Providing Public Access to Geographic Data: The Florida Experience

Author: Paul D. Zwick
Organization: GeoPlan Center, University of Florida

431 Architecture Building
Gainesville, FL 32611
USA

Phone: (352) 392-0997
Fax: (352) 392-3308
paul@geoplan.ufl.edu

This paper describes the methodology developed at GeoPlan Center, University of Florida, for gathering, organizing, and distributing the public GIS data for the State of Florida that has been created with public funds. The paper focuses on the challenges of standardizing about 80 GB of 164 layers of geographic data from 27 State, federal, and local agencies and their distribution to the general public in a preprocessed, user-friendly, and inexpensive form. It discusses the issues of such an enormous task from a technological, project management, institutional, and end user perspective and how to solve them successfully.