GDR
From GDR's services page
- Public Safety Geofile Services
- GIS Data Review
- Addresspoints
- Britedata
- earthmine
- Other GIS Services
- Partner Programs
What's a Geofile?
I think it's probably a proprietary format used by Tiburon dispatch software. In this context "geofile service" would mean converting data provided in sundry formats into the right format for inclusion in Tiburon. Done that, extensively, just never called it a "geofile". At AGI I used ESRI geodatabase files, first PGDB then FGDB for functional data and anything for display-only data.
"The geofile is a database of standardized locations, including specific house numbers and streets names, commonplace names (Jackson Park), and intersections. The geofile insures that locations are within the jurisdiction, within a valid block number range, and are consistently entered and entered (which assists in later searches)" -- Dispatch Magazine, [1] Based on this definition, then a geofile is what I called functional data.
See also the GDR Geofile Services page.
GIS data review
This is described on the Geofile Service page.
"GeoServices Engine" is an automated data review.
What's Britedata?
It's a set of business intelligence tools/services that are a GDR product. [2] A couple examples: since GDR has amassed a wealth of address data, they can capitalize on this by helping customers clean their own address data by comparing it with GDR data. They can also identify potential clients in a given geographic area that are near existing clients.
Who is using it?
What's earthmine?
It was a Berkeley startup that has been acquired by Nokia and they built Here. It looks exactly like a clone of Google Maps, right down to the annoying control that covers 20% of the map all the time. Disappointing.
Their big thing is 3D data collection using photos, which is of course very cool but I have not seen that yet.
