Dear List,
A small philosophical point!
There seems to be an inbuilt assumption in offerings from EDINA, Digimap and many others that UK academics will only be interested in UK data. As GIS Manager of a UK academic institute which has no interest whatsoever in UK data, I am perhaps more aware of this assumption than are others! However, perhaps these excellent data provision initiatives should also look at provision of international data, at least to the extent of providing links to data sources for countries outside the UK. Many of these, especially in Africa, will actually be Crown Copyright, and have been produced in the past by the Department of Overseas Surveys, now a part of Ordnance Survey to the extent that it still exists. These maps, produced in the colonial past, are still in many cases either the best or the only maps available. Of course, data for Antarctica are (ahem, ahem) available free of charge via our web-site, which may be accessed at www.antarctica.ac.uk!
All the best
Paul Cooper
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