http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/introduction-municipal-FOI-tp165p171.html
pretty ... um...specific?
now i get it - very powerful tools you are thinking of. very useful.
for free and we--the hackers--will improve civic discourse. and make
your job as an (ideal) government easier. this has been my feeling,
> Hi,
>
> On 1/16/06, Michael Lenczner <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>>hey daniel - could you tell us what you wanted to do with these files?
>> and what are shape files for those of us who aren't gis guys?
>>
>>in the mean time i'm going to go check out the events on your blog.
>>
>
>
> There's a long-ish explanation as to what shapefiles are in the appeal
> letter I sent, linked from that blog entry. I'll try to make it more
> concise.
>
> A shapefile is a storage format for points, lines and shapes with
> associated attributes (name and type of place, boundary type, etc).
> Points are specified by longitude and latitude; lines and shapes are
> composed of many points. Software used in Geographic Information
> Systems (GIS) can read these files and compute spatial relations. The
> shapes for federal ridings is made available for free in the form of
> shapefiles, and can be used by a GIS for mapping and (much!) more.
>
> My first objective was to have a web-based interface that let people
> enter their address or postal code, and have it return their
> councillor. Assuming you can determine an address' longitude and
> latitude (known as "geocoding"), a GIS can tell you which shape
> contains it.
>
> The second objective is more ambitious: to let advocacy organizations
> determine who the councillor is for any given member address. I want
> an organization to be able to express this type of request from their
> member database:
>
> "Show me all members
> who have expressed concern about 'green spaces'
> and who are in district 3, 4 or 6"
>
> There are more advanced uses that could be made from these shapefiles
> and other data. A GIS can help answer all sorts of interesting
> questions dealing with spatial relations. How many people are within a
> 10 minute walk to a bus stop, park, school, pub, grocery store or
> bank? We can analyze through demographics, crime and other data sets
> that are geographically annotated.
>
> Perhaps the best part of doing it with this type of technology is that
> this software could be re-used for any city which made its shapefiles
> public and for which a geocoding service exists.
>
> If I haven't bored you all to tears, are there any more questions? :-)
>
> Daniel.
>
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