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Geocommunity bail out

posted by Satri on Wednesday October 12, @11:45AM        Permalink  Trackback URI  Slashdotthis  Diggthis  Del.icio.us
from the what's-the-state-of-GIS-news-portals? dept.

Glenn of GISuser is reporting the important challenges facing the Geocommunity GIS portal. From the blog: In the latest developments affecting Thinkburst and the Geocommunity, on the heels of both founders and majority owners filing for personal bankruptcy, the company is now preparing to "sell" it's "assets" to a Colorado-based company. The Geocommunity portal is responsible for the SpatialNews newsletter, reaching 37,000 subscribers. You must pay 95$ to submit news on this newsletter.

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• What a racket

  (Score:2, Insightful)

  by Ben (62) on Wednesday October 12, @03:55PM (#108)
  ( http://vterrain.org/ )

  GeoComm always struck me as an obnoxious site with questionable business model, and that's just based on their banner-soaked webpages and paid-download for public-domain USGS data. I didn't know they charged money to report news (!) but that figures.
  
  It's frustrating that there is no comprehensive unrestricted server of USGS data. GeoComm's 'GIS Data Depot', shady as it may be, is actually cheaper than USGS's own EarthExplorer, which costs $1 per file + $45 per order!
  
  The free places to download USGS data are scattered widely - e.g. most states have a server somewhere with all their DEM or DRG - but there's no straightforward way to find them.
  • OGC and DirectionsMag relation by Anonymous Voxel (Score:0) Wednesday October 12, @04:20PM