Wow! Good news methinks!

[knottybuoyz]

Nautical Data International (NDI), News from Digital Ocean

NDI, or Nautical Data International, just announced that it's selling
its exclusive right to produce and license digital versions of
Canadian charts back to the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS),
effective on March 30.

[emeraldsea]

When I bought my navionics gold charts (for the Canadian coast) which I love, and think is the best bang for your buck, I had to buy it from the U.S. as they would not sell it from Canada! Maybe this will help solve some of that bs.

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by emeraldsea

When I bought my navionics gold charts (for the Canadian coast) which I love, and think is the best bang for your buck, I had to buy it from the U.S. as they would not sell it from Canada! Maybe this will help solve some of that bs.

I certainly hope so and should result in a greater variety of products and innovations. It should open them up for 3rd party add-ons too!

[SkiprJohn]

That is great news. I'll be needing west coast electronic charts compatible with my Capn Voyager system next year.
Kind Regards,
JohnL

[Pblais]

NDI, or Nautical Data International, just announced that it's selling its exclusive right to produce and license digital versions of
Canadian charts back to the Canadian Hydrographic Service (CHS),
effective on March 30.

I would not jump for joy just yet. Since NDI didn't really make a go at it I don't see the governement making it cheaper. Any reason to think so? I couldn't see that in the web link Rick.

There is about 600 nm of Pacific coast not yet covered by US charts as far as coastal detail charts. Those would be the key Canadian charts for the Pacific. Offshore there is complete coverage from Washington through Alaska west to Hawaii with details in US waters complete.

[knottybuoyz]

Originally Posted by Pblais

Any reason to think so? I couldn't see that in the web link Rick.

I think there's plenty of opportunities Paul. I used to work for the Director General of Science at DFO, he's responsible for CHS. The NDI exclusive contract was a major stumbling block to innovation. CHS tried to kill it before but failed. I think you'll see the major value-added resellers jump on this. I had many conversations with my old boss about what was possible and what we saw in the US charts arena. He liked what he heard and was seeing once the constraints of the exclusive contract was out of the way.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if you see the raster charts distributed free as in the US. I don't think chart sales were a major revenue stream for CHS and even the license fee brought in from NDI wasn't all that much, certainly didn't fund the costs of the hydrography. A lot of the value-added resellers had to pay rediculiously high license fees to NDI and that's gone now.

CHS's motto is "Charts Save Lives" but not if people can't afford them or won't pay the high prices for just charts. If they can get them free or packaged with all the value-adds from the re-sellers they'll get, or at least preceive, true value in the products. Time will tell. I'm going to make a few phone calls tomorrow.

[Pblais]

I can't help but hope you you are right.

It's seems that there has been a long term trend towards charts being more affordable overall. Not like in the days of old when they were considered national top secret material. It used to be if you disclosed a trade route chart they could hang you. It may seem to us that it hasn't progressed that far that fast.

The sad truth is they are very expensive to create and update. The general tax payers are not really all that excited about it either.

[Amgine]

::nod::

The real value of charts is the increase in shipping, which generates taxable revenues far in excess of their cost, and the increase in ratio of miles traveled by boat versus cost of emergencies. Believe it or not, that ratio has been climbing for much of the last century (that is, the number of miles traveled is growing faster than the number of dollars spent in rescues.)

What the USA has shown is that the over-all big-picture revenues increase more than the cost of good quality charts. This is especially true for the eco-tourism trade - people heading out to the hinter-waters to get away from it all, but only if they have a good map - which has a much greater financial impact in the outlying communities when contrasted with, for example, fishing or agricultural subsidies.

I would not be at all surprised if DFO releases charts for free in raster format, thogh it may be targeted to tourism/sport-fishing regions. I wish they'd release some of their higher-tech datasets though...