Matthieu Noucher

Spatial Data Sharing: A Pilot Study of French SDIs

Since the appearance of Spatial Data Infrastructure several years ago, there has been a tremendous increase in spatial data available on the Internet. This situation raises several research issues, in terms of identifying the content actually accessible via this medium and its impact on governance and local authority management. Our study proposes a mixed methodology applied to 45 French institutional infrastructures, to compare the objectives stated by their promoters, their content, and the actual services provided. The methodology, based on an analysis of interviews with Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) coordinators and their answers to questionnaires, as well as a study of their websites and an exploration of over 160,000 metadata in their metadata catalogues, produced varied results concerning data accessibility, stakeholder networks, the interoperability of tools, and informational equality in different regions. Despite the proactive stance of SDI promoters, only 15.7% of data are open-access. Their interoperability remains restricted to specific types of actors and themes. Although geocollaboration organised by SDIs is very active, it only concerns the public sector. These disparities also concern their informational dimension, as some regions have considerable resources at their disposal, but others do not.

Le libre accès rebat-il les cartes ?

Cet article vise a presenter les multiples interactions entre OpenStreetMap et une collectivite territoriale qui publie ses donnees publiques. Etant a la fois une base de donnees geographique libre et une communaute, OpenStreetMap permet a une collectivite de creer et d’animer un ecosysteme d’acteurs, necessaire a la reutilisation des donnees publiques. De plus, de nouvelles synergies peuvent apparaitre entre ces deux entites en termes de controle qualite des donnees mises en ligne et d’enrichissement des pratiques cartographiques des services de la ville. Ces differents apports de la cartographie libre lors d’une initiative Open Data seront illustres par l’etude de la cellule Donnees publiques ouvertes de la ville de Montpellier.

Les données géographiques comme révélateur de l'état des connaissances sur l'environnement ? Analyse et comparaison des infrastructures nationales brésilienne et française de données géographiques.

Les representations spatiales (cartographiques au sens large) constituent actuellement une des principales formes de production, de diffusion et dechange des connaissances environnementales. Depuis la fin des annees 90, le developpement dinfrastructures de donnees geographiques (IDG) vise a faciliter le partage et lacces a ces representations issues des SIG institutionnels. Lobjectif de cet article est danalyser le contenu des plateformes nationales du Bresil et de France pour amorcer une comparaison des logiques de formalisation et de diffusion des savoirs geographiques institutionnels sur lenvironnement. Notre hypothese est que les IDG ne doivent pas etre uniquement considerees comme un support a la recherche dinformation mais un veritable objet de recherche pour les sciences de lenvironnement. A partir dune chaine de traitement permettant dextraire puis danalyser la couverture spatiale et lorigine organisationnelle du contenu de ces geoportails, nous esquissons alors le potentiel heuristique mais aussi les limites methodologiques de lanalyse des IDG comme revelateur de letat des connaissances sur lenvironnement.

La donnée géographique aux frontières des organisations

Geographic Information Technologies are now widespread. Geomatics tools are no longer restricted to a small number of technicians but impact on all of the actors within the land management sector (planners, geologists, foresters…). Many partnerships have emerged due to the increasing number of GIS expert as well as the increasing needs of integrated land approaches. Beyond their original purpose of basic map dissemination, these groups require spatial data infrastructures in order to organize thematic data coproduction. That is the reason why a switch is occurring : from spatial data sharing to spatial knowledge sharing. In this context, the thesis intends to understand and analyse the issues of this new inter-organizational geomatics. Spatial data build a territorial reality reflecting experience and expectations of its producer. That is the reason why the issues are numerous. How can spatial data be simultaneously the result of collective negotiation as well as the object of individual representation? So, the aim of this research is to understand the role of spatial data on the cooperation process of land managers (and stakeholders in land management). In order to give an answer, we choose to study the spatial data appropriation process. This process opens the analysis of how data can be used by a group that has not produced the data itself, as well as in a multi-actor context. We adopt a qualitative, inductive and exploratory methodology called grounded theory to build and specify our working hypothesis throughout the research. Four iterations allow a round-trip process between empirical observations and theoretical analysis thus progressively exploring different aspects of explanation. A socio-cognitive approach, supported by observations, analyzes spatial data as a boundary-object in a socially and cognitively distributed actor network. Distributed cognition theory offers a framework to understand data as a cognitive and collaborative artefact. Eight exploratory case studies help to identify typical appropriation trajectories, factors and socio-cognitive processes. A systemic approach is applied to the results in order to propose an integrated and complementary vision of appropriation trajectories. The systemic framework of Eric Schwarz is used to highlight the importance of mediation process and focuses on the emergence of spatial knowledge sharing. Finally, an action agenda can be emerge from an assessment of this new way to analyze the interorganizational geomatics. This agenda comprises organisation (from consensus or compromise to an argumentative consensus process), actors (from animator to a facilitator competence) and technology (from standardizing ontologies to negociating ontologies). This research offers a different vantage point on the spatial data question. Systemic and socio-cognitive approaches suggest a new integration of knowledge and information in the context of geographical information technologies. The thesis therefore provides understanding and operation elements so that spatial data sharing can progressively evolve into geomatics learning networks, also termed communities of practice.