[GRASS-user] Very high resolution topographic map of Europe: need help and advices: UPDATE

GRASS GRASS user
,
1

It is entirely unacceptable that data produced with European
public funding is available in one random, proprietary format only.

Maybe we should all email them individually and ask for an
open standard format, so they see that there is some
wider interest in this.

Ben

----- Original Message -----
From: "Felix Schalck" <felix.schalck@gmail.com>
To: "Markus Neteler" <neteler@osgeo.org>, "benjamin ducke" <benjamin.ducke@oxfordarch.co.uk>
Cc: "grass-user" <grass-user@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:05:10 AM GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlin / Bern / Rome / Stockholm / Vienna
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Very high resolution topographic map of Europe: need help and advices: UPDATE

Hi,

I got news from the GDAL mailing list, where I posted a similar
question about that strange format I downloaded on the CCM JRC web
page. It seems to be the new ArcGIS file geodatabase format introduced
by ESRI in ArcGIS 9.2, according to Jason Roberts and Frank Warmerdam.
The important thing here is that it is a different database format
(from .mdb or argis personal database), entirely proprietary which
cannot, as of september 2009, be read by any OGR driver. So we took
steps to contact the author/distributor of CCM data in order to have
the set distributed in another format. More on this to follow.

Regards,

Felix

------
Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info for more information.

2

I agree that this is unacceptable and contradicts/undermines the efforts of organizations and standards body who work on data-formats and web services that help to support vendor-independent standards, such as GML, WFS, Interlis, etc. Doesn't Inspire, and other european projects, mandate open formats and vendor independent access to data?

Andreas

Benjamin Ducke wrote:

It is entirely unacceptable that data produced with European public funding is available in one random, proprietary format only.

Maybe we should all email them individually and ask for an
open standard format, so they see that there is some
wider interest in this.

Ben

----- Original Message -----
From: "Felix Schalck" <felix.schalck@gmail.com>
To: "Markus Neteler" <neteler@osgeo.org>, "benjamin ducke" <benjamin.ducke@oxfordarch.co.uk>
Cc: "grass-user" <grass-user@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:05:10 AM GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlin / Bern / Rome / Stockholm / Vienna
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Very high resolution topographic map of Europe: need help and advices: UPDATE

Hi,

I got news from the GDAL mailing list, where I posted a similar
question about that strange format I downloaded on the CCM JRC web
page. It seems to be the new ArcGIS file geodatabase format introduced
by ESRI in ArcGIS 9.2, according to Jason Roberts and Frank Warmerdam.
The important thing here is that it is a different database format
(from .mdb or argis personal database), entirely proprietary which
cannot, as of september 2009, be read by any OGR driver. So we took
steps to contact the author/distributor of CCM data in order to have
the set distributed in another format. More on this to follow.

Regards,

Felix

------
Files attached to this email may be in ISO 26300 format (OASIS Open Document Format). If you have difficulty opening them, please visit http://iso26300.info for more information.

_______________________________________________
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user
  

3

On Sat, 2009-09-19 at 12:38 +0000, Benjamin Ducke wrote:

It is entirely unacceptable that data produced with European
public funding is available in one random, proprietary format only.

Maybe we should all email them individually and ask for an
open standard format, so they see that there is some
wider interest in this.

Ben

+1

Nikos

----- Original Message -----
From: "Felix Schalck" <felix.schalck@gmail.com>
To: "Markus Neteler" <neteler@osgeo.org>, "benjamin ducke" <benjamin.ducke@oxfordarch.co.uk>
Cc: "grass-user" <grass-user@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:05:10 AM GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlin / Bern / Rome / Stockholm / Vienna
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Very high resolution topographic map of Europe: need help and advices: UPDATE

Hi,

I got news from the GDAL mailing list, where I posted a similar
question about that strange format I downloaded on the CCM JRC web
page. It seems to be the new ArcGIS file geodatabase format introduced
by ESRI in ArcGIS 9.2, according to Jason Roberts and Frank Warmerdam.
The important thing here is that it is a different database format
(from .mdb or argis personal database), entirely proprietary which
cannot, as of september 2009, be read by any OGR driver. So we took
steps to contact the author/distributor of CCM data in order to have
the set distributed in another format. More on this to follow.

Regards,
Felix

4

Looks like we all agree on this. I'm sure there was a good reason
behind adopting ESRI file geodatabase, like the 2Gb file limit of
previously used ms access dbs, but adopting ONLY ESRI formats is
definitely not very public-friendly. Now, I'm sure that each new short
message left int Mr Vogt Message box
(juergen.vogt(-at/arobase-)jrc.ec.europa.eu), contributes to increase
our chances to get the data published in a another format. Hermann
Pfeffer, from the eea (european environment agency) just wrote me that
an existing eu law obliging all eu-institutions to respond to public
inquiries within 2 weeks, further increasing our chances to get an
answer.

Thank you all for your interest,

Felix

2009/9/19 Nikos Alexandris <nikos.alexandris@felis.uni-freiburg.de>:

On Sat, 2009-09-19 at 12:38 +0000, Benjamin Ducke wrote:

It is entirely unacceptable that data produced with European
public funding is available in one random, proprietary format only.

Maybe we should all email them individually and ask for an
open standard format, so they see that there is some
wider interest in this.

Ben

+1

Nikos

----- Original Message -----
From: "Felix Schalck" <felix.schalck@gmail.com>
To: "Markus Neteler" <neteler@osgeo.org>, "benjamin ducke" <benjamin.ducke@oxfordarch.co.uk>
Cc: "grass-user" <grass-user@lists.osgeo.org>
Sent: Saturday, September 19, 2009 12:05:10 AM GMT +01:00 Amsterdam / Berlin / Bern / Rome / Stockholm / Vienna
Subject: Re: [GRASS-user] Very high resolution topographic map of Europe: need help and advices: UPDATE

Hi,

I got news from the GDAL mailing list, where I posted a similar
question about that strange format I downloaded on the CCM JRC web
page. It seems to be the new ArcGIS file geodatabase format introduced
by ESRI in ArcGIS 9.2, according to Jason Roberts and Frank Warmerdam.
The important thing here is that it is a different database format
(from .mdb or argis personal database), entirely proprietary which
cannot, as of september 2009, be read by any OGR driver. So we took
steps to contact the author/distributor of CCM data in order to have
the set distributed in another format. More on this to follow.

Regards,
Felix

_______________________________________________
grass-user mailing list
grass-user@lists.osgeo.org
http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/grass-user

5

Felix Schalck wrote:

Looks like we all agree on this. I'm sure there was a good reason
behind adopting ESRI file geodatabase, like the 2Gb file limit of
previously used ms access dbs, but adopting ONLY ESRI formats is
definitely not very public-friendly. Now, I'm sure that each new short
message left int Mr Vogt Message box
(juergen.vogt(-at/arobase-)jrc.ec.europa.eu), contributes to increase
our chances to get the data published in a another format. Hermann
Pfeffer, from the eea (european environment agency) just wrote me that
an existing eu law obliging all eu-institutions to respond to public
inquiries within 2 weeks, further increasing our chances to get an
answer.

Felix,

I am convinced that the EEA will respond. FYI, you can have a look at a
similar "discussion" concerning the CORINE land cover which took place
some months ago [1][2][3][4][5].

As an extra-sidenote: I never got a reply from the official authority in
Greece (although I've contacted 2-3 times by e-mail) who sells the
(public domain) CORINE data at *high* prices.

Best regards, Nikos
---

[1] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geodata/2009-January/000801.html
[2] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geodata/2009-January/000807.html
[3] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geodata/2009-February/000811.html
[4] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geodata/2009-February/000812.html
[5] http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/geodata/2009-February/000813.html