I hope everyone’s GIS Day was a success. While some of us were down at GIS Day events in Denver (we had our cake and ate it too!), the Census Bureau issued a press release on the 25th anniversary of TIGER. Very timely as some of us old-school GIS-ers reminisced about the days before topology and seamless datasets. If you have not already seen it:
http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2014/cb14-208.html
You can also see a darn good history of TIGER in the form of an esri story map here:
http://census.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapJournal/?appid=2b9a7b6923a940db84172d6de138eb7e
On a related subject; You may have noticed that Census has upgraded its TIGERweb viewer to HTML 5, eliminating the need for Silverlight. Among other things, TIGERweb is an excellent tool to review the current content of TIGER for your jurisdiction. This is particularly true for boundary review. Overlay our current place boundary web service on top of your local place layer to check for missing annexations or inconsistencies in TIGER. Then look for our BAS (Boundary Annexation Survey) invitation later this year for an opportunity to make corrections. Check our BAS FAQ here: http://www.census.gov/geo/partnerships/bas/bas_faq.html
Find links to all things TIGERweb here:
http://tigerweb.geo.census.gov/tigerwebmain/TIGERweb_main.html
Jim Castagneri
Geographer
US Census Bureau
Denver, CO
james.d.castagneri@census.gov
(Nov. 20)