World Street Map as a network dataset?

[JoeRagno]

Hello,

I think I'm a bit confused about the purpose of the "world street map."  Is this just a basemap, or can it be used as a network dataset?  I have the Data and Maps DVD and have been using the "streets.rs" file as the dataset to perform analysis with, but I noticed that the dataset has no reference beyond the United States and Canada and facilities placed outside of these countries show up as "Unlocated."  The World Street Map available online describes itself as having street-level knowledge in many countries outside of the US/CA, but I'm at a loss as to how to pull that road infrastructure into my network analysis.  Downloading the file only brings it in as a layer and seems to be unusable as a data set.

Thanks again for the help.  As you can surely tell, I am very very new at this.  Many of our mapping exercises take place outside of North America, so it would be good to know if ArcGIS is capable of street-level network analysis for the rest of the globe (most of it anyway).

-JR

[MattCrowder]

Network Analyst is capable of performing network analysis anywhere in the world - assuming you have a network dataset covering the area of interest.  The dataset that comes on the data and maps DVD is just for North America.  If you wanted to perform analysis on a different area (or with more recent data), you can purchase an ESRI StreetMap Premium dataset from ESRI, or you can build your own dataset from whatever source of data you have available.  ESRI also currently offers a routing service (http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgis-online-map-and-geoservices/geoservices#tab2) for North America and Europe.  This fall, ESRI will be releasing new services for routing, closest facility, service area, and VRP that will work for any North America, Europe, and parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Hope this helps,

Matt