{ "id": "2002-november-december-gis-data-carries-high-cost", "slug": "2002-november-december-gis-data-carries-high-cost", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-november-december-gis-data-carries-high-cost.html", "year": 2002, "month": "November December", "monthNum": 11, "headline": "GIS data carries high cost", "kicker": "DATA ACCESS", "author_name": "Jaimi Dowdell", "author_title": "", "affiliation": "IRE and NICAR", "summary": "Journalists across the country are facing significant barriers and high costs when attempting to obtain GIS data from government agencies, with some agencies charging thousands of dollars despite the data being publicly funded or required by public records laws.", "keywords": [ "GIS", "access", "data" ], "topics": [ "Investigative Methods", "Technology", "Government & Politics" ], "technologies": [ "GIS", "CD-ROM" ], "full_text": "For three years, David Washburn of The San Diego Union-Tribune has been itching to get his hands on a file from SanGIS, an organization that handles San Diego County's GIS data. Although the GIS data is available to the public, neither Washburn nor his newspaper is ready to fork over $15,000 for one year of data.\n\n\"I think my county is ripping me off and the taxpayers off how they are handling GIS,\" Washburn said.\n\nWithin the past five years, use of GIS software and data has exploded in newsrooms. Many journalists using computer-assisted reporting have found the programs essential and use them in their daily reporting. While many government agencies have posted GIS data files on their Web sites for free download, other agencies haven't been as open.\n\nOther journalists are running into the same problems Washburn has experienced. The privatization of government functions and amendments to public records laws has hampered access to GIS data. He said that because SanGIS was initially funded by taxpayer money and backed by the county it should be more reasonable with its prices.\n\n\"I totally think they are breaking the law by doing this because it involves taxpayer money,\" said Washburn, an investigative reporter. SanGIS contends that because it is now self-sustaining, its prices are reasonable and reflect the time and effort it takes to digitize the county layers.\n\nJournalists are finding that, along with charging high costs for GIS data, the departments have basically cornered the market. While some private businesses such as real estate or law firms may be able to afford the data, most news organizations lack the money.\n\nLaws increase costs\n\nWhile the GIS costs in San Diego County are one extreme, journalists have encountered a spectrum of difficulties and costs when attempting to obtain GIS data from government agencies. The availability and cost of GIS data depends on the location, public records laws and who's reviewing the request for data.\n\nPart of the reason Dan Keating, database editor at The Washington Post, first began using GIS data was because it was so easily accessible from county GIS departments in Florida, where he had worked before. \"Both Miami-Dade and Broward counties gave me CDs with dozens and dozens of local GIS layers for practically nothing, no more than $50,\" Keating said.\n\nThat changed once he left The Miami Herald and began working in Washington, D.C. While costs for data from the District and Virginia counties were reasonable, he said, obtaining GIS data from agencies in Maryland proved to be a nightmare. \"The state has an exemption to its public records law for GIS, saying that it can be sold for market cost. So layers from a county can cost thousands of dollars,\" Keating said.\n\nMaurice Tamman, staff writer at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, has had troubles dealing with GIS laws. While working on a story requiring parcel maps, Tamman requested GIS data from Forsyth County and was quoted a price of more than $10,000 for the maps he was seeking.\n\nA recently enacted Georgia law gives agencies the authority to charge for GIS data based upon the actual recovery and development time involved with the GIS. Tamman said the county follows this new law to the letter.\n\nMeanwhile, he was able to receive the same type of GIS data from a neighboring county absolutely free. \"It is interesting to me, because traditionally we view any data produced by the government as being fundamentally free,\" Tamman said. \"But GIS has been placed on a pedestal because it has some intrinsic market value.\"\n\nFighting some battles\n\nSome reporters have gone head-to-head with government agencies challenging fees based on outrageous standards. While many of these journalists bear the battle scars, some have the GIS data to show for it as well.\n\nPaula Sullivan, city hall reporter and computer-assisted reporting coordinator at The (Tacoma, Wash.) News Tribune, went around in circles trying to negotiate with Pierce County for some GIS data. The agency's going rate was $60 per shapefile, when all they had to do to produce the files was copy ones already created.\n\n\"State law does not allow them to do this, so we complained to the county executive and - instead of trying to negotiate a reasonable price - they gave it to us free just that once,\" Sullivan said.\n\nSince that initial dispute, she said they have received other files from the county. \"However, the department continues to charge the $60 rate to others and makes them sign all sorts of forms, including a data-sharing agreement that we have always refused to sign.\"\n\n\"GIS has been placed on a pedestal because it has some intrinsic market value.\"\n\nWhile some journalists have had to fight government agencies to lower costs for GIS data, others have found GIS departments to be friendly, helpful, and even willing to provide free data.\n\nAlthough Sullivan had to convince one Washington county to give her data, she said dealing with the city of Tacoma is a different story. This city posts many of its most-accessed shapefiles on its Web site, free to any user with an Internet connection.\n\nWith the recent explosion in the use of GIS, more state, local and federal agencies have been putting GIS data on their Web sites for free download.\n\nMore experiences\n\nJohn McCarthy, a reporter at Florida Today, had a good experience with one state agency.\n\nMcCarthy requested GIS layers of Florida's coastline to analyze how vulnerable those areas would be to hurricanes. Florida's Emergency Operations Center provided the data quickly. \"Their GIS specialist spent quite a bit of time on the phone with me working out bugs and was very cheerful about it,\" he said.\n\nOther journalists have had to give in just a little to receive the shapefiles and layers that they needed. Maricopa County, Ariz., was willing to give Enric Volante, CAR coordinator and database reporter at the Arizona Daily Star, GIS data for free, but only if he signed a liability waiver.\n\n\"First time in my many years of journalism that I ever signed a liability waiver in order to get a public record,\" Volante said. \"I also filed a formal protest, but they didn't seem to understand what all the fuss was about.\"\n\nJohn Hill, systems editor at The (Vancouver, Wash.) Columbian, has received just about all of the GIS data a newsroom could need from the Clark County GIS department. The newspaper paid $1,200 per year for two CDs that include school district boundaries and soil contours. \"While it does seem like a lot of money, when we have a GIS project going it's all money well spent,\" Hill said.\n\nWhile many journalists have been able to get their hands on the data they need, there are still some like Tamman and Washburn who have been completely shut off from the data because of the high prices GIS departments demand.\n\n\"It is certainly putting a roadblock to somebody trying to do their job,\" Tamman said. \"I couldn't do some of those stories I wanted to do. Whether it'll stop me from trying, though, that's another story.\"", "provenance": { "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6", "extracted_at": "2026-07-05", "verified": true }, "similar": [ { "slug": "1991-may-cpu-time-part-two", "score": 0.275 }, { "slug": "2000-september-census-and-gis", "score": 0.249 }, { "slug": "1999-december-privatized-data", "score": 0.242 }, { "slug": "1992-january-news-and-observer-challenges-nc-for-access-to-public-information", "score": 0.225 }, { "slug": "1996-november-electronic-battles", "score": 0.211 } ], "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-november-december-gis-data-carries-high-cost.html", "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2002-november-december-gis-data-carries-high-cost.json" }