Comment: EOTopo

Will,

As far as I am aware OZTopo is for Garmin GPS units and works in a propriety vector fashion. Our maps are not targeted to the Garmin units and will work with a wealth of other mapping programs like OziExplorer, TrackRanger, MemoryMap etc.

So it is a little hard to compare these products as they are targeted differently and priced differently. The 16GB mSD with OZTopo is $279 ours is $99 but again this is not relevant except for the cost of the 16GB mSD card. If we took this out we could drop $20 off the product straight away however it is the best method to release the data and allowed us to provide 14GB of map data on one media device.

I expect our difference to the suppliers out there is that we already have the online database and update methodologies in place, now we have worked out how to produce the product from our databases we can focus on the updates and on-going product development taking input from the users directly and in the open. I know the product can be better already there are heaps of things we can do but I had to draw a line in the sand and release something else it would be sitting on my workstation for another few years as a dream. I will harp on it again and again that we want a collaborative product that is built by all of us that want the best outback mapping product we can get.

David

Andrew,
As per the Technical Documents information on the page - this version is heavily based on 100 & 250K Geoscience. We have added additional outback roads data but have not yet finished the conflation process on adding metro and major roads updates. Have a read on the Technical Page as this talks more about the data.

As you mention HEMA and others not much difference than 2008 250K that is because that is all there is. There are no other data sets available in Australia and this is why we have decided to work so heavily on the task using the millions of kilometres of roads and tracks data that has been supplied in our Treks & User Treks system to update the roads networks. It is however a massive task. I have been working for over 3 weeks just trying to sort out the process of major roads updates in and around Perth. Once the process is sorted it will be easier but the task to update the entire country is massive and very time consuming. So we have released EOTopo 200K to gauge interest and see if the 200K, 200dpi resolution is most suitable to users before we lock down the resolution and scale for the future updates.

We have also been thinking of working in a fashion very similar to OpenStreetMap where users will be able to come along and submit a road update directly to the map.

You are right it is crook and GeoScience (Government) have dropped the ball on this completely so it is up to private business to provide this product and service. So having been involved in mapping and the outback for over 14 years and having a wealth of data available we decided that we should have a go. Coupled with our understanding of running online database update systems we reckon we are very well placed to not only release but to ensure the on-going updates to the base product for many years to come.

I hope this helps
David