Imagery Hosting for Fed, State, Locals via TerraServer

At NSGIC this week, George Lee of USGS shared that Microsoft and USGS, who signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) in 1996 to develop TerraServer, are ready for more. In particular, they are inviting federal agencies, states and local governments to publish their imagery via TerraServer. States, including New York and Florida, are already developing pilots, though the New York one, which he hoped to demonstrate, was not yet ready.

Lee explained that the public domain data would stay in the public domain (just as the current data served by Microsoft does) and that administrative tools would be in place to “turn off” data that might be considered sensitive. Beyond that, he noted these benefits to those who might participate: free hosting, free Internet browsing by the public, free OGC-compliant Web Map Service, free backup of data, acknowledgment of ownership and more. Frankly, the whole thing seems too good to be true. And there is a twist: the data is part of TerraServer, now part of the MapPoint Business Unit, and thus part of Microsoft Virtual Earth. So, it’s entirely possible it might end up in a “local search” done for local pizza joints. Details are being worked out (contact your local USGS liaison to discuss) but this is most intriguing.