GeoCommunity has a great treasure trove of links to free maps and DEM (Digital Elevation Maps) data. GIS.com, run by ESRI, also has a number of no-cost data and services, including the Hurricane Disaster Viewer, a slick-lookin, web-based map viewer showing New Orleans and various areas in the path of hurricanes.

A question for any reader that cares to comment. What would you like to see more of here? I've noticed that even though this blog was originally going to focus on the "website visitors" aspect of GIS/Geographic Information Systems, people seem to be more interested in bits about geographically-related news and weather conditions. It may be a fluke, but it may not. That said, is anyone interested in learning about mapping projections? I spent 7 years working and researching in the GIS field from a computer programmer's point of view. I have stacks of notes and unpublished research papers lurking about. I even have a scribbled paper somewhere when I had to create my own formula to measure the distance between two points on Earth - which is an ellipsoid and not a perfect sphere. Anyone interested? Feel free to post a comment or drop me a line at rdash001-at-yahoo-dot-ca (email mangled to confuse spambots).

(c) Copyright 2005-present, Raj Kumar Dash, http://geoplotting.blogspot.com