[open-government] GIS Data and Licenses

[Jan Willem van Eck]

Some inline comments! <<>> Cheers, Jw.

-----Original Message-----
From: open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:open-government-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Maurizio Napolitano
Sent: Monday, September 12, 2011 8:53 AM
To: open-government at lists.okfn.org
Subject: Re: [open-government] GIS Data and Licenses

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.

<<>> agree regarding the license. Have some doubts about their essence (huge quantities, irregular form, need of interpretation).

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)

<<>> the body to watch here is the http://www.opengeospatial.org/ compliance to their standards is important for integration.

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

<<>> fully agree. Without metadata, geographic data has no value. Ok. Little value.

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.

<<>> I do not understand this line of thinking. What do you mean by 'return'?

A restrictive license may have its purpose as well. Less restriction does not automatically mean more chances for innovation, I think. There must be more in place to make innovation to happen and a restrictive license might just do the trick.
As for the 'paid with taxes' argument: it seems we could apply that to almost everything in our society. If all of mapping would be funded centrally by government (which it is not in many cases), would we still have the mapping products which exist today?


less restriction = more possibility for the innovation

<<>>  agree

<<>> 

... but this is my point of view

<<>> thanks for sharing. Jw.

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