[Roadster] Converting TIGER data to a MySQL database

[Adam Renner]

I have been working to convert the TIGER data into a MYSQL database that 
uses spatial indexing. The advantage of this is the speed that spatial 
indexing gives you when searching. I was hoping that someone developing 
a mapping application would like to use this instead of the raw TIGER 
files.  I am just trying to gauge if there would be any interest in 
having Roadster use MySQL to store TIGER data. If so, I would be 
interested in working with you to  develop this database. If not, I am 
thinking about dropping the project to work on something that might be 
more useful, like finding a way to gather more point-of-interest data 
for use in mapping applications.

The Pros to using a MySQL database are: spatial indexing is very fast, 
MySQL is crossplatform, SQL is easy to work with and lots of developers 
have experience, MySQL can be used with many programming languages, if 
foreign country data ever becomes available, it will not be in TIGER 
format and will need converted anyhow.

The Cons to using a MySQL database are: Spatial Index creation is slow, 
Table sizes can get very large.

I am interested in your feedback,
s003apr