Sub Category Proposal: Canadian Benchmarks

[South Surrey Scavengers]

I asked about these in the Canada forums some time ago. Now it is finally possible. UK already has theirs set up. Let's set up a sub category of benchmarks for Canada.

 

The Canadian Spatial Reference System Online Database contains thousands of benchmarks that could be added immediately. We should look into working with Natural Resources Canada to import their database into Waymarking.com. It would be a waste of time to enter these one by one.

[+Olar]

I asked about these in the Canada forums some time ago. Now it is finally possible. UK already has theirs set up. Let's set up a sub category of benchmarks for Canada.

 

The Canadian Spatial Reference System Online Database contains thousands of benchmarks that could be added immediately. We should look into working with Natural Resources Canada to import their database into Waymarking.com. It would be a waste of time to enter these one by one.

If I understand the concept of Waymarking correctly there would be no need to import a government database. Each individual benchmark would become a single waymark created by any member and complying with the instructions set down by the sub-category manager. The sub would be named as suggested by SSS.

Of course accessing those government databases will be necessary for anyone wishing to create a waymark(s). Find one listed thats near home, go find it, check coords, take pictures and any pertinent notes. Go home, create WM, and once approved log a find. (hey, why not? You had to go find it initially, right?)

Personally I feel a Canadian Benchmark category would be very popular and who knows it could get to the point we would have to create sub-categories for each province.

 

Bring it on, Olar

[+Hard Oiler]

I'd vote yes for this. There are already locationless caches for the Canadian Base Network - GC45B1 and the Canadian Gravity Standardization Net - GCB4ED and it would make sense to incorporate these into a general Canadian benchmark category. I guess the question will be if you only allow benchmarks that are in the Canadian Spatial reference System database or do you also allow other provincial or local ones as well.

 

As for importing the NRC database, that has been looked at but got stalled at the NRC end as I recall as it needed some programming to get the database into an exportable form. The advantage of Waymarking them individually is that only ones that really exist will get added and, in some cases, the coordinates will be better. I've looked for a few in the NRC database and there are quite a number that appear to have been destroyed and several old ones where the coordinates are badly off, not sure if this is a result of data entry errors, different datums or just bad data.

[+res2100]

I would also support the idea of having a Canadian Benchmark category. I think it is long overdue. I think the category should also include all benchmarks located in Canada, regardless of the agency that owns them. Last Thursday I was taking my son to a soccer game, looked down and spotted a muniple benchmark (it even said benchmark on it) in a conrete block embedded in the ground of the park). Since then I seem to be walking around with my eyes on the ground everywhere I go.

[+BearGPS]

Canadian benchmarks (and Canadian Geocoins) should be incorporated into Geocaching.Com and have the same impact as the US ones.

[+Hard Oiler]

Don't think that's likely since the US benchmarks will be moving to wm.com eventually according to a recent post by Jeremy. And impact is all relative - as wm.com evolves I'm sure it will have as much impact as gc.com - maybe more if it's done right.

[South Surrey Scavengers]

Which databases to use for populating Canadian Benchmarks is a valid question and one which I'm no expert on. But I think we (Waymarking.com) should try to get the benchmarks downloaded just as the US benchmarks were done. It does not seem very practical to hand enter the thousands of benchmarks. As far as some being obsolete or missing, the same is true for the US benchmarks already. I would rather see the complete list on Waymarking.com even if some of the data is incorrect rather than have a woefully incomplete database of benchmarks. It would take years to hand enter each benchmark.

[South Surrey Scavengers]

How do we actually get Canadian Benchmarks to become a category? The UK has trigpoints listed under benchmarks but still no Canadian category. Whether or not we create one benchmark at a time or somehow transfer the database from the Canadian Spatial Reference System and other organizations, we won't have any Canadian benchmarks until the category is listed. What are we waiting for?

[+Hard Oiler]

I think you'll find the answer in this post from Bootron. A good start would be if the two existing locationless for Canadian benchmarks got moved over.

 

Canadian Base Network

Canadian Gravity Standardization Net

 

Note the first is listed as a virtual but it's really a locationless.

[+ibycus]

Personally, I think I'd be against a straight data-dump listing of all the benchmarks in Canada.

Very simple reason, there are just so darned many of them (over 200 in Nose Hill Park which is a relatively moderately large park in Calgary). I'd much rather see a scenario where someone actually has to confirm the existence of a given benchmark in order for it to be listed (along with instructions on how to find the nearest benchmarks to your location).

[South Surrey Scavengers]

At this point I would be happy to see ANY Canadian Benchmarks. How is it that Portugal now has a benchmark category while Canadians have been asking for their own category since before there was even Waymarking.

 

Once we get a category set up then we can continue to debate how best to add them all. Although I'm still in favour of a database transfer so that we have a similar list of benchmarks the way that the US has it.

[+PG GoldWing]

I'll add my vote to get something going with Canadian benchmarks. There is already a good one happening in Alberta. It's at GC43F3, Brass Cap Cache. While it's aimed at Survey Benchmarks in Alberta, something similiar would work for all of Canada.

I was thinking of starting a Brass Cap cache for BC, but held off as Waymarking was being developed.

Some suggestions were offered from the Brass Cap owner, outforthehunt, and checked out. There is all kinds of government info available, both Provincially and Federally.

 

Lets get it happening!!

[South Surrey Scavengers]

It's been quite a while since any discussion has taken place regarding the direction of the Canadian Benchmarks category. Now that it's up and running what do waymarkers think of it? Any suggestions or discussion topics regarding it?

 

There have been 3 or 4 waymarkers contributing so far? How do they like the functionality? How can we attract more people into this category?

 

Up to this point it was pretty much my design. The only thing I'm planning right now is to find a way to populate the category with information from existing databases. This would result in th upload of 100,000 waymarks if it happened. However, I don't know if this will ever happen. What do you think?