[wsfii-discuss] Europe's GeoData belongs to the public?

[Tracey P. Lauriault]

Cheers Malcom!

The issue is in the UK is that you can get the data but at a very high 
cost and with very restrictive use.  Making the tax payer, the citizen 
pay twice and keeping the data out of the hands of social researchers, 
ngo's who want to do a poverty analysis, and regular citizens who want 
to study their neighbourhoods.  Also there are restrictions in 
publishing what you have bought as well.

Do well at the panel in Pakistan!

t


Malcolm Matson wrote:
> Hi Tracy - it's not my speciality but has anyone looked at this 
> important issue from the standpoint of the UK 'Freedom of Information 
> Act 2000 <http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/20000036.htm>'?  Might 
> be worth it.
> Regards (from Pakistan where I am with Vickram and colleagues)
>
> Malcolm
>
>
>
>
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> On 14/11/06, *Tracey P. Lauriault* <tlauriau at magma.ca 
> <mailto:tlauriau at magma.ca>> wrote:
>
>     A few people at WSFII Dharamsala asked me about access to
>     Geographic Data (e.g. maps, census, environment data & maps, radar
>     images, satellite images, air photos etc.) for their countries and
>     cities in Europe. 
>
>     These data are hard to access for a number of reasons and I would
>     like to point you to an important what is happening in Europe that
>     will eventually determine how all European Member Nations address
>     issues of access and cost of these important civic data sets.  The
>     UK position on full cost recovery is the worst and it is
>     influencing others.  If you want *open and free - as in no cost -
>     access to the GeoData your national governments collect with your
>     tax dollars, and you do not want to pay for it twice - i recommend
>     you act on the following:*
>
>
>         Open GeoData - http://publicgeodata.org/
>
>         On 23 January 2006, the Council of European Union has formally
>         adopted a common position on the Inspire Directive, which
>         stipulates that *Geographic Data collected by National Mapping
>         Agencies all over Europe should be owned by such agencies and
>         not by the Public*
>
>
>         *The Open Knowledge Foundation Open Data Manifesto -
>         http://okfn.org/geo/manifesto.php*
>
>         Geodata is a public good. Open access to it, under a 'Commons'
>         (ShareAlike) license, is the best way to see its full benefits
>         realized by industry and citizens. At the same time such an
>         arrangement, by requiring users to redistribute updates and
>         improvements to the data, promises to deliver more and better
>         data for less.
>
>
>         *Free Our Data : The Blog* - http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/
>
>         Free Our Data is the campaign started by Guardian Technology
>         <http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/> beginning with the
>         article Give us back our crown jewels
>         <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Technology/weekly/story/0,,1726229,00.html>.
>         The argument is simple: by charging for data that is collected
>         (sometimes with the force of law) by government-owned bodies,
>         the government is holding back the growth in public and
>         private use of that data which could benefit the UK overall.
>         That is, a short-term "gain" hides a much bigger loss in terms
>         of entrepreneurship, jobs created and competitive edge lost.
>
>
>
>
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