Manifold Support for TIGER/Line 1998
30 September 1999 - Carson City: Manifold Net today commenced shipments of two TIGER/Line 1998 related products. TIGER/Line 1998 is the latest in the series of GIS data products from the US Bureau of the Census. Manifold began shipments of the seven-CD TIGER/Line 1998 data set for only $250. This is approximately one half the Census Bureau cost of $490. In addition, Manifold Net provided a free upgrade to all Manifold System 4.50 GIS customers that gives Manifold System the ability to read TIGER/Line 1998 format.
"Manifold is unique in using free Service Packs to add substantial new
capability to our GIS in between major releases," commented Dimitri Rotow,
a marketing spokesman for Manifold. "We're very pleased to be the
first GIS to give TIGER/Line 1998 capability to our customers. Manifold is
also the very first GIS to support TIGER/Line 1998 as a matter of routine.
By reprinting TIGER/Line 1998 at half the Census Bureau price we continue a
Manifold tradition of providing better data at lower cost. Together with
the addition of the '98 format to Manifold, this provides a complete TIGER/Line
1998 solution from manifold.net at an
unbeatable price."
Manifold System is a high-end,
professional GIS package that people use to link maps with databases. The package can
display maps from almost any source and use data from almost any database. By marrying
databases with maps, Manifold gives users the ability to manipulate data using a free-form
combination of geographic relationships, database relationships, and computed
relationships such as mathematical or statistical measures. It is intended for use by
individual Windows "power users" and professionals in businesses and
organizations worldwide. Manifold's map editing capabilities make it popular for use with
data sets such as TIGER/Line.
The TIGER/Line 1998 data set is a collection of important GIS maps issued by the US Bureau
of the Census. It includes streets and numerous other features for the entire United
States in great detail. Hundreds of Census field agents have worked for years to update
the data set with current address and zip code and other information. The US Census Bureau
sells the TIGER/Line 1998 data set for $490 for seven CDs. Visit Manifold's TIGER/Line information page for more
info.
This is the second year Manifold Net has reprinted the TIGER/Line data
set. In 1998, Manifold Net became the first company to provide low cost copies of the
previous Census Bureau TIGER/Line edition, TIGER/Line 1997. Manifold Net began with CD masters provided by the Census Bureau
and shipped exact, bit-for-bit digital copies of the Census Bureau CDs. The TIGER/Line
1998
data set CDs shipped by Manifold are exact, unmodified digital copies of the CDs provided
by the Census Bureau. They are in original, unmodified TIGER/Line 1998 format complete
with all Census Bureau documentation and files. Manifold's TIGER/Line 1998 data CDs may be
used with any GIS package that can read TIGER/Line 1998 format.
Manifold priced the TIGER/Line 1997 data set at only $97, thus undercutting the Census
Bureau by $1403 for the data. In late 1998, Manifold Net successfully beat back an attempt
by the United States Department of Commerce to prevent the company from marketing its
copies of the TIGER/Line data set in competition with the US Bureau of the Census.
The result has been a dramatic drop in the cost of TIGER/Line data. In
fact, some commentators have stated the $97 price of Manifold's TIGER/Line 1997
reprint to be the single most important factor in the Census Bureau's decision
to price TIGER/Line 1998 at $1000 less than the 1997 edition.
"It's clear that no one in their right minds
would buy TIGER/Line from the Census Bureau for $1500 when they could get it
from us for $97. Our price also showed the illegality of the Census Bureau
price. By law, they can recover their reasonable costs of duplication and
distribution. At $490 they might be able to convince a judge that their
price is an unintended side effect of bureaucratic inefficiency, but at $1500
they clearly had some serious exposure under the statute," noted Rotow.
"98 is too close to 97 for mass volume production, but there is enough
demand to warrant a custom CD production setup at $250 a set. That still
undercuts the Census Bureau."
If users are purchasing TIGER/Line 1998 for use with GIS systems other than
Manifold, they should check with their vendor to make sure their GIS is capable
of reading TIGER/Line 1998 format. The Census Bureau changed the file format slightly
in going from TIGER/Line 1995 to TIGER/Line
1997, and has changed it once more in going from TIGER/Line 1997 to TIGER/Line
1998. Not all GIS systems or third party TIGER/Line importers
understand the difference, so it is important to use a TIGER/Line 1998 capable
product to use the latest Census data. When used with Manifold System,
users should install Service Pack 2. This service pack adds TIGER/Line
1998 capability as well as a few other formats and other new features.
Manifold System and Manifold's reproduction of the TIGER/Line 1998 data set may be
purchased via the company's web site at www.manifold.net
About Manifold System
Manifold is one of the most sophisticated software packages ever developed. It is unique in providing spatial, networking, geometric, database, and statistical GIS capabilities for only $145. Despite the low price, it usually outperforms in capacity, speed, and sophistication packages that sell for thousands of dollars. Manifold can do so because it was created using the software tools of the late '90s and it leverages the new generation of desktop systems. Because Manifold is unusually easy to use for a high-end GIS, many consumers as well as organizations have taken advantage of the low price to use Manifold in simple applications as well as in complex ones.
Technical Journalists: Get the Full Story on Manifold
There's a lot more to Manifold System besides support for TIGER/Line 1998. If you cover computer software and hardware and want all the gory technical details on Manifold System, please contact us for the Manifold Release 4.50 Press Release or check out the Release 4.50 Highlights page . Visit the web site at www.manifold.net for extensive details.
Manifold Net is a privately held company that creates cool data visualization and manipulation software.
Contact: Dimitri Rotow, 800-556-5919 / dar@manifold.net
See Case Studies / Examples of this product at the Case Studies page
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