All posts in the topic Freeing up govt data is nothing new... (Short link)

Aug 31 10:25 NZST

Hi guys,

While there seems to be a great deal of interest & enthusiasm here about
freeing up access to Govt data, it seems to me that, in a sometime NZ
tradition, we figure we are leading the way & to some extent ignore the lessons
learned by others who have moved down this track years or decades ago, & others
who are also trying to.

I've used only FOSS tools &, wherever possible, freely redistributable datasets
for over 10 years now. Datasets like Digital Chart of the World (& VMAP0/CIA
World database), GSHHS, etc., have been around since the mid 90's, as have
initiatives to improve & add to them. Recent additions like MODIS/TOPEX/SRTM &
others already provide a huge amount of free global (incl NZ) data.

While this particular bandwagon is relatively recent in NZ, others have been
working towards the same goals both locally and internationally for quite some
time now....

One example: for a few datasets & a good collection of GeoData licence info
see: http://www.freegis.org/database/?cat=1 (11 years old this year)

US Naval Observatory
http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO

The Canadians have been very active in this arena for years:
http://www.geobase.ca/geobase/en/index.html

OSGEO has a (quiet) working group looking at the same issues on an
international basis:
 http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Public_Geospatial_Data_Project

Organisations such as FGDC, USGS, USNO, NASA, FAO, UNESCO & a few European
organisations have been releasing data pretty freely for decades.

Remember that enhancing the ability of the US military to share information was
in a large part responsible for the development of the Internet itself.

LINZ even has a link to NZ & overseas case studies where geospatial data is
already being made available:
http://www.geospatial.govt.nz/case-studies/

NZ is not the worst country in the world about enabling access to government
collected data, but neither are we the best.

I agree we have work (lots) to do here, but we should be working locally but
keeping an eye on the rest of the world as well. Initiatives like OSM & OAM are
best served, not by every country going through the exercise of coming up with
a licence, each slightly different, but by the equivalent of the FSF & GPL
providing a common, international standard that we all can use.

There is an enormous amount of experience out there on freeing up govt data
that we can learn from, if we are open to looking at how others are resolving,
or have resolved similar problems elsewhere.

Cheers,

  Brent Wood