Mapping Hacks

Public Geodata published an Open Letter regarding the INSPIRE Directive to the Members of the ENVI committee in the European Parliament this morning. I got to sleep after dawn after hitting ’send’ - collaborating with people in Europe from an East Coast base means a lot of very late nights or very early mornings.

When i woke up this afternoon, i had an inbox full of people excitedly sending me references to today’s Guardian article on What Price Information? which gives a good shoutout to publicgeodata.org and represents the first time I’ve seen the debate around the proposed INSPIRE Directive in mainstream media. Inspired by so many efforts to gain public access to publically funded information in the UK, perhaps sensing a movement in the air, the Graun have started their own campaigning effort to Free Our Data. Geographic information is what most people are really keen to get access to - not only because it has so much potential economic and research value if it’s made openly available, but also because geodata provides a key to unlocking the meaning and the value of many other kinds of public sector information.I can’t express how much luck i wish them in their galvanising efforts.

Chris Corbin wrote to the Euro-GI-Policy list today about questions finally being asked in Parliament about how the Ordnance Survey is approaching the INSPIRE directive. I look forward to seeing the written answers provided to Parliament, and hope they come through before the crucial vote on the INSPIRE second reading amendments next Tuesday, 21st March… I’ll add a reference to the appropriate TheyWorkForYou Q/A listing here, when the answers appear.

update: the written answer in Parliament to the INSPIRE question was impressively uninformative. See also Public Geodata’s brief exegesis of this.

Posted in public geodata, open knowledge |

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