Consuming datasets and services isn’t without its challenges. Some of the terms and concepts may be unfamiliar to you. Data, particularly spatial data, as well as web services, really aren’t designed to talk to you and me. They’re designed to talk to software.

The subsequent Tips and Tricks pages will get you started, but if you’ve never worked with raw datasets or done computer programming, there will be a learning curve. We have enabled comments on those pages, so if you have a question, an answer, or any tips or tricks, please enter them there.