Set the information free
Source: The Global Geospatial Magazine – GIS Development, India
India celebrates the publication of the 150th edition of GIS Development!
Nagar, India: 25 January 2010
The Indian produced GIS Development magazine has published the January 2010 edition of the magazine (RNI 68561/18/6/98 ISSN 0971-9377 UP/BR-343/2009-2011)(116 pages). The January 2010 edition is the 150th Edition of the Magazine and carries a wide range of articles from Chief Executive Officers across the world about their vision of the future.
One of the articles published includes and interview with Vanessa Lawrence Director General and Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey title: NMAs should Meet Customer Needs. The questions considered include:
- How and what data is Ordnance Survey providing to stimulate innovation in economy and society?
- What are the initiatives of OS to be more pro-active in roping in non-traditional users?
- How are IPR and copyright issues dealt with by OS?
- How is OS balancing development needs with security concerns?
- What are the future challenges for OS and other mapping agencies?
- How can geospatial information contribute to better understand issues and challenges facing the world?
- GIS Development is completing 150 editions. What more do you think we can do to better disseminate knowledge and information and connect world geospatial communities?
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The article from Ed Parsons Geospatial Technologist at Google titled: The creative destruction of GIS? The article refers to the European Union public sector information re-use Directive and the role of raising awareness and cites the UK Guardian newspaper Free Our Data campaign. The article states:
“Set the information free
Information is like liquid mercury. By it very nature, it wants to flow, it wants to spread following the path of least resistance, and shares the disconcerting characteristic of mercury in moving in unexpected ways. For the last few years, access to information and particularly geospatial information has been the topic of heated discussion. Much geospatial data has been created by or developed specifically for public bodies and in some countries its reuse has been severely restricted. I believe we are beginning to see a consensus form around the concept that public sector geospatial data should be freely accessible for use by citizens and commercial organizations who can in turn add value to the raw data.
Taxpayer-funded public institutions gather many types of geospatial information, not only maps but also traffic information, socio-economic data and meteorological updates. All of this information is potentially useful to citizens. For example in Singapore, a wide variety of publicly funded data sources enabled Google to launch Google Transit, merging public transport schedules, up-to-the minute traffic updates and intelligent routing with the location-determining capabilities of today's mobile phones.
Unfortunately, it has often been difficult to get access to the information required to develop such cool, innovative and useful services. Despite being public, open access to this data has not been automatic, and in Europe in particular, complex licence agreements are common. The European Union recognised in 2003 the potential for innovation and economic growth that easy access to publicly funded information could unlock, and adopted a directive setting the conditions under which public sector bodies should encourage re-use of their information resources. The PSI directive requires that member states "will encourage the reuse of public data by third parties to develop enriched services that maximise the value for the public."
From a very personal perspective, I am encouraged that the UK government has taken an important unilateral first step towards freeing public data: from April next year, UK's Ordnance Survey mid-scale maps will become freely available - and re-usable - online. This represents an important victory for The Guardian's laudable 'Free Our Data' campaign which has been running for the last three years. UK joins Canada, South Africa, Australia, Norway and the United States in making core geospatial data freely available. The momentum behind increasing access to public sector geospatial information will continue to improve and will allow innovators everywhere to create cool, useful products.”
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