Hey up, Coming to this fairly naive, but a couple of points / questions:
1. In continuing the campaign in the UK, would it be good to collect concrete instances of where access to data would make a big difference? In the abstract, the subject is not very accessible to people we might lobby. Example: I manage (fairly badly!) www.cohousing.org.uk - a joomla-based site. I plan /want to upgrade in the new year to a system that will allow users to submit their postcode and, from this, see who's nearby to form groups. The case for free data is clear: co-housing's a 'good thing' both socially and environmentally, but there's no way on God's Earth the cohousing network can afford geo-data. (My only option is to quietly scrape the google maps api and hope no-one notices...!) Now, there must be other cases in the voluntary and community sector. Can we collect them and store them somewhere? We can then go to people in power and say, 'look what the current state of affairs doesn't allow - it's madness, and it puts the voluntary and community sectors at a great disadvantage in comparison to wealthy organisations.' 2. I'm just starting a PhD at Leeds Geog dept; I'm going to be creating java-based local economy mapping apps - again, geo-data will be vital to make it useable. I say this coz I'm wondering quite how I can direct my energies to help this campaign. What's next? If I wanted to try and get some support in the department for, say, a lobbying exercise, what angle should I take? Can we form a national position and provide some docs for folk like me to download, and use to harrass their departments? Right, waffle over. Damn, I hate people like me who just write vague, open question e-mails...! Cheers, Dan -- 'You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.' - R. Buckminster Fuller _______________________________________________ geo-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/geo-discuss
