postal code --> riding

Posted by Jennifer Bell on Sep 13, 2008; 1:57pm
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/postal-code-riding-tp1211.html


It seems the API I mentioned before for postal code to riding lookups may charge fees for use of their API... Which is fair enough, since they paid for it.  

This gave me an idea: one way of getting past the (astounding) postal code to riding $3K cost is to create a paralell data set by collecting input from users.  

A website could say: You are the first person from that postal code to use our site.  Please use one of these services [list] to look up your riding, and enter the name below.  (There would also have to be a mechanism for reporting incorrect ridings.)  The resulting data set would then be owned by the website who could re-distribute it as they choose (eg. for free).

Does anyone see any problems with this?  Has it been tried before?

Jennifer
visiblegovernment.ca


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