---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2001 12:08:44 -0400
From: "Barry, John W. [C]" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Introduction

Hi!
My name is John Barry, and I am a consultant working in the geospatial data
management area.  I received news of the existence of this list just
recently, and I hope that it may be able to help me discover the solution to
a problem I have been working on for quite a while.

Currently, I am working on a data quality project to validate map and chart
MBR (Minimum Bounding Rectangle) coordinates over specific geographical
areas, as an adjunct to existing an existing geospatial metadata validator
that I have created.  Each map or chart in our holdings has an associated
country code that indicates which country the majority of the item covers.
I would like to create (or somehow find) a look-up table that would list
either:
        A list of MBR coordinates for every country (globally), or
        A list of Polygon coordinates for every country.
Then, I can use a map's country code to look up a country MBR (or polygon
set) and compare it to the item's MBR (or polygon set).  Non-contiguous
countries, such as those with overseas holdings or archipelagos, would
require more than one MBR or Polygon set, but the comparison algorithm could
work with those kind of variations. Easy, yes?

Actually, I have thought that this kind of resource would be a common one,
but I have been unable to find something comparable either within my own
organization, or at others such as USGS.  I suspect that if the information
exists, it is a proprietary resource from somewhere such as ESRI, etc... and
exists in VPF or other digital map information formats.  Unfortunately I am
unfamiliar with most of the Digital Map tools, and I could definitely be
wrong about that :)

Is anyone familiar with this kind of issue, and could perhaps point me in
the right direction?  Any info is better than none at all, so feel free to
contact me.

Thanks!
John W. Barry
Software Engineer
Inteldata, Inc
301-227-2103
[log in to unmask]