Developing geographic information infrastructure

Abstract

Within information societies, information availability is a key issue affecting societyâs well being. The infrastructure underlying the foundation of the information society may be referred to as the information infrastructure. A geographic information infrastructure (GII) supports the information infrastructure with regard to geographic information. A GII facilitates the availability of and access to geographic information for all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, academia and citizens in general (see Onsrud 1998). It encompasses the policies, organizational remits, information, technologies, standards, delivery mechanisms and financial and human resources necessary to ensure that those working at the local, national, regional or global scale are not impeded in meeting their objectives (GSDI 1997). Within the context of a GII access-to-government-information policies are important for the availability and successful use of the information, and the success of the GII itself. However, few access policy researches have been executed from the perspective of GII development. This PhD research has evolved around the following question: What is the role of access policies in the development of a geographic information infrastructure (GII)? Government has an important role in GII development. It is both provider and user of geographic information, and in many instances government agencies lead GII development. Especially in its role as provider of geographic information, government may both decide what information is collected and through its access policies determine the extent to which a dataset can be used. Two access doctrines are dominant in the literature: open access policies and cost recovery policies. The open access approach assumes that government information is available for a price not exceeding the cost of reproduction and distribution, with as few restrictions in the use as possible. In the cost recovery approach, the price of government information covers at least the cost of creation and dissemination, and may include a return on investment. The use of the information is restricted and government may even choose to have exclusive arrangements. Many researches have compared open access policies with the cost recovery model. Most studies compare the open information policies of the federal U.S. government with the restrictive policies of European countries and conclude that the open access policies of the federal United States should be implemented in other countries because it may lead to significant macro-economic benefits. However, few of the access policy researches have been executed from the perspective of GII development. Accomplished research on government access policy has not, or only briefly addressed the impact of an access policy on the quality of a dataset. Most research in comparing access policies ignore differences in scale in both datasets and economies, and most do not specify between specific user groups, making these researches less useful than currently acknowledged. Since it is crucial for the development of a GII to understand the role information policies may have on the information qualities in general and on the GII more specifically, this study has researched access policies from the perspective of the development of the GII. It provides policy makers paving the strategy for GII development guidelines about which access policy should be in place in order to promote the use of geographic information and to develop the GII so that the GII can perform the infrastructural function it needs to have in the information society.