CompuServe Messages

Paul: There are a whole bunch of people who have some very interesting data that would fill a CD-ROM. Those people are called the government and most of the data is in ASCII format. This includes loads of data about geography, the environment, the economy, the census, agriculture, sociology, medicine, history, etc., etc., etc. The process of getting this data onto CD-ROM format has a LARGE number of institutional hurdles. Once those hurdles are cleared, the cost of the CD-ROM disk is usually quite low (I purchased a CD-ROM of geography data files for $12.50; I had no way to read and use the data, but it made me feel good to hold the disk of mapping data for most of the U.S.). A large part of that data is being secured by private companies who massage it slightly, encode it, and provide a small reader program at a substantial cost ($1200 is not unusual). Hopefully, as time goes on, more government agencies will release their data on CD-ROM's, and more computer platforms will develop CD-ROM drivers, and small text searching software. Then, you will find out just how much information your computer can really give you access to at a modest cost.