GLIM: Geo Legal Interoperability Map of the World

The GSDI Association's Legal and Socioeconomic (L&SE) Committee welcomes a new co-chair, Dr Joep Crompvoets of KU Leuven, and a new work plan for 2014-2016. The Committee explores the legal, institutional and socio-economic frameworks within which spatial data infrastructures are developed within individual nations and multi-nation regions. It encourages dialogue in regard to varying public policy and legal jurisdictions and explores models, approaches and experiences that may enhance cooperation among nations in sharing spatial data and spatial information technologies.

Among the major future issues that are relevant for the Legal and Socioeconomic Committee are licensing, privacy, liability, open data, volunteered geographic information (VGI), crowd sourcing, transparency, accountability, funding, governance, policy alignment, business models for SDI management, performance assessment and legal issues related to cloud computing, mobile computing and location-based services. The committee especially aims to explore the legal, institutional and socio-economic frameworks within which spatial data infrastructures are developed.

In this column, we have focused on communicating the importance of legally interoperable geodata and services, especially with respect to interoperable licences and systems of data protection. In our new L&SE 2014-2016 Work Plan, we will carry out the next step in exploring and making transparent the global utilisation of open licences for geographic data and services. We will also globally explore data protection (privacy) frameworks that apply to geographic data. Both explorations will be communicated through the Geo Legal Interoperability Map (GLIM) of the world, which may provide a glimpse of the status of the legal interoperability of SDIs globally.

We aim to finalise the exploration by the end of 2014. Readers of GIM International are encouraged to contribute to the GLIM by providing us with relevant input for their country or region. Do you have great examples of open licences for geographic data in your country or region? Let us know through the L&SE Committee website at http://www.gsdi.org/standingcomm/legal or send an e-mail directly to the co-chairs, Joep Crompvoets (Joep.Crompvoets@soc.kuleuven.be) or Bastiaan van Loenen (b.vanloenen@tudelft.nl).

The GSDI L&SE Committee is open to all who are interested in legal and socio-economic issues relating to geospatial data, services and networks, used in all sectors of society. You do not have to be a member of the GSDI Association or a member of the Association’s individual member arm, the International Geospatial Society (IGS), in order to participate.

Find out more about the work of the Committee at http://www.gsdi.org/standingcomm/legal and consider joining the L&SE discussion forum at http://lists.gsdi.org/mailman/listinfo/legal-socioecon. Check out the IGS at http://www.igeoss.org/ and consider joining this group of over 450 individuals from across the globe who are interested in a wide range of SDI issues.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr Katleen Janssen for her excellent work as past chair of the GSDI Legal and Socio-Economic Working Group.

Learn more about the GSDI Association and how to participate here:http://www.gsdi.org/joinGSDI