The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is jumping on the mapping mash-up bandwagon, announcing plans to make virtually all of its data accessible using online mapping tools in 2008.
As part of an ongoing plan to make more of its data available in a variety of formats, the ABS is working to enable users to generate their own tables from raw statistical data and then present the information using maps.
Through census information and other ongoing survey work, the ABS already has a very rich set of geospatial information, Michael Beahan, director for census and products and services at ABS, told a panel discussion at the Government Technology World conference in Canberra.
"I arrived at the ABS five years ago and was surprised at what they did with that spatial data," Beahan said. At that time, only 320 maps were available on the ABS site, most of which were stored as hard-to-find PDFs.
The situation has improved since then, driven in part by a decision two years ago to make the majority of data on the ABS site freely available -- under the previous system, the Bureau charged for it.
"We've gone from 320 maps to 600,000 maps," Beahan said. "They're not buried in PDFs anymore; if you ask for particular data, we can map that."
"Next year, we would like to take that further, so you can design and populate your own table and map that. You're not restricted by what you thought we might want."
Users increasingly want statistical data to include geographic information, Beahan said. "More and more, the questions are starting to be about 'where'. The only way you can answer questions about where is by drawing a map."
"Our challenge was to look around and get that sense of excitement about what we could do. We've gone through a whole gamut of things about understanding user need and then delivering."
While the initial interface is likely to be via the ABS Web site, long-term plans will also need to include Web services, Beahan predicted.
"We recognise that we're not a developer of geospatial software. Our expertise is in the data. The challenge for us is whatever you want to do from a geospatial perspective, that you can get the data into that."
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Michael Beahan - 31/10/07
Hmmmm. It seems some of my comments may have been slightly misunderstood. The opening line of this article suggests that all ABS data will be exposed to the outside world. I am responsible for the dissemination of Census data and my comments were made in reference solely to the Census dataset.
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