With great help from Bernt, I know have coordinates for the Norwegian-Russian border in WGS84. Well, at least as close as linear regression analysis can get us.

The first miles of the border, from the NO-RU-FI tripoint to border marker 18 is now updated in OSM. For a few days, the switching between Mapnik and Osmarender will show the difference.

On Friday I had a meeting with the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and put my hands on one of the originals of the protocol describing the border between Norway and Finland. Very nicely bound protocol with high quality paper and everything. For some reason, they did not manage to find the maps, which are based on ortophotos.

The best part: I got a copy of the CD with all the documentation, including the maps.

The Norwegian-Finnish border was surveyed in 2000, and all documentation was collected on a CD-ROM. I have just sent an e-mail to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked for a copy of this CD.

If I get one, it should be a lot easier than the Excel list of Pulkovo 1932 coordinates of the Russian border, which I am still struggling to correctly decode.

Copy of the e-mail below:
"I forbindelse med korrigering av riksgrenser på www.openstreetmap.org har jeg behov for dokumentasjon av hvordan grensa mellom Norge og Finland går. På Statens Kartverk sine websider står det at all dokumentasjon i forbindelse grenseoppgangen i 2000 ble samlet på en CD.

Vet dere hvor jeg kan henvende meg for å få en kopi av denne CDen? Dersom det er hos dere, vil jeg gjerne ha tilsendt en kopi på e-post, eventuelt vanlig post på min adresse XXX vei 20, YYYY Oslo."

Today, I received a file containing the coordinates of all border markers between Norway and Russia from the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority. This is a transcript of the coordinates found in the official protocol between Norway and Russia, defining the border.

The Excel file (comments in Norwegian only) is available from http://www.foseid.priv.no/gustav/2008/osm/Russkoor.xls and the official border maps were already available at http://www.grensekom.no/grensekart.php

The only problem is that the coordinate system is Pulkova 1932.

An e-mail to the Norwegian list, got me thinking on how to get access to the Norwegian national borders. The fact that someone think you should be paying royalty to know where your country ends, sounds a bit strange.

Step 1: Ask the Norwegian Border Commision for more information about the Norwegian-Russian border. There are some maps on their web page (presumably in the public domain, Norwegian law Åndsverksloven §9).

I sent them the following e-mail today:

I forbindelse med arbeid for OpenStreetMap.org, har jeg behov for å tegne inn den norsk-russiske grense i et kart. Jeg er klar over at Norsk Eiendomsinformasjon selger tilgang til en database der denne informasjonen inngår, men dessverre gjør deres lisensbetingelser at jeg ikke kan benytte meg av denne den.

Jeg lurer derfor på:
* Har dere koordinater for grensemerkene, og i hvilket format er disse eventuelt tilgjengelig?
* Finnes det, utover grensekartene, noen informasjon om hvor djupålen i grensevassdragene går?

På forhånd takk for svar.

Licensing of mapping data in various jurisdictions is not easy. To make sure that I know exactly what license my contributions are under, and in support of the widest possible use of Openstreetmap data, I feel this is the best solution:

To the extent possible under law, I waive all copyright, moral rights, database rights, and any other rights that might be asserted over my contributions to Openstreetmap.