tutorial on publishing geodata as a data package

[rufuspollock]

Basics are easy here.

Real question is whether there is a recommendation on data types. Main options afaict:

• geojson (+ topojson)
• shapefiles
• csv (with lon / lat columns or similar ...)
• spatialite / sqlite style

[rufuspollock]

@peterdesmet have a question here that i'd welcome your input on. In preparing the tutorial should we say:

• You can publish any type of geodata as a data package (which is true in that you can have any type of data in a data package)
• Focus on defining / pushing a "Geo" Data Package where the data is only of one (or a few) types e.g. geojson (and possibly geocsv)

[peterdesmet]

I would choose the latter (few types) for several reasons:

• The geo data package should be similar to the tabular data format, i.e. a specific kind of data package, which focuses on one (or more) specific types or use cases.
• The advantage of focusing on one type is that it keeps things simple (including documentation), which is a strong suit of data packages (e.g. the simple data package). There are numerous other ways to publish geospatial data (e.g. INSPIRE metadata), but these are often complex and a barrier to publishing.
• Data packages should focus on open formats, as that is what we want to see more of. Shapefiles (and maybe KML?) are not open.
• For anyone who wants to publish in other formats, there is still the standard data package which allows to do so.

So I would focus on geojson and topojson, as these are well-defined, open and geospatial. I'm not familiar with geocsv, but if these can be covered as tabular data packages, I would just reference that specification. Regarding sqlite: not familiar either, but maybe a specific data package for these (not necessarily geo) could be useful.

My 2 cents.

[rufuspollock]

@peterdesmet I agree about few types (and only one perhaps). I've even start some work in this direction (focus on geojson maybe in first instance). Would welcome your help!

[peterdesmet]

@rgrp where does this documentation/tutorial live (here?). What should the documentation/tutorial include (do you have an existing example)?

[rufuspollock]

@peterdesmet that's where it lives http://data.okfn.org/doc/publish-geo

Re what it could look like we could follow http://data.okfn.org/publish (i don't think it matters than we repeat stuff).

[rufuspollock]

@peterdesmet any thoughts on what we could / should improve here: http://data.okfn.org/doc/publish-geo ?

[peterdesmet]

@rgrp Sorry, caught up in a lot of work the last few months. Will take some time until I can get back to this.

[rufuspollock]

@peterdesmet any more time?

[danfowler]

This issue was moved to #52