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There are 19 posts — by 12 authors — in this topic.
Latest post made by Mark Harris at 2009 Jun 16 16:17 NZST

From: gnat Date: 2009 Jun 15 23:35 NZST Short link

Hello folks, welcome to the ninja-talk list for opengovt.org.nz.

Here's the history: at GOVIS, a bunch of us got together to say "we
want another government Bar Camp" and ended up saying "and it should
have a hackathon at the end so we can build the stuff we talk about."
We railroaded Mark Harris into putting his hand up to help organise it
and July/August was mentioned.  (Conveniently, when I'm out of the
country :-)

The next week, Glen Barnes and I decided to stop talking about how
wonderful it would be if there were a catalogue of all the open data
available from the New Zealand Government.  I registered the domain
and set up hosting, and Glen built a Wordpress site to house the
list.  http://opengovt.org.nz will take you there.  There's a git
repository for the source:
http://github.com/barnaclebarnes/open-data/tree/master

Other projects we've talked about:
- an OIA request tracker like http://whatdotheyknow.com (but better--
Ed Corkery has specific improvements in mind)
- Write To Them (enter your address, get simple email system to write
to your local and central government representatives)
- Fix My Street (enter your address, report potholes and other repairs
necessary)

I'd like to get two or three projects up and running and then set up
some legal infrastructure to own the domain names, take formal
donations, etc.  I figure it's easier to go to people once you've
demonstrated the value you can add.

So I think the next steps are to help the catalogue get uptake (add
data, tweak SEO, etc.) and decide which project to tackle next.  Does
that sound right to everyone?  I'm happy to listen to "what about ...".

From: Ed Corkery Date: 2009 Jun 15 23:51 NZST Short link

Hey guys,

Just a note: as discussed by myself, Nat and Glen in a separate email thread,
the Aussie owner of open.org.nz will transfer it for $AU250.

If we can scrape together that amount, I propose we have Nat transfer the
domain to his ownership, to be used as the umbrella domain for the entire
effort.

Also lends itself to "Open New Zealand" / "Open NZ" or similar as the movement
name.

From: Rumi Shivaz Date: 2009 Jun 16 08:26 NZST Short link

Nat/Ed

Great work ... happy to contribute to get the domain name.

From: Mike Riversdale Date: 2009 Jun 16 08:50 NZST Short link

Happy to stump up the dollars
(NZ$315<http://www.google.co.nz/search?rlz=1C1GGLS_en-USNZ291NZ306&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=250+aud+in+nzd>
)
Cheers, Mike Riversdale

tel: +64 (0)21-169 1359
Skype: mike.riversdale
email: <email obscured>
web: http://www.miramarmike.co.nz

From: Mike Riversdale Date: 2009 Jun 16 08:53 NZST Short link

Thanks for the context Nat, very helpful.
*BarCamp *- look forward to it & happy to help organising
*Data catalogue* - will start trawling for data sets (will ask if some of
the @NZGovtFeeds trolls want to be involved)

*Other ideas, all good.*
I wouldn't want this/"us" to replicate current functionality though, eg Fix
My Street = http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/fixit/index.php
 / http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Contact/RequestForService/ unless it was awesomely
better (in this case use of a map ;-)

I think that the "Ninja's" should focus upon "open" by enabling the
permeability of the Govt (local/national) walls.
Anything that does that is good for me.

Cheers, Mike Riversdale

tel: +64 (0)21-169 1359
Skype: mike.riversdale
email: <email obscured>
web: http://www.miramarmike.co.nz

---------
MiramarMike.co.nz - Connecting people to people via information


On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:28 PM, Nathan Torkington
<email obscured>>wrote:

> Hello folks, welcome to the ninja-talk list for opengovt.org.nz.
>
> Here's the history: at GOVIS, a bunch of us got together to say "we
> want another government Bar Camp" and ended up saying "and it should
> have a hackathon at the end so we can build the stuff we talk about."
> We railroaded Mark Harris into putting his hand up to help organise it
> and July/August was mentioned.  (Conveniently, when I'm out of the
> country :-)
>
> The next week, Glen Barnes and I decided to stop talking about how
> wonderful it would be if there were a catalogue of all the open data
> available from the New Zealand Government.  I registered the domain
> and set up hosting, and Glen built a Wordpress site to house the
> list.  http://opengovt.org.nz will take you there.  There's a git
> repository for the source:
> http://github.com/barnaclebarnes/open-data/tree/master
>
> Other projects we've talked about:
> - an OIA request tracker like http://whatdotheyknow.com (but better--
> Ed Corkery has specific improvements in mind)
> - Write To Them (enter your address, get simple email system to write
> to your local and central government representatives)
> - Fix My Street (enter your address, report potholes and other repairs
> necessary)
>
> I'd like to get two or three projects up and running and then set up
> some legal infrastructure to own the domain names, take formal
> donations, etc.  I figure it's easier to go to people once you've
> demonstrated the value you can add.
>
> So I think the next steps are to help the catalogue get uptake (add
> data, tweak SEO, etc.) and decide which project to tackle next.  Does
> that sound right to everyone?  I'm happy to listen to "what about ...".
>
> Cheers;
>
> Nat
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/2GUklowu8Ysnmml0F2iuUs
>
> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>
> Start your own free groups and site with
> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>
> Host your own online groups site with
> GroupServer http://groupserver.org
>

From: Glen Barnes Date: 2009 Jun 16 09:45 NZST Short link

I would say that developing Fix My Street would replicate the Local
Council's functionality but a lot better http://fixmystreet.ca/. It
also offers the opportunity to harness things like the iPhone App
(http://www.mysociety.org/2008/12/10/fixmystreet-iphone/
) and other innovations. I'm sure that once we get some traction we
can hook into the council websites even if it is by submitting the
form via a script with the details and a url to our page.  Anyway Fix
My Street is next on the list for me personally if someone wants to
get it installed.

From: Andrew Watkins Date: 2009 Jun 16 09:53 NZST Short link

The wellington repair request is too local.  The point of a fix my street is
that there is one known national site to visit and it works out which
council to send the report to.
Andrew

2009/6/16 Glen Barnes <email obscured>>

From: Andrew Watkins Date: 2009 Jun 16 09:59 NZST Short link

I am working on opening up the data in NIWA.  I am planning to make a
'turning point' presentation to the board sometime soon and will welcome
slideware, content, facts etc that I can use.
Much of our data is published anyway on the www.niwa.co.nz website e.g
https://secure.niwa.co.nz/wqis/index.do water quality information system.
The usability here sucks but if you rtfm you can get the data out.  However
only 200 rows are available to not logged in persons.  Also there is no
direct query or web service style interface.

I have requests from the science teams around this sort of service asking
how they can restrict access.  e.g to prevent access outside of NZ, to limit
data to known groups of people etc.  I'm stalling on this and want to get a
top level policy decision that basically says.

Making the data available freely to everyone, providing easy discoverability
and access will provide value to the NZ community, but will not cause NIWA
to lose out financially as it will bring in future research dollars.  In
otherwords my key point is not to sell what we have now - but to be paid to
gather more.  Does that make sense?

Anyway all supporting evidence welcome.

Andrew



2009/6/16 Mike Riversdale <email obscured>>

> Thanks for the context Nat, very helpful.
> *BarCamp *- look forward to it & happy to help organising
> *Data catalogue* - will start trawling for data sets (will ask if some of
> the @NZGovtFeeds trolls want to be involved)
>
> *Other ideas, all good.*
> I wouldn't want this/"us" to replicate current functionality though, eg Fix
> My Street = http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/fixit/index.php
>  / http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Contact/RequestForService/ unless it was
> awesomely
> better (in this case use of a map ;-)
>
> I think that the "Ninja's" should focus upon "open" by enabling the
> permeability of the Govt (local/national) walls.
> Anything that does that is good for me.
>
> Cheers, Mike Riversdale
>
> tel: +64 (0)21-169 1359
> Skype: mike.riversdale
> email: <email obscured>
> web: http://www.miramarmike.co.nz
> ---------
> MiramarMike.co.nz - Connecting people to people via information
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:28 PM, Nathan Torkington <email obscured>
> >wrote:
>
> > Hello folks, welcome to the ninja-talk list for opengovt.org.nz.
> >
> > Here's the history: at GOVIS, a bunch of us got together to say "we
> > want another government Bar Camp" and ended up saying "and it should
> > have a hackathon at the end so we can build the stuff we talk about."
> > We railroaded Mark Harris into putting his hand up to help organise it
> > and July/August was mentioned.  (Conveniently, when I'm out of the
> > country :-)
> >
> > The next week, Glen Barnes and I decided to stop talking about how
> > wonderful it would be if there were a catalogue of all the open data
> > available from the New Zealand Government.  I registered the domain
> > and set up hosting, and Glen built a Wordpress site to house the
> > list.  http://opengovt.org.nz will take you there.  There's a git
> > repository for the source:
> > http://github.com/barnaclebarnes/open-data/tree/master
> >
> > Other projects we've talked about:
> > - an OIA request tracker like http://whatdotheyknow.com (but better--
> > Ed Corkery has specific improvements in mind)
> > - Write To Them (enter your address, get simple email system to write
> > to your local and central government representatives)
> > - Fix My Street (enter your address, report potholes and other repairs
> > necessary)
> >
> > I'd like to get two or three projects up and running and then set up
> > some legal infrastructure to own the domain names, take formal
> > donations, etc.  I figure it's easier to go to people once you've
> > demonstrated the value you can add.
> >
> > So I think the next steps are to help the catalogue get uptake (add
> > data, tweak SEO, etc.) and decide which project to tackle next.  Does
> > that sound right to everyone?  I'm happy to listen to "what about ...".
> >
> > Cheers;
> >
> > Nat
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> > Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> > https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/2GUklowu8Ysnmml0F2iuUs
> >
> > To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> > <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
> >
> > Start your own free groups and site with
> > OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
> >
> > Host your own online groups site with
> > GroupServer http://groupserver.org
> >
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/4rpOFWGMXTffsbIAc0ssbT
>
> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>
> Start your own free groups and site with
> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>
> Host your own online groups site with
> GroupServer http://groupserver.org
>

From: Matthew Ross Date: 2009 Jun 16 09:59 NZST Short link

I'm happy to contribute some $$

- Matthew

From: Matthew Ross Date: 2009 Jun 16 10:13 NZST Short link

Is this helpful, or has Mike already covered it all?

http://doodle.com/a2mfuvzpfy8wqsxf

From: Jonathan Hunt Date: 2009 Jun 16 10:22 NZST Short link

Hi all

First, my thanks to Nat and Glen for getting the ball rolling.

Re domains; personally I'm happy with http://opengovt.org.nz because that
helps focus pressure on what I see as the big issue - lack of access to
Govt info and transparency.

Re possible ideas:
I've been mulling over OIA Tracker, Fix My Street, Who is my MP/Regional
Councillor/Local Ward, Petitions, Letter campaigns c/- Citizen Speak,
Expense tracker. I was leaning towards Who is my MP? and Fix my Street as
first off projects. Other possibilities include nationwide RMA submission
tracking and knowing what consents are being issued on your local river,
street, CBD etc.

I had been planning to do some kind of dataset tracker, along with
blogging bouquets for good APIs/policies, and brickbats for lack of data,
bad terms of use, etc. Glen's dataset collection goes some way towards
this.

On 16/06/2009, at 8:52 AM, Mike Riversdale wrote:
> *Other ideas, all good.*
> I wouldn't want this/"us" to replicate current functionality though, eg Fix
> My Street = http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/fixit/index.php
> / http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Contact/RequestForService/ unless it was awesomely
> better (in this case use of a map ;-)

On behalf of Spokes Canterbury I was thinking about wrapping the CCC
Request for Service, then possibly extending it to other councils. The CCC
RFS could be *way* better:
- remove current reliance on javascript for selecting recipient; it's
currently trivially hackable as a spam relay with no server-side checking
that the destination address is within the council's domain(s).
- add a unique tracking number per issue
- allow users to see their previously logged requests
- geocoding/mapping
- allow users to see other request in their area
- add attachments, esp. photos
- add date of resolution
- satisfactionratings
- mobile version
- RSS/Atom/Twitter

My particular use case is a quick and easy method of sending in requests
for hazards encountered by cycling from my iPhone, hence the GPS and photo
attachment, along with resolution tracking.

If we do a good job local govt might even want to pay us for the service;
Nat - the governance of this will need consideration if this eventuates.

Regarding FindMyMP:
I see http://www.elections.org.nz/mapping/ allows geocoding of an address
to a location and then to an electorate (General and Maori). I'd like to
see a version that also returned regional council, local govt councillor,
community boards etc.

Regards
Jonathan

On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:28 PM, Nathan Torkington

<email obscured>>wrote:

> Hello folks, welcome to the ninja-talk list for opengovt.org.nz.
>
> Here's the history: at GOVIS, a bunch of us got together to say "we
> want another government Bar Camp" and ended up saying "and it should
> have a hackathon at the end so we can build the stuff we talk about."
> We railroaded Mark Harris into putting his hand up to help organise it
> and July/August was mentioned.  (Conveniently, when I'm out of the
> country :-)
>
> The next week, Glen Barnes and I decided to stop talking about how
> wonderful it would be if there were a catalogue of all the open data
> available from the New Zealand Government.  I registered the domain
> and set up hosting, and Glen built a Wordpress site to house the
> list.  http://opengovt.org.nz will take you there.  There's a git
> repository for the source:
> http://github.com/barnaclebarnes/open-data/tree/master
>
> Other projects we've talked about:
> - an OIA request tracker like http://whatdotheyknow.com (but better--
> Ed Corkery has specific improvements in mind)
> - Write To Them (enter your address, get simple email system to write
> to your local and central government representatives)
> - Fix My Street (enter your address, report potholes and other repairs
> necessary)
>
> I'd like to get two or three projects up and running and then set up
> some legal infrastructure to own the domain names, take formal
> donations, etc.  I figure it's easier to go to people once you've
> demonstrated the value you can add.
>
> So I think the next steps are to help the catalogue get uptake (add
> data, tweak SEO, etc.) and decide which project to tackle next.  Does
> that sound right to everyone?  I'm happy to listen to "what about ...".
>
> Cheers;
>
> Nat
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/2GUklowu8Ysnmml0F2iuUs
>
> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>
> Start your own free groups and site with
> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>
> Host your own online groups site with
> GroupServer http://groupserver.org
>
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/4rpOFWGMXTffsbIAc0ssbT
>
> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>
> Start your own free groups and site with
> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>
> Host your own online groups site with
> GroupServer http://groupserver.org

Jonathan Hunt
<email obscured>
http://huntdesign.co.nz
+64 21 529 250
PO Box 1062, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand

From: Mike Pearson Date: 2009 Jun 16 12:14 NZST Short link

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 9:51 AM, Andrew Watkins <email obscured>> wrote:

> Making the data available freely to everyone, providing easy
> discoverability
> and access will provide value to the NZ community, but will not cause NIWA
> to lose out financially as it will bring in future research dollars.  In
> otherwords my key point is not to sell what we have now - but to be paid to
> gather more.  Does that make sense?
>
The argument is a bit tenous - management would probably say "a bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush".

 Take heart that changing an agency's business model can be done.  Have a
look at Stephen Walsh's paper - its about his experiences in getting LINZ
data made freely available: www.*govis*.org.nz/conference2001/presentations/
*stephen*-*walsh*.doc<http://www.govis.org.nz/conference2001/presentations/stephen-walsh.doc>

Regards, Mike

From: Chris Daish Date: 2009 Jun 16 12:52 NZST Short link

One of the folks here at Catalyst worked on this mapping application.
He's passed this suggestion onto EEC.

From: Andrew Watkins Date: 2009 Jun 16 13:07 NZST Short link

Thanks, All such material is appreciated.  Prompted by this conversation I
went and did an elevator pitch to the CEO.  So now I'm booked to present to
the board sometime.
A.


2009/6/16 Mike Pearson <email obscured>>

From: Glen Barnes Date: 2009 Jun 16 14:02 NZST Short link

Hi Andrew,

I'll give you one use case right now.

User

Zoodle.co.nz

End User

General Public

Background

Zoodle provides property information on over 1.5 million properties in
New Zealand and the communities they are in. As part of our community
pages we supply various pieces of 'lifestyle' information including
local restaurants, public transport and shopping
(http://www.zoodle.co.nz/community/auckland/auckland-city/herne-bay
). This provides our users (the public) with a good idea of what a
community is like to live in. This information is provided for free
and we think it is a great resource especially for those moving from
overseas.

NIWA Data

One of the things we could provide for each community is a weather
widget for monthly average temperatures, rainfall, etc. We are not
interested in the current weather conditions as this doesn't give a
fair picture of what people could expect over the long term.

Issues:

As mentioned the UI for the NIWA data is somewhat lacking. I did
manage to log in and download a small dataset but it was painful and
I'm not sure I could actually get all of the data I needed efficiently.
The other issue could be the license but I haven't checked into that
yet as I didn't get past the usability issue in getting the data in
the first place.
This data needs to be free and easily accessible for us to use it. As
we are a small website the numbers simply do not stack up if we have
to pay for it or spend 2 weeks having to work out how to access the
data.


Hope this helps as a use case.

Thanks,
Glen

PS: If somehow you can supply we with 10 year averages, by month, for
every suburb in NZ that would be great ;-)



On 16/06/2009, at 9:51 AM, Andrew Watkins wrote:

> I am working on opening up the data in NIWA.  I am planning to make a
> 'turning point' presentation to the board sometime soon and will
> welcome
> slideware, content, facts etc that I can use.
> Much of our data is published anyway on the www.niwa.co.nz website e.g
> https://secure.niwa.co.nz/wqis/index.do water quality information
> system.
> The usability here sucks but if you rtfm you can get the data out.
> However
> only 200 rows are available to not logged in persons.  Also there is
> no
> direct query or web service style interface.
>
> I have requests from the science teams around this sort of service
> asking
> how they can restrict access.  e.g to prevent access outside of NZ,
> to limit
> data to known groups of people etc.  I'm stalling on this and want
> to get a
> top level policy decision that basically says.
>
> Making the data available freely to everyone, providing easy
> discoverability
> and access will provide value to the NZ community, but will not
> cause NIWA
> to lose out financially as it will bring in future research
> dollars.  In
> otherwords my key point is not to sell what we have now - but to be
> paid to
> gather more.  Does that make sense?
>
> Anyway all supporting evidence welcome.
>
> Andrew
>
>
>
> 2009/6/16 Mike Riversdale <email obscured>>
>
>> Thanks for the context Nat, very helpful.
>> *BarCamp *- look forward to it & happy to help organising
>> *Data catalogue* - will start trawling for data sets (will ask if
>> some of
>> the @NZGovtFeeds trolls want to be involved)
>>
>> *Other ideas, all good.*
>> I wouldn't want this/"us" to replicate current functionality
>> though, eg Fix
>> My Street = http://www.wellington.govt.nz/services/fixit/index.php
>> / http://www.ccc.govt.nz/Contact/RequestForService/ unless it was
>> awesomely
>> better (in this case use of a map ;-)
>>
>> I think that the "Ninja's" should focus upon "open" by enabling the
>> permeability of the Govt (local/national) walls.
>> Anything that does that is good for me.
>>
>> Cheers, Mike Riversdale
>>
>> tel: +64 (0)21-169 1359
>> Skype: mike.riversdale
>> email: <email obscured>
>> web: http://www.miramarmike.co.nz
>> ---------
>> MiramarMike.co.nz - Connecting people to people via information
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 15, 2009 at 11:28 PM, Nathan Torkington <email obscured>
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello folks, welcome to the ninja-talk list for opengovt.org.nz.
>>>
>>> Here's the history: at GOVIS, a bunch of us got together to say "we
>>> want another government Bar Camp" and ended up saying "and it should
>>> have a hackathon at the end so we can build the stuff we talk
>>> about."
>>> We railroaded Mark Harris into putting his hand up to help
>>> organise it
>>> and July/August was mentioned.  (Conveniently, when I'm out of the
>>> country :-)
>>>
>>> The next week, Glen Barnes and I decided to stop talking about how
>>> wonderful it would be if there were a catalogue of all the open data
>>> available from the New Zealand Government.  I registered the domain
>>> and set up hosting, and Glen built a Wordpress site to house the
>>> list.  http://opengovt.org.nz will take you there.  There's a git
>>> repository for the source:
>>> http://github.com/barnaclebarnes/open-data/tree/master
>>>
>>> Other projects we've talked about:
>>> - an OIA request tracker like http://whatdotheyknow.com (but
>>> better--
>>> Ed Corkery has specific improvements in mind)
>>> - Write To Them (enter your address, get simple email system to
>>> write
>>> to your local and central government representatives)
>>> - Fix My Street (enter your address, report potholes and other
>>> repairs
>>> necessary)
>>>
>>> I'd like to get two or three projects up and running and then set up
>>> some legal infrastructure to own the domain names, take formal
>>> donations, etc.  I figure it's easier to go to people once you've
>>> demonstrated the value you can add.
>>>
>>> So I think the next steps are to help the catalogue get uptake (add
>>> data, tweak SEO, etc.) and decide which project to tackle next.
>>> Does
>>> that sound right to everyone?  I'm happy to listen to "what
>>> about ...".
>>>
>>> Cheers;
>>>
>>> Nat
>>>
>>> -----------------------------------------
>>> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
>>> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/2GUklowu8Ysnmml0F2iuUs
>>>
>>> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
>>> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>>>
>>> Start your own free groups and site with
>>> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>>>
>>> Host your own online groups site with
>>> GroupServer http://groupserver.org
>>>
>>
>> -----------------------------------------
>> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
>> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/4rpOFWGMXTffsbIAc0ssbT
>>
>> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
>> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>>
>> Start your own free groups and site with
>> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>>
>> Host your own online groups site with
>> GroupServer http://groupserver.org
>>
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Full text of this topic in The Open Government Ninjas:
> https://groups.opengovt.org.nz/r/topic/3vKJS4mom7jO12tjAUUnFg
>
> To leave The Open Government Ninjas, email
> <email obscured>?Subject=unsubscribe
>
> Start your own free groups and site with
> OnlineGroups.Net http://onlinegroups.net
>
> Host your own online groups site with
> GroupServer http://groupserver.org

From: Gavin Treadgold Date: 2009 Jun 16 14:13 NZST Short link

On 2009-06-16, at 1402, Glen Barnes wrote:

> PS: If somehow you can supply we with 10 year averages, by month, for
> every suburb in NZ that would be great ;-)

And what definition of suburb would you be using? ;)

What are all those worms doing on the floor...

Cheers Gav

From: Glen Barnes Date: 2009 Jun 16 14:27 NZST Short link

Trying to start a flame war? The NZFS will come and put out the
fire.... ;-)

We are using the NZFS suburbs but NIWA has them by individual weather
station so we can reverse geo-code these to our communities.

From: Andrew Watkins Date: 2009 Jun 16 14:48 NZST Short link

I think suburbs is one of those data sets you want open access to.

2009/6/16 Gavin Treadgold <email obscured>>

From: Mark Harris Date: 2009 Jun 16 16:17 NZST Short link

Andrew Watkins wrote:
> I think suburbs is one of those data sets you want open access to.
>

The problem Gavin refers to is the lack of standardization on what
constitutes a suburb, (for example). The lack of meeting point between
the various agencies, councils and other bodies WRT GIS data in the
myriad forms has been a stumbling block for years, since at least 2000
(and before IIRC). There's yet another central/local government GIS
project out of MfE (I think) at the moment.

This highlights one of the problems any good ninja faces in trying to
access the various data sources - it's not really a technical issue, but
a political one. Rough consensus and working code doesn't wash at the
regulatory level. Complicate that with many different varieties of GIS
systems...

Of course, if someone were to specify an XML data exchange schema and
then build the exchange, we could persuade a few of them to contribute
and participate and grow it slowly. ;-)

It's non-trivial, as the EGU found when we tried to build one for
transactions. But that was for live exchange. For static data sets that
aren't life-critical (e.g. NZFS continue to use their own data, but
supply it to the exchange for conversion so that other entities can use
it too), I think it's possible.

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