GeoNames Forum

Hi,
I have just discovered the GeoNames resource, and have found it very inspiring. I am a GIS/IT consultant based in Switzerland, and have myself integrated FREE downloadable data from "The Post" AND "The Federal Office of Statistics" for an online property application that I set up last year.

I have a couple of general questions regarding the data available on this great site:

1) I see that the Swiss post data comes from "The Post", but has it also been integrated with location data (districts, communes, towns and agglomerations) available from the "Federal Office of Statistics"? I ask, as this is what I had to do for my project.

2) I am very interested in the POST data sources for France, Germany and India. France and Germany are sure to be correct, but I read on this forum that the data for India was not 100% accurate. Is the accuracy a problem with the coordinate positions of the postcodes, or are the postcodes themselves incomplete?

3) Finally, are all datasets really refreshed on a daily basis? Even the Swiss ones?

I hope to use this site as the basis for many of my applications, so am looking forward to your reply.

Thanks, Merci und Grüss
Robert Taylor
netcarve Technologies GmbH
Immoquest Online GmbH

Hi Robert

1. the postal code data has been combined with bfs data. The 'Kirchturmspitz' data file available on the bfs web site has not yet been integrated in the GeoNames main database, as we have not yet been allowed to do so for copyright reasons.

2. Not all postal services offer postal code dataset like the Swiss Post. For India the accuracy problem is refering to incorrect lat/lng.

3. The dump is exported daily, and we update as often as possible. You help is welcome

Cheers

Marc

Hi Marc,

thanks for the prompt feedback. I have had a more detailed look at the geonames site, and have some further questions which I hope you can help me with.

If I understand correctly geonames takes data from various sources (govt., post, wikipedia etc) and integrates them in a spatial database. The data is then made available via a downloadable file or web services.

This is great, but what happens when someone posts incorrect data via wikipedia etc. Is this information automatcally served up by the web services the next day, or is there some sort of intelligent integrity check ?

Relating back to my original post, I realise that you work with feature code lists, but am I able to interpret the sources of the data? i.e. I would like to know exactly which fields stem from which data source, and how they have been integrated. i.e. if I use the downloadable data, I would like to know the detailed origins of the data set.

As mentioned on my site I have integrated two data sets and know exactly what it contains, but with geonames the source of the data is not clear. I could probably work it out if I looked at it in detail, but it would be nice if it were documented. Does documentation of this detail exist, or are there plans to make it publically available?

Regarding help, I am very interested in the project, but unfortunately seem to have very little time these days, as I have just released the initial version of my estate agent website (and I am also an independent consultant currently working with data warehouses). If there is anything which you think I can help with, then please do no hesitate to get in touch.

Kind regards, mfg.
Robert

Hi Robert

There are a couple of conistency checks in place and we will a lot more. Internally we keep track of where the data is coming from and we also plan to release this information. For the time being it is not our first priority. At the moment we are focusing on adding new data and fixing errors.
You are welcome to fix errors and help us integrate new datasets.

Cheers

Marc