Knowledge Centre Open Data

Access to geoinformation is important for the wellbeing of society. Technological advances allow access to a wide variety of geoinformation and the use of sophisticated new access methods. However, these technological advances pose a challenge to existing institutional principles concerning access to geoinformation, and will continue to do so in the future. In view of these technological advances, the accessibility of geoinformation from an institutional perspective with special reference to three user segments:

• The geo market, and in particular the position of (private sector) value-added resellers here.
• Geoinformation within the context of e-government (e.g. European INSPIRE, Dutch base registrations and sector arrangements).
• The general public (citizens), both as users/end-users and increasingly as data providers.

The Knowledge Centre Open Data focuses on one of the most promising policies promoting the accessibility of data: open data policies. The research focuses on the governance of open data, its societal and economic impact, and the legal restrictions on or conditions for implementing and utilizing open data policies.

Vast amounts of geo-data are constantly collected and processed in response to specific user needs. Nevertheless, much geo-data can also be used for other objectives, with little or no need to re-collect or reprocess it. Since the sharing of geo-data is considered to be in the general interests of society as a whole, there is an overall drive to increase the sharing by improving access, removing technical, legal and financial barriers, and devising appropriate organizational structures without forgetting the possible consequences for the freedom and privacy of individuals. In other words: the research aims to stimulate the organizational and legal interoperability of geo-data; that is, the legal, organizational, semantic and technical interoperability in interrelation to each other and the political context in which they are developing.

The research of the Knowledge Centre Open Data is part of the Geoinformation Technology and Governance Research Programme of the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. The research of the Geo-Database Management Centre (GDMC) is taking care of the technological research challenges within this research programme.

More information: www.kcopendata.eu