Just about every USGS DRG topographic map that was liberated is now available on the Internet Archive. This weekend I updated the Libre Map Project web site to point to the Internet Archive hosted DRG’s. I also splurged and bought libremap.org which is where the site now resides.

You can now use libremap.org to search geonames (towns, mountains, etc.) and it will return the appropriate DRG. Or you can just get a listing of the every DRG map for each state.

It is nice to finally make these maps available. Thanks again to the 100+ contributors that helped liberate these Public Domain maps. Happy downloading!

I spoke with the Internet Archive today in hopes of getting a better idea of when they would make the liberated maps available.  They are currently working on the September 11 archive.  Once that is done, the maps should get some attention.  Timeframe given was, “a few days to a week”.

To test out Flickr’s new geotagging feature, I just finished up “mapping” all our 251 Club photos with Flickr. For a first attempt, they’ve done a great job of making it easy to geotag photos.  It isn’t always great at finding street addresses (in Vermont at least), but the drag-and-drop functionality is very smooth.

Another annoyance is that, in order for the map to be useable, they have to limit the number of photos that are shown on any given map.  They seem to be very conservative with how many dots per page they show.  This means you have to page through all the photos, which takes time to refresh. So the process is a bit slow.
As more people geotag photos, this has the potential of providing a way to find interesting sites in particular areas.

Click here for my geotagged photos around Vermont.

In less than 24 hours the Ransom has been met!  Over 100 awesome, generous, Map Liberators donated or bought maps on DVD.

It’s been a great day.  I’m exhuasted.

Two and a half years ago I started the Libre Map Project. My goal was to make maps and GIS data freely available on one centralized web site. During that time I contaced the USGS in hopes that they would coolaborate by sharing data with me. That approach was basically met with silence. Next, I decided to submit multiple Freedom of Information Act requests trying to get Public Domain maps without having to pay thousands of dollars. Those were denied as well.

I’m now announcing a ransom. Instead of spending years trying to get the USGS to hand over the data, I have purchased every 1:24,000 scale DRG topographic maps from a USGS business partner. The Internet Archive has also agreed to host these maps so anyone can download them for free. But wait! Before I hand the data over to the Internet Archive, I am looking to the Internet community to help me recoup my costs.

Meet the $1600 ransom by donating or buying maps on DVD, and these maps will be liberated forever.

Read More on the Map Ransom page…

Microsoft has been claiming to add Bird’s eye view arial photography service to counter Google Maps. Well they’ve finally stepped up and it is amazing (see local.live.com). The oblique aerial photos are provided by Pictometry. The interface still sort of stinks (I presume it works better in IE). Pictured is our house.

On a related note, AppleInsider reports that Google Earth for Mac OS X is still in the works.

The internets move fast. While Seth and I have been distracted, others have made progress mating MBTA data with Google maps.

After I posted on Seth’s blog that I was finding the Lat/Long of T stops by hand, Steve Pomeroy chimed in to let us know that this data was freely available on the Mass GIS website. He cleaned up and made it available here.

Craig Thrall (I think) has gone ahead and gotten all the T lines drawn with polylines. As Seth suspected, when the map has lots of points used to draw polylines, things get really slow. So our plan has been to use a combination of overlay images and points. To see an extreme example of this, the 400+ NYC subway stops have been plotted using points. Warning, the link made firefox chug away for long enough that I got bored and force quit.

Joe Huges has used the MBTA trip planner data with google maps.

Seth got mentioned in a piece in the Boston Globe: Thinking maps.

And a blog has popped up to keep track of Google Maps projects: Google Maps Mania

A few weeks ago I decided to do my first Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Every U.S. citizen should make a FOIA request before they die… I guess.

Mostly curious what the result would be, I made my request for a single Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) map file from the USGS. I used this FOIA letter generator to get started. Then touched it up. Basically explaining that I wanted the fee waived because I intended to make it freely available to everyone on the Internet for research etc.

The FOIA states that the government has 20 business days to repspond to the request. Today, about 20 business days since I sent it, I received my response. I expected them to just say no and give me a silly reason. Instead, they ignored my hearfelt story and wrote: (scan of the letter)

Dear Mr. Benedict:

This is in response to your Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request dated March 25, 2005 and received in this office on March 30, 2005. In your request you sought copies of USGS 7.5 Minute Series Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) topographic map of Morrisville, Vermont. We are enclosing a page from our website (http://topomaps.usgs.gov/drg/) that explains how to order DRGs. If you have questions, call 1-888-ASK-USGS.

Sincerely,

John Cordyack
USGS FOIA Officer

When reading the instructions on how to submit a FOIA request it says to be very clear on exactly you what you want. It failed to mention that you should also be very clear every possible thing that you don’t want. I am fully aware that the USGS has business partners that are more than happy to sell me the map, the reason I went through the trouble of asking is because I already paid the US government with my taxes. The electronic file is public domain. Why should I have to pay again? I’ll keep trying.