Open source and Open data for Geographic Information

1. imaGIne Conference 2014
Session 8C1 organised by HUNAGI (HU) and ISPIK (PL) on
Open source and open data for GI
Report
by Dr. Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp (HUNAGI)
Rapporteur
with acknowledgements for the Moderator, Speakers,Panelists and
external contributors

2. Title, venue and date/time
"OPEN SOURCE AND OPEN DATA FOR GI"
- policies, enabling tools and applications -
Organised by EUROGI Members: the Hungarian
Association for Geospatial Information (HUNAGI) and the
Instytut Systemów Przestrzennych i Katastralnych S.A.
(ISPIK SA. Poland)
imaGIne Conference
Room Lindau 3, Bld. C, Berliner Messe, Berlin
8 October 2014, 14:00 - 15:30

3. Outline of the Session
Introduction by the moderator
Andrzej Sambura, CEO, ISPIK SA
Open Data and its economic impacts
Dr. Márta Nagy-Rothengass, Head of Unit, DG Connect, European
Commission
Made in Europe, Making a Difference - Contributions to Open
Standards and Open Source Software
Prof. Dr. Peter Baumann, Jacobs University, Bremen
Open Source, Data and Content as Foundations for Open Educational
Resources
Prof. Dr. Josef Strobl, Salzburg University SME, Administration,
Education & Research
Panel Discussion FOSS4G and the European Open Data Policy -
Drivers for the Wider Use of GI
Keynote speakers plus Dr. Marco Minghini, Politecnico Milano at Como,
Dr. Jon Blower, Melodies project, University of Readling and dr. Zoltán Siki,
Dept. of Geodesy and Surveying, Budapest University of Technology and
Economics

4. Summary of findings (1)
The scene was set by Moderator Andrzej Sambura by
referring the recent EUROGI interview with Deputy DG
Roberto Viola of DG CNEC:
• It is anticipated, that the opportunity to innovate with GI will largerly
increased thanks to the revision of PSI directive the legal
cornerstone of the Open Data Initiative
• The new rules to be implemented by July 2015
• All the public data should become re-usable as default at no or
much less costs
• Expected impact on the governmental agencies such as cadastre
(they have to revisit their charging policies)

5. Summary of findings (2)
The representative of the DG CNECT Dr.M.Nagy-Rothengass dealt with the
open data and its economic impacts
• EU is towards a data-driven economy. Open data is significant part of it.
The big data market rises from 10 bn € to 50 bn € between 2011-2015
and revolutionises the decision making
• Open data offers opportunities for growth, jobs, better quality, better
efficiency and innovative services and develops ecosystems across the
economy and society
• Open govt’l data: an untapped business est. 140 bn € in the former EU28,
Better governance, empower citizens, address societal challenges and
accelerate scientific progress
• Industry involvement is a key (PPP is open – join it!)
• The EU Open Data Strategy – milestones incude: EC Communicationon
Open Data (2011), Revision of PSI Directive (2013) Guidelines on PSI re-use
(July 2014).
• Now we are speaking on EU open data infrastructure
• Research and Innovation funding available to foster cross-sectral re-use
with merging different types of data

6. Summary of findings (3)
Open Source Open Data and Content are foundations for Open
Educational Resources explained by academician Prof. J. Strobl:
• Open educational resources are considered as a transformational and
potentially disruptive game changer
• Stages are: spatial literacy, spatial awareness and spatial thinking
• Open educational resources not equal open education
• Need to share a higher level: not only data but knowledge as well
• Contributions made by Prof. P.Baumann to open standards and open
source software include
• Outreach to science, communities and citizens
• New, advanced technical solutions helps database visualization,
parallel/distributed query processing, secured archive integration (using
RASDAMAN, the case of NASA - ESA was shown)
• A science SQL in ISO, a standard for multi-dimensional spatio-temporal
arrays (MDA) has been approved in Information technology – Database
languages Part 15

7. Summary of findings (4)
Statements, comments, remarks of the panelists (Dr.J.Slower, Dr.Z.Siki and
Dr.M.Minghini as well as the keynote speakers gave a good insights on the
topic addressed in the discussion.
• Open data often perceived as poor quality. This will change as many large
organisations (e.g. ESA) release their data openly
• We could do a better job in collecting user feedbacks and corrections on
data (e.g. CHARME project)
• There is still confusion on data policies. Free data are not necessarily
open. Sometimes data can be free, but the licence restricts some kinds of
re-use or re-distribution.
• On the other hand data can be reasonable restricted for users or re-distribution
(e.g. nesting locations of falcons, data related to critical
infrastructures or privacy). Charging data are not the most important
barrier. Open accessibility and usability are more vital.
• SMEs would like to know how they can build business on open data?
• Data providers would like to know, how to get revenues they need to
maintain their data systems and services?
• Geo-data alone are important but we have to combine them with non-geodata
and to do so we have to overarch standards (e.g. MELODIES
project), looking for Semantic Web and Linked Data standards.

8. Summary of findings (5)
• It is still a skill-shortage in handling large geodata. That needs to be
addressed. There is a strong role of training at graduate, post-graduate
and continuing professional development levels.
• As application example the twofold winner of the NASA World Wind
Europa Challenge, „PoliCrowd” is a friendly, customizable, open source
platform developed by the GEO Laboratory of Politecnico di Milano
(Como Campus). It is a participative platform built on top of a 3D virtual
globe and allowing connections to WMS and ODK servers, customizable
data styling and filtering, and multimedia sharing
• The Moderator Mr. Sambura pointed out the extremely importance of the
topic which was focused from policy, academic/educational as well as
from technical viewpoints. An enabling framework and a dynamic data
community are pre-condition for an open data driven e-Economy
• Opening professional data would give a much larger extent of visibility for
the data providers and such data became economic societal assets
• Finally Dr. Minghini announced the 2nd FOSS4G Europe Conference
which will be held in Como, 14-17 July, 2015

9. Appendix- Recommended readings
Contributions from invited experts, who were not able to come to imaGIne 2
Courtesy by Prof.Dr.David Rhind, UK Government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information:
APPSI, Government’s Advisor Panel on Public Sector Information, has published three important new
documents in the subject.
• The interactive wiki version of APPSI’s glossary of Public Sector Information (PSI) and Open Data
(OD) terms.
• http://data.gov.uk/glossary
• This derives from APPSI’s early identification of widespread and confusing use of the same terminology for
different matters and different words for the same things. Government accepted the need for this in the
Open Data White Paper 2012 (Cm 8353) and APPSI created and tested a glossary. With the active
engagement of the Cabinet Office this has now been converted into a wiki whereby anyone can comment
on the terms used, propose alternatives and suggest new definitions.
• What is the value of Open Data?
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/meetings/20140128-appsi-what-is-the-value-of-open-data.
pdf.
• Much government effort has been put into developing the Open Data agenda. Yet there is relatively little
quantitative evidence of the resulting benefits. APPSI organised a major seminar with national and
international experts to address this issue. The substantial report of the findings from the meeting show that
it is unrealistic to seek simple and meaningful overall statements of monetary benefit. On the other hand
there is growing evidence of significant consumer surplus benefits (e.g. saving time) and possibly some
environmental benefits through use of PSI and OD. The report also addresses wider issues, such as the
sustainability of OD, the importance of the new information ecosystem as opposed to a focus simply on
data, the role of the private sector and the tensions between the Open Data agenda and the Trading Fund
model under which some government bodies operate.

10. Appendix- Recommended readings
Prof.Dr.David Rhind, UK Government's Advisory Panel on Public Sector Information (cont.d):
• Drowning in data: who and what can we trust?
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/meetings/20140425-drowning-in-data.pdf
• This paper, based on discussions within APPSI and elsewhere, provides a wide review of five
issues associated with the growth of ‘Big Data’: threats to privacy and the trade-offs involved
with public benefits, the appropriate role of the state in information trading, the consequences
of technology failure, the dearth of UK quantitative skills, and misunderstandings or
misrepresentations of data. Central to minimising threats to privacy and maintaining public
trust are good governance, regulation and independent ‘fact checking’. Finally, guidance on
how to assess evidence or conclusions derived from data and information is given.
For further information see https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/appsi%5Cdefault.htm
Contact: Beth Watson at Beth.Watson@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk or David Rhind at
dwrhind@gmail.com
Courtesy by Dr. Sven Schade, DG JRC IES Digital Earth and Reference Data:
Coupling Public Sector Information and Public-funded Research Data in Europe - A
Vision of an Open Data Ecosystem S. Schade, C. Granell & A. Perego European
Commission – DG Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Varese, Italy {sven.schade, carlos.granell,
andrea.perego}@jrc.ec.europa.eu
For the time being the paper is still in the publication phase.

11. Photo mosaic of the session (Picassa3 -generated)
Originals: https://picasaweb.google.com/112066959995287816437/8C1?authuser=0&feat=directlink