[Freegis-list] Tools

[Markus Neteler]

On Thu, Nov 02, 2000 at 12:51:11PM +0100, Carsten Schulze wrote:
> Dear Markus,
> 
> Markus Neteler wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > > We have the offical top50 CD but i dont know the fileformat and it seems to be pretty useless if you dont have the (expensive) professional version.
> > Yes, I know that CDROM. In fact, it's useless. You could just look at
> > these data, nothing else.
> > 
> I would not call this set of CDs useless. In fact, without it I would
> have large trouble in finishing my PhD. t depends on what you want to
> do. Of course, it's a pity, you may not export them, but still it's a
> rather cheap way to get digital maps, compared to other German data.

Hi Carsten,

well, the point is that you can't even get the digital boundaries of
Germany for free. For me that's unacceptable. I tried to contact the
"Statistisches Bundesamt", of course without response. They have proudly
announced their new online shop for data, but I won't pay for such
maps (of general interest) if they have been paid by taxes already.
At least a minimum dataset of European data should be available for
download from governmental web sites.

Concerning the top50 CD: I guess you are not allowed to publish any
results of your thesis without the permission of the cdrom producers
(will be LGN, Hannover). Usually they will charge you again... :-(

Well, my opinion about the map policies here in Germany is quite bad.
Same think with climate data: You cannot get anything. But if I want
full climate data from India, I can download for free (yes, tons of data).

As I am teaching GIS here at university, I am facing this data problem
regularly. Ideas are welcome!

Regards

 Markus