Bastiaan van Loenen

How to assess the success of National Spatial Data Infrastructures

Abstract In the information age, information has become of vital importance to the economic and social development of a country. Especially geographic information is of increasing importance for the successful execution of (public) tasks. Spatial data infrastructures (SDIs) facilitate the collection, maintenance, dissemination, and use of spatial information. Due to the continuous change of the components of the SDI, the organisational component needs to change accordingly to enable the further development of an SDI. The authors used organisational theory to develop a means to assess the success of a National SDI’s organisational context. This paper works out indicators and key conditions enabling the further development of an NSDI, accounting for its stepwise development. Crucial aspects from an organisational perspective in NSDI development are the existence of a vision, leadership, communication strategy, coherence and intention of the geographic community to initiate new innovations. The extent to which these aspects are present in an SDI initiative determines its stage of development, and as a result the success of that SDI. The NSDI characteristics of The Netherlands and the United States are used to test the proposed framework.

An assessment view to evaluate whether Spatial Data Infrastructures meet their goals

The motives for constructing Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) are often based on their anticipated benefits for society, economy, and environment. According to those widely articulated but rarely proven benefits, SDI coordinators have been defining more specific objectives to be achieved by their SDIs. However, there is a limited number of assessment approaches that are able to demonstrate whether SDIs indeed realize the intended goals. In this article we develop, apply and evaluate an assessment view for evaluating the extent to which SDIs realize their goals. The assessment view has been developed stepwise using the Multi-view SDI assessment framework as a guideline. The application of the proposed view in the Dutch SDI demonstrates its potential. In addition, the evaluation of the proposed view by the potential users confirms to a certain extent its usability. The results also show that the ease of determining assessment indicators depends on the precision with which the SDI goals are formulated.

How to assess the success of the open data ecosystem

ABSTRACT Open data are currently a hot topic and are associated with realising ambitions such as a more transparent and efficient government, solving societal problems, and increasing economic value. To describe and monitor the state of open data in countries and organisations, several open data assessment frameworks were developed. Despite high scores in these assessment frameworks, the actual (re)use of open government data (OGD) fails to live up to its expectations. Our review of existing open data assessment frameworks reveals that these only cover parts of the open data ecosystem. We have developed a framework, which assesses open data supply, open data governance, and open data user characteristics holistically. This holistic open data framework assesses the maturity of the open data ecosystem and proves to be a useful tool to indicate which aspects of the open data ecosystem are successful and which aspects require attention. Our initial assessment in the Netherlands indicates that the traditional geographical data perform significantly better than non-geographical data, such as healthcare data. Therefore, open geographical data policies in the Netherlands may provide useful cues for other OGD strategies.Open data are currently a hot topic and are associated with realising ambitions such as a more transparent and efficient government, solving societal problems, and increasing economic value. To describe and monitor the state of open data in countries and organisations, several open data assessment frameworks were developed. Despite high scores in these assessment frameworks, the actual (re)use of open government data (OGD) fails to live up to its expectations. Our review of existing open data assessment frameworks reveals that these only cover parts of the open data ecosystem. We have developed a framework, which assesses open data supply, open data governance, and open data user characteristics holistically. This holistic open data framework assesses the maturity of the open data ecosystem and proves to be a useful tool to indicate which aspects of the open data ecosystem are successful and which aspects require attention. Our initial assessment in the Netherlands indicates that the traditional geographical data perform significantly better than non-geographical data, such as healthcare data. Therefore, open geographical data policies in the Netherlands may provide useful cues for other OGD strategies.

Open Data and Beyond

In recent years, there has been an increasing trend of releasing public sector information as open data. Governments worldwide see the potential benefits of opening up their data. The potential benefits are more transparency, increased governmental efficiency and effectiveness, and external benefits, including societal and economic benefits. The private sector also recognizes potential benefits of making their datasets available as open data. One such company is Liander, an energy network administrator in the Netherlands. Liander views open data as a contributing factor to energy conservation. However, to date there has been little research done into the actual effects of open data. This research has developed a monitoring framework to assess the effects of open data, and has applied the framework to Liander’s small-scale energy consumption dataset.

Data protection legislation: A very hungry caterpillar: The case of mapping data in the European Union

The European Unions policy on open data aims at generating value through re-use of public sector information, such as mapping data. Open data policies should be applied in full compliance with the principles relating to the protection of personal data of the EU Data Protection Directive. Increased computer power, advancing data mining techniques and the increasing amount of publicly available big data extend the reach of the EU Data Protection Directive to much more data than currently assumed and acted upon. Especially mapping data are a key factor to identify individual data subjects and consequently subject to the EU Data Protection Directive and the recently approved EU General Data Protection Regulation. This could in effect obstruct the implementation of open data policies in the EU. The very hungry data protection legislation results in a need to rethink either the concept of personal data or the conditions for use of mapping data that are considered personal data.

Geo shared licences : a base for better access to public sector geoinformation for value-added resellers in Europe

In a digital age public sector geoinformation (PSGI) is potentially a vital link in the added-value chain. Yet private sector value-added resellers (VARs) still face a number of barriers to using PSGI. Price is only one impediment. The complexity of licences and restrictive licence conditions of PSGI may be an even bigger obstacle. Especially when combining different datasets, VARs can face a quagmire of conflicting licence conditions. Batty (2006 Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 33 163–164) called for research that would stimulate value-added use of PSGI. However, inconsistent and intransparent licence conditions for PSGI are among the biggest obstacles of PSGI for VARs. This paper explores the current PSGI licences to assess the actual restrictions and how current obstacles can be levelled. The Creative Commons licensing concept was explored and adapted to make it suitable for licensing PSGI. The resulting concept of Geo Shared licences is a means to harmonise licence conditions for PSGI. Our research shows that the Geo Shared concept can be a valuable contribution to further harmonisation of PSGI licences and thus development of value-added chains. Furthermore, development of geographic information infrastructures will also be stimulated. Similarly, the concept can be considered as a serious option within the Infrastructure of Spatial Information for Europe (INSPIRE), as a way towards transparent harmonised licences in Europe and beyond.

Exploring the Emergence of Open Spatial Data Infrastructures: Analysis of Recent Developments and Trends in Europe

In the past 20 years, European public authorities have invested considerable resources in the development of spatial data infrastructures. With the European INSPIRE Directive as an important driver, national spatial data infrastructures were developed throughout Europe to facilitate and coordinate the exchange and sharing of geographic data. While the original focus of these spatial data infrastructure was mainly on data sharing among public authorities, it became more and more evident that these data could also be of great value to users outside the public sector. In recent years, several countries and public administrations started to make a shift towards the establishment of an ‘open’ spatial data infrastructure, in which also businesses, citizens and non-governmental actors were considered as key stakeholders of the infrastructure. This chapter provides an analysis of the measures and solutions implemented in four European countries (the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Finland) to make their spatial data infrastructures open to businesses, citizens and other stakeholders. The analysis shows that in these four countries the move towards more open spatial data infrastructures can mainly be seen in the increased availability of geographic data and spatially enabled services to citizens, businesses and other stakeholders.

The STIG: Framework for the Stress-Test for Infrastructures of Geographic Information

Spatial data infrastructure (SDI) facilitates the collection, maintenance, dissemination and use of spatial information. To stimulate SDI development effectively and efficiently, it is key to assess the progress and benefits of the SDI. SDI is difficult to assess because of its complex, dynamic, multi-faceted and constantly evolving nature. Several SDI assessment methods exist. However, these are still in an infancy stage and none of these appear to meet the requirements of practitioners. As a result, SDI decision makers are still without any guidance on the success of their SDI. In this paper we propose a new method for SDI assessment: The STIG, a Stress-test for Infrastructures of Geographical information. The development and application of the Stress-test methodology will provide new valuable information for decision-makers about the aspects of SDIs that need to be improved in order to take full advantage of the potential benefit of the SDIs, especially in the instance of disaster management.

Privacy versus national security: The impact of privacy law on the use of location technology for national security purposes

Location technology allows for the continuous tracking of individuals. Knowledge about the person’s whereabouts also allows for the development of location based services at a very detailed levels. However, there is a potential danger that the further development of the appealing technologies will be blocked by privacy regulations. This paper assesses the legal framework on balancing privacy and national security at the European level. Although the privacy restrictions may limit the use within the consumer market, for purposes of national security they appear to be almost non-existent. The European Court of Human Rights’ judgments confirm that privacy invading technologies can be used to increase national security. A discussion on the need for far-reaching surveillance mandates for national intelligence services concludes this paper.

Open Data Exposed

This book is about open data, i.e. data that does not have any barriers in the (re)use. Open data aims to optimize access, sharing and using data from a technical, legal, financial, and intellectual perspective. Data increasingly determines the way people live their lives today. Nowadays, we cannot imagine a life without real-time traffic information about our route to work, information of the daily news or information about the local weather. At the same time, citizens themselves now are constantly generating and sharing data and information via many different devices and social media systems. Especially for governments, collection, management, exchange, and use of data and information have always been key tasks, since data is both the primary input to and output of government activities. Also for businesses, non-profit organizations, researchers and various other actors, data and information are essential.