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LukeM wrote:Also note that not every state has an official cave survey, leaving many people in the dark ages of cave information.
LukeM wrote:I do think that the caving community in general would do well to make way better use of technology to facilitate access to (less sensitive) information.
For these reasons I think that the basic Idea is a very good one, but that it should be restricted to include caves that are fairly well known.
rlboyce wrote:If the worst comes to pass after the section has been created and it is determined by the majority that it was not a good idea, you could just remove the section, right?
If I were going to make such a section at all I'd probably keep it completely open, but I wonder how many people would change their minds if the section was protected by requiring the user to be an NSS member (entering member ID)?
wyandottecaver wrote:Great Idea. Maps are above all a SAFETY tool. By letting people know what to expect and *maybe* figure out where they are, you reduce overall risks. However, there are of course issues to public maps.
1) many cartographers consider them intellectual property.
Not much you can do here except make sure posted maps are posted with author/s consent for fair-use.
2) seeing a map can spur interest in a location.
This isnt all bad. By indicating that location information is best obtained through the local grotto or State Cave Survey we send people to the right places.
3) Maps can be WRONG
We need to stress they are use at your own risk documents
Also, Indiana has a digitized library of maps for use by members of the Survey, perhaps we should also include contact data for the various Surveys as well.
laurieadams wrote:I think it is a terrible idea. If someone on this board wants a copy of a cave map, for whatever reason, they can make a request on this forum, explaining who they are and why they need the map. If they are legitimate and have a legitimate need for the map, the cavers in this group would no doubt be very willing to provide the map. To prevent the wrong persons from gleaning locality information, or information about sensitive areas within a cave, or areas in a cave not known to the general public, often for good reasons, it would be necessary to remove much of the info on many maps. Many maps have locality info, landowner names, coordinates, relationships to nearby roads or landmarks, topo overlays, etc, etc. I for one would not want my cave maps chopped up and edited in this fashion, as it would compromise my art. Most of my maps are submitted to the Tennessee Cave Survey where they become proprietary information. Are we to ignore these rules and the copyrights owned by many mappers. If someone needs one of my maps, I will gladly give them a copy, or they could join the TCS and get access that way. This would prevent the (admittedly rare) chance of it falling into the wrong hands, such as someone wanting to mine formations. And who would decide what maps would be avaialable? The original surveyor? In many cases these cavers are no longer with us. Sure, if you want to put a copy of the Carlsbad caverns map on there, fine, but a huge can of worms could be opened up by publishing maps of caves on private property.
laurieadams wrote:I think it is a terrible idea. If someone on this board wants a copy of a cave map, for whatever reason, they can make a request on this forum, explaining who they are and why they need the map. If they are legitimate and have a legitimate need for the map, the cavers in this group would no doubt be very willing to provide the map.
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