[open-government] GIS Data and Licenses

Mon Sep 12 06:53:25 UTC 2011

Il 09/09/2011 06:51 PM, Brian Gryth ha scritto:
> Good morning all,
>
> I am researching the release of GIS data with or without a licensing
> agreement. Two questions:
>
> 1) Can anyone point me to a government that releases/posts GIS data for
> download with no or minimal restriction?
> 2) Can anyone point me to examples of GIS licensing agreement?

I suggest you ask the same question on the geo-data mailing list
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/geo-discuss

Regarding your questions
I believe that spatial isn't so special to be considered a different 
kind of data with a different license
The geographical data are special for what they represent, but are 
always data.
For this reason, the licenses used are the same used for other cases
Many people responded to you with examples of governments which issue data.
An example that I will suggest is the city of Vienna
eg http://data.wien.gv.at/katalog/verkehr/
Data released as CC-BY
Geo data available for download in a open formato or via WMS and WFS 
services
(typical geodata  services)

Very important to remember the metadata:
- Reference system used
- Methodology for collecting
- Publication date

I believe that, in geo-data field, is better always use a license 
compatible with the OpenStreetMap data.
Only because this is the biggest example of open geo-data collected by a 
community, and can be usefull for the public administration compare the 
data and understand if there is a return.

In any case i don't  like to suggest to a public administration the use 
of a "restrictive" license (like the  "share a like" restriction).
Only because the data payed with the taxes must improve the innovation.

less restriction = more possibility for the innovation

... but this is my point of view