The Cave Registry
http://www.cave-registry.org.uk/ Is a great resource and should be used more. I recommend that anyone not familiar with it follow the link and have a look.
To add data you do need a user account but the vast majority of data in the archive is freely available for anyone to download and use which in my book is how it should be. Some stuff in there is hidden at the request of the"owners" but at least if they get run over by a bus it's safe.
Paragraphs below are from the archive front page and explain what it's all about.
This British Caving Association site is for hosting speleological survey data in a Version Control System. You are free to check out the data onto your own computer, but you will need a user account to commit changes.
Current administrator: Andrew Atkinson data@cave-registry.org.uk
Background
The sport of caving has had, from its start, a close relationship with science. As a result, a vast amount of data has been collected. Unfortunately, once the report or survey for which the data was needed has been produced, much of the raw data has been discarded or lost. To most cavers the most obvious loss is of survey data. Most caves in Britain, of any reasonable size, have been surveyed to a reasonable standard. However, when extensions are made, the lack of original data makes it very difficult to amend the survey. Modern 3D tools also require more data than a centre line survey, much of which has been collected but, again, not kept. Scientific data, invaluable for comparison with modern conditions has often suffered the same fate.
Aims
- To hold an archive of speleological data for the use of the UK caving community.
- To encourage the open sharing of data, to add value.
As to the question above "what is data" well the line has to be drawn somewhere. Most UK regions have very good cave archives themselves which contain information on the areas caves including things like access, route descriptions, rigging topo's and copies of actual surveys. These archives are a good home for that sort of stuff, the BCA Cave Registry Data Archive is there to preserve actual survey and scientific data. That means the numbers, the sketches, the notes,the survex files, the Therion files etc. Have a look at the archive and you will get the idea. I will put my hand up at this point and say I always include an Output folder with my stuff which will usually contain a plan and elevation of the survey in pdf format which can easily be viewed by anyone. The BCA sort of discourage this due to a lack of server space. I've not been told off yet so I think it is reasonable to include a basic level of finished output as part of the archive.
If anyone has data to add follow the instructions on the website, its a little bit of a faff getting a user account but it really isn't hard and if you don't want to do that and have data that needs adding which remember could be anything from a picture of a sketch on the back of a beer mat to a full blown area data set the contact Andrew Atkinson via the website or PM me here or contact any of the people mentioned in the various project areas on the website.
I hope that helps and will encourage people dig out any old stuff they have lying around and get it preserved along with any new data that people are currently producing.
Nick
