[Freegis-list] RE: FYI: Restrictions on access to GIS and spacial data

[Allan Doyle]

There's also LOCKSS (Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) idea at
http://lockss.stanford.edu/

I suspect that LOCKSS meets Geospatial would offer up some interesting
problems but would also provide some good opportunities.

	Allan

"Matt.Wilkie" wrote:
> 
> Hi Folks,
> 
> Having been burned a few times when websites zip off to the great
> electron recycler in the void, I have developed a policy of always
> maintaining a local backup of data (if I can find the disk space)
> used and retrieved from external servers as there is no guarantee
> it will remain online for future reuse. It seems that now policies
> like this are becoming more important than ever to actually follow.
> 
> In the wake of Sept11 data deemed potentially available for
> terrorist explotation is being pulled offline. Geospatial data by
> it's very location specific nature is particularily vulnerable to
> this concern. Unfortunately, chances are if it's useful for
> terrorists it is also important to the general populous. For
> example one of the "disappeared" datasets is the US Environmental
> Protection Agency's Risk Management Plans for hazardous chemicals.
> These plans provide three elements about chemicals being used in
> plants: a hazard assessment, a prevention program, and an emergency
> response plan.
> 
> I fully expect that with the passage of time most of this data will
> become available again. Inevitably though, some of it will not and
> you, an end user, will are unlikely to be involved in the decisions
> of what comes back and what doesn't.
> 
> If the collective memory called the internet continues becoming a
> more unreliable storage mechanism, will we all be trying to build
> local "mini" internet mirrors?
> 
> take care,
> 
> -matt
> 
> Antidotes:
>         http://www.bootstrap.org/
>         http://longnow.org/
>         http://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Williams [brucewms at pacbell.net]
> Sent: 2001 October 15 09:21
> To: vtp at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [vtp] FYI: Restrictions on access to GIS and spacial data
> 
> The Federal Government seems to be restricting access to some GIS
> and spacial data. Not to panic, just for you to notice....
> 
> http://www.ombwatch.org/info/2001/access.html
> 
> The National Imagery and Mapping Agency "stopped selling large-scale
> digital maps to the public through its Web site and turned off the
> search engine on its Web site that allowed customers to download
> maps from its archives," according to the St. Petersburg Times.
> 
> Most of the Geographic Information Services at the Bureau of
> Transportation Statistics have been removed from the web site (see
> http://www.bts.gov/gis/). The site is a national resource for
> transportation spatial data and GIS in transportation information.
> One activist noted that the web site previously indicated that the
> agency was reviewing the site for security reasons. Now when you
> click on Geospatial Data, Map Gallery, or State GIS Resources, the
> site indicates that information is "currently unavailable." In
> response to an email question about why the information was
> unavailable and when it will return, we received the following:
> "Due to the attacks on September 11th, BTS and all other government
> agencies have had to reevaluate the content available through our
> web pages. We do not yet know if this data will be available in the
> future or if we will permanently offer it only to federal, state and
> local officials. We apologize for this inconvenience and if you
> would like I will notify you when we have made a final decision on
> the matter."
> 
> Bruce Williams
> 
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-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Allan Doyle                         http://www.intl-interfaces.com
adoyle at intl-interfaces.com