.
>
> While I have used OpenStreet maps, it was very clumsy; more bad examples
> exist, e.g. lack of metadata.
> Whatever companies tell ya, they want to sell more stuff (sell PR, or
> might face bankruptcy otherwise).
>

I get your point about commercial interests.  But I think you're missing
three very important details here.

First, OpenStreetMap is provided by the OpenStreetMap Foundation see
https://www.openstreetmap.org/about which is not a company trying to sell
stuff.

Second, from the OpenStreetMap website
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=5/51.500/-0.100

OpenStreetMap data is licensed under the Open Data Commons Open Database
> License <https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/> (ODbL).
>

preamble to which is:

The Open Database License (ODbL) is a license agreement intended to allow
> users to freely share, modify, and use this Database while maintaining this
> same freedom for others. Many databases are covered by copyright, and
> therefore this document licenses these rights. Some jurisdictions, mainly
> in the European Union, have specific rights that cover databases, and so
> the ODbL addresses these rights, too. Finally, the ODbL is also an
> agreement in contract for users of this Database to act in certain ways in
> return for accessing this Database.
>

So it's open by definition.


> And it is my hope that with QGIS we get to open access and open source,
> of these data, and any other.
>
> My format of choice is plain and simple ASCII text files for those
> reasons, perhaps using the
> Virtual Machine as a platform forever (well, as long as that is
> reasonable, but not commercially driven).
>


Third, OpenStreetMap data is easily downloaded in well-documented XML
format.  It's readable and easily parsed by any number of open source XML
parsers in Python, Java, etc.  There is a lot of useful metadata
incorporated in it.

It loads directly into QGIS without fuss (I just confirmed this by
downloading some data from the OpenStreetMap site and loading into my QGIS
3.12 running on my desktop).

It's better than plain and simple ASCII text because, well, a few reasons I
can think of:

   1. it's UTF-8 not ASCII, so we get more than 128 or 256 characters
   2. its structure is documented
   3. it's well-known by other software out there (e.g. QGIS)
   4. it's readable


> Keep me posted please; very best & thanks
>

Maybe you should take another look at OpenStreetMap.

     Falk Huettmann
>
>
> On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 10:19 AM chris hermansen <clhermansen at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Falk and list;
>>
>> On Mon, May 25, 2020 at 10:48 AM Falk Huettmann <fhuettmann at alaska.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear List,
>>> I think these GPS high resolution suggestions are great;
>>> thanks.
>>>
>>> But my real interest/question here is, how can we bring it home to QGIS ?
>>>
>>> I see GARMIN essentially trying to sell and impose on us their GIS
>>> system,
>>> same applies to OpenStreet Maps etc etc. So they try to privatize
>>> geography and public space and information,
>>> which I am mostly opposed to.
>>>
>>
>> How is OpenStreetMap (I assume when you say "OpenStreet Maps" you mean
>> "OpenStreetMap") trying "to privatize geography and public space and
>> information"?   Not trying to start an argument here; this just seems
>> completely contrary to what I know of OpenStreetMap, whose data is licensed
>> under https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0/
>>
>>
>>> Instead, I wonder how we can use QGIS and release the commercial
>>> data into Open Source and public use ?
>>> That's for HIGH RESOLUTION data discussed here.
>>>
>>> Thanks for such questions and solutions.
>>>
>>
>> [stuff deleted]
>>
>>
>> --
>> Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com
>>
>> C'est ma façon de parler.
>>
>

-- 
Chris Hermansen · clhermansen "at" gmail "dot" com

C'est ma façon de parler.
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