Public Geo DataGeographic information - spatial data, or geodata - is the bedrock of how civic society is managed in an Information Age.

Geodata describes where you live, who you can vote for, how much tax you pay on your property, where your children go to school. Geodata describes the environment around us and helps to create strategies for managing it together sustainably. PublicGeodata is a foundation for shared civic planning. Access to geodata is driving a GeospatialWebBoom, a new generation of location-based technologies connected through the Internet.

In Europe, geodata is collected by a network of publically funded NationalMappingAgencies. Each one has its own local SpatialDataInfrastructure, different languages and taxonomies for describing how each country is managed and governed.

The Proposed INSPIRE Directive on creating a European SpatialDataInfrastructure is a piece of EC legislation designed to help NationalMappingAgencies collaborate on sharing and creating geographic data across Europe.

The NationalMappingAgencies are under a lot of pressure to "recover the costs" of collecting public geodata. This pressure results in commercial licensing and strict copyright on data that affects European citizens lives and businesses in a really fundamental way.

As the InspireTimeline shows, while the new Directive has gone through the CoDecisionProcess in Europe, it has acquire d more emphasis on the intellectual property rights that public geodata collectors gain over data collected originally at taxpayers' expense.


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PublicGeodata.org is two things. It aims to convince you to SignThePetition to the Members of the European Parliament not to rubberstamp INSPIRE along party lines on its Second Reading; the civic and economic innovation that open, public access to geodata can support is tremendous.

It's never too late to ContactYourMEP and let them hear your voice.

There are AlternativeModels for publishing and licensing access to this data in a more open way, that have not been considered in the INSPIRE Directive creation process.

Even if you've never heard of a SpatialDataInfrastructure, your mobile phone, your in-car navigation system, your public transport smart-card, all depend on it, and assigning intellectual property rights to public data providers will make all your toys more expensive and less useful. Read more - WhySignThePetition

PublicGeodata.org is also a quick reference guide for anyone who considers themself to have a stake in the GeographicInformationIndustry, no matter how small. It highlights some of the ProblemsWithInspire being experienced by industry, academic, local government and open-source software groups who have not been consulted.

If you care about European citizens' ability to participate in the GeospatialWebBoom that is driving social and economic activity in the US and Canada right now; even if you like the idea that NationalMappingAgencies such as the UK's OrdnanceSurvey should be granted intellectual property rights and copyright on geographic data that you paid to help collect in the first place, this site hopes to help you to ActOnInspire.

Much of the reference material gathered here is based on the persistent and vocal freelance research work carried out by Chris Corbin and published on the European Geographic Information Policy mailing list

The creation of a SpatialDataInfrastructure is ultimately a technological problem which does not need a legislative solution right now. The StandardsForGeographicInformation are in flux. OpenSourceGeospatial software and services are just starting to mature and come together. There is an awful lot at stake here for economy and society in Europe; why is the Proposed INSPIRE Directive being rushed through the next session of the European Parliament, with copyright and intellectual property rights clauses that were not publically consulted on, and not in the spirit of the original draft?

The availability and potential re-use of PublicSectorInformation is a general case of public geodata availability. EnvironmentalInformation legislation currently demands more openness than INSPIRE is offering.

Find out HowYouCanHelp to compile information that will be useful for researchers, campaigners the MEPs themselves over the coming weeks before INSPIRE goes to its second reading.

TheDebate over charging or not charging citizens for access to geodata tends to be falsely polarised between "Total Freedom" and "Cost Recovery", but there are plenty of middle ways and moderate voices that the INSPIRE process has just not taken into account.

PublicGeodataContacts - getting in touch, talking about this.

last edited 2006-02-08 17:07:04 by JoWalsh