Re: [Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...
On Wed, 2008-04-09 at 08:30 -0700, Curt, WE7U wrote: > On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote: > > > I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state, > > county, feds? > > Blame the census takers. Feds. Federalies. Men in black? > > For the purpose of taking the every-10-year federal census they've > kept track of roads. Unfortunately the census-takers haven't had > any cartography training (hey, it's really not their job, right?). > The maps were not intended to be used for the purposes people put > them to. That philosophy is changing a bit lately and they're > trying to do a better job on the data. I suspect Gerry or Tom can > fill us in on the details, but that's my vague recollection. Let's not forget the fact that "cartographic data" (ie. street data) was never a goal of the Census. It simply fell out of the LineFile format due to their need to track data at the block and tract levels. It was literally an afterthought. Of course, since then, geographers have been using it to extract roads and other features and have increasingly put pressure on the Census to make this a real part of the Census and not a byproduct. As a result, the Census began releasing periodic updates every few years with cartographic updates. It wasn't great, but it was better than nothing. They are finally getting serious about it and storing the geographic referenced data is well known formats. Hopefully, they'll start working on the accuracy of that data... -- 73, de Brad KB8UYR/6 ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...
Curt did such a nice job of summarizing what I could have said in 10k words gerry Curt, WE7U wrote: On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote: I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state, county, feds? Blame the census takers. Feds. Federalies. Men in black? For the purpose of taking the every-10-year federal census they've kept track of roads. Unfortunately the census-takers haven't had any cartography training (hey, it's really not their job, right?). The maps were not intended to be used for the purposes people put them to. That philosophy is changing a bit lately and they're trying to do a better job on the data. I suspect Gerry or Tom can fill us in on the details, but that's my vague recollection. Even with that less than stellar cartography start, they're awfully nice road maps, and free. Hard to beat that in most other countries! Many of the commercial mapping programs start with Tiger data as their base and add to/correct it. -- Gerry Creager -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Texas Mesonet -- AATLT, Texas A&M University Cell: 979.229.5301 Office: 979.862.3982 FAX: 979.862.3983 Office: 1700 Research Parkway Ste 160, TAMU, College Station, TX 77843 ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...
I have to agree that they are a start and people use them for more than what the initial intent was. That is why I have taken to editing what I have so the maps I have will be more useful. I am finding that even the maps issued by the cities and county here are inaccurate as well, missing important info such as local parks, creeks, etc. Now to go and walk around a bit - can't sit too long. Plus the dog is dreaming. 73 from 807, Richard, N6NKO Curt, WE7U wrote: On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote: I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state, county, feds? Blame the census takers. Feds. Federalies. Men in black? For the purpose of taking the every-10-year federal census they've kept track of roads. Unfortunately the census-takers haven't had any cartography training (hey, it's really not their job, right?). The maps were not intended to be used for the purposes people put them to. That philosophy is changing a bit lately and they're trying to do a better job on the data. I suspect Gerry or Tom can fill us in on the details, but that's my vague recollection. Even with that less than stellar cartography start, they're awfully nice road maps, and free. Hard to beat that in most other countries! Many of the commercial mapping programs start with Tiger data as their base and add to/correct it. ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
Re: [Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...
On Wed, 9 Apr 2008, Richard Polivka, N6NKO wrote: > I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state, > county, feds? Blame the census takers. Feds. Federalies. Men in black? For the purpose of taking the every-10-year federal census they've kept track of roads. Unfortunately the census-takers haven't had any cartography training (hey, it's really not their job, right?). The maps were not intended to be used for the purposes people put them to. That philosophy is changing a bit lately and they're trying to do a better job on the data. I suspect Gerry or Tom can fill us in on the details, but that's my vague recollection. Even with that less than stellar cartography start, they're awfully nice road maps, and free. Hard to beat that in most other countries! Many of the commercial mapping programs start with Tiger data as their base and add to/correct it. -- Curt, WE7U. archer at eskimo dot com http://www.eskimo.com/~archer Lotto: A tax on people who are bad at math. - unknown Windows: Microsoft's tax on computer illiterates. - WE7U. The world DOES revolve around me: I picked the coordinate system!" ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
[Xastir] A rant on the shapefiles...
I have to thank the authors/contributors to Quantum GIS. This program is proving to be quite useful in editing the TIGER 2007 FE shapefiles. There is s much missing from Milwaukee county, it is unbelievable. I am just using it on my laptop but I can see where BigBox with its three eyes can be an asset to this. I am wondering who participated in getting these maps made? Was it state, county, feds? It really does not matter, I am laid up with a flu bug so I have been playing to keep from going wacky. I am not one who likes being ill but the legs just don't want to cooperate too long walking. Mr. Creager - I realize that you have offered to be a repository of the shapefiles. How about making a subdirectory "contributed" where we, as a group, can put in updated shapefiles as they are cleaned up, augmented, whatever? The feds have supplied the basics, now we have an opportunity to make the products USEFUL. 73 from 807, Richard, N6NKO P.S.: Dreaming of qty 4 of 21" 1280x1024 flatpanel monitors on BigBox ___ Xastir mailing list Xastir@xastir.org http://lists.xastir.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xastir
