August 20, 2008 by blog.

Not really, but I do. I play around with with Google Earth, but I work work in GIS. I appreciate Google’s efforts to popularize mapping and geolocation. But Google Earth makes it harder to do my job.

Now the general population thinks they are map makers, or data collectors, because of Google Earth. People in my office create kml or kmz files and expect my staff to add it to their report in our company format. They think that Google is using the most up-to-date imagery and data available. What they don’t realize, that is just the licensing date at the bottom of their screen. When the aggregator/collector released the information. The imagery can be much older than attributed. The vector information is not necessarily the most up-to-date or even correct. Its what is available through private or public sources.

My staff and I will even go to the agency and attempt to obtain the same information found on Google Earth, only to be told it is unavailable from them and they don’t know where Google got that info. Google makes it available through a Save As feature… as a kml/kmz file. Which I can’t use. For one, I am not going to attribute Google as a source partly because it is undated. Secondly, I can’t use kml/kmz files in my software.

I appreciate what Google is doing with Map and Earth. They allow people to look at things they would otherwise never see. They allow a perspective of our planet that the population would have a hard time grasping. But in this instance I believe Google is doing a little evil.

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January 5, 2007 by blog.

I have been sitting on this tidbit for almost a year. I had been waiting to see if it would show up on another blog or news site.

For several years Florida Department of Revenue has been requiring county property appraiser’s to submit their digital data of property records and valuations as part of their Certified Tax Roll.

In the first quarter of 2006, FDOR has been offering the same digital data as a shapefile with some of the record data in txt format. There is a very modest charge for the data on DVD’s (less than $100). I was told that the department is looking for an online distribution point that would be cost free.

However it is not the complete state coverage. Thirteen counties did not give their permission for FDOR to distribute their portion.

I was originally informed of this decision by a FDOR representative, and verified through the head of the GIS division and two other employees.

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