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<TITLE>Re: [postgis-users] Re: Status of geocoding functions in PostGIS?</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hi Steve,</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>At the moment we are working on two things. First, modifying PAGC so </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>that we can use it to augment road network files, particularly the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>new StatsCan road network. The data is released province by province, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>but their are no local identifiers. So common addresses like 821 10th </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>street get multiple perfect matches. The second thing we are doing is </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>allowing people to edit the address ranges (temporarily) on the fly. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Often the address range information is incomplete or simply missing </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>for some streets in all the road network files we have worked with. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>So a user will often find an address range that is very close, but </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>not exact. PAGC will allow them to alter the address range of the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>"close" road segment, and geocode relative to the altered segment's </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>address range. The users changes will be written to a separate file, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>with the idea that we might be able to collaboratively filter users </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>proposed changes to update the underlying road layer.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Right now PAGC is a command line tool (and is about as complicated to </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>use as something like ogr2ogr), and a bit more oriented to doing </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>batch geocoding. Converting it to a library is likely to be next </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>after we get the address range editing capability to a reasonable </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>level, as well as figuring out what we need to do to allow PAGC to be </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>used in web applications. Up to this point we have not thought about </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>creating a library oriented towards implementing a Postgres stored </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>procedure. It does make a lot of sense. I will say we are likely to </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>need a hand or two (or three) to help us do that. Walter Sinclair is </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>the lead developer on PAGC itself, while I handle testing and data </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>issues. Neither of us has much (read "no") experience with Postgres </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>internals. Walter's underlying geocoding engine is really excellent </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>(much better that the commercial products I have used), but certain </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>very worthwhile extensions we are going to need help implementing. If </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>you, or anyone else on this list, is interested in helping out the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>PAGC project, please get a hold of us at pagcmail@google.com.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Dan</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>On 31-Mar-06, at 4:54 AM, Stephen Woodbridge wrote:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> Hi Dan,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Have you guys made any progress in refactoring PAGC to be a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> library. Since I see you on this list also have you thought about </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> building a library that can be used to implement a Postgres stored </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> procedure using PAGC?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> PAGC is very cool with lots of nice technology but it is a little </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> difficult to get ones arms around it in its current state :), OK </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> for me anyway.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Very nice work,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> -Steve</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Putler, Dan wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> Hi Paul,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> You might want to look at the PAGC project (www.pagcgeo.org), </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> which I'm a member of. PAGC is written in C and works with </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> shapefiles. The intention goal is also to make PAGC extensible so </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> it can be used for geocoding postal addresses in a number of </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> countries. Currently it works out of the box with TIGER/Line data </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> and the new Statistics Canada public road network file (that </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> actually needs to be augmented with additional information until </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> it is really useful). The problem we have run into is that few </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> governments release address ranged road network files (we only </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> know that the US and Canada do, and all the EU countries don't), </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> so we haven't been able to work with anything other than US and </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> Canadian data. It sounds like you might benefit from our code </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> base, and there could be room for collaboration at some point.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> Dan</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> On 30-Mar-06, at 9:48 PM, Paul Scott wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 04:48 +0000, Mark Thomas wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>> Alex Smith wrote:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>>> Did some searching of the archives and found this article </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>>> stating that a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>>> geocoder for PostGIS is in the works (see</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >>>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >> <A HREF="http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2004-" TARGET="_blank">http://postgis.refractions.net/pipermail/postgis-users/2004-</A></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >> September/005762.html).</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> >></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> ></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > If you would like to contribute to a project that is based on </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > creating a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > set of global geocoders, take a look at</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > <A HREF="http://avoir.uwc.ac.za/projects/geocoder/" TARGET="_blank">http://avoir.uwc.ac.za/projects/geocoder/</A></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> ></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > This project is attempting to collect geocoders that will work for</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > almost anywhere that you may need. If you would like to join the</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > project, please just let me know!</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> ></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > --Paul</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> ></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > _______________________________________________</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > postgis-users mailing list</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>> > postgis-users@postgis.refractions.net</FONT>
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