looks like we have some more public-domain heroes. jared benedict bought a copy of all the topological maps from the u.s.g.s -- which are in the public domain, but were _not_ all conveniently located in one single place -- and "held them for ransom" until he raised the $1600 he'd spent to purchase 'em, from volunteer contributions. "pay up or the map gets it", read the cute ransom note. (as far as i can tell, it looks like it took him just one day.) now he's sending the maps off to the internet archive, where they can be housed under a common interface, which might well prompt a flurry of derivative uses... so here's a big cheer for each of the people who donated some ransom money to free the maps, and three cheers to jared for spearheading this collaborative venture! :+)
http://redjar.org = jared's home site http://libre.redjar.org/maps/ = one page on the project http://ransom.redjar.org/original_page.html = f.a.q. http://ransom.redjar.org/ = the list of contributors
-bowerbird