The U.S. Geological Survey and private-sector partner TopoZone have launched The National Map project, which will provide open access to geospatial data about the United State and related open-source tools for serving the data online. Excerpt from the December 3 press release:
USGS today announced it has entered into a cooperative agreement with Maps a la carte, Inc., creators of TopoZone, to support The National Map project. As part of the one-year agreement Maps a la carte, Inc. will develop, enhance, and document a suite of Open Source software for serving geospatial data over the Internet. The agreement will result in the distribution of free software tools to The National Map partners to enhance the capability of data sharing.
Working with partners, USGS is building The National Map as a framework for geographic knowledge that will provide current, accurate, and nationally consistent digital data and topographic maps derived from those data to the Nation. The availability of software tools for hosting and serving geospatial data in a flexible, low cost way, without being tied to specific or proprietary formats or vendors, will encourage more state, local and private holders of geospatial data to serve these data through The National Map.
(Thanks to Gary Price.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/10/2003 08:46:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
