topaz

At work we are exploring the possibility of using reverse geocoding to identify a VoIP user's location for 911 calls: we get their GPS coordinates, look them up in a GIS server and figure out which street address they're at.

There are a few sites which allow reverse geocoding lookups over the Web, mostly on a free-trial basis for evaluating someone's pricey GIS server software. I'm using these to determine how accurately we can get a user's fix. For that, I need data. And that, dear reader and owner of a handheld GPS device, is where you come in.

I need to collect a bunch of street addresses and the latitude/longitude that a GPS receiver reports at each of those locations. On this side I can do the reverse lookup and see how closely it matches your actual address. The more far-flung the locations, the better, as long as they're in the 50 U.S. states. (I'm not sure if we're required to provide 911 service in Puerto Rico or Guam.) I will be happy to tell you the results I get, if that makes it more appealing. :-)

If you'd like to help, please feel free either to post the results here or mail them to twp@rnktel.com, whatever you prefer :-)