Quote
"The governments of the United States, Canada and other nations show that granting free access to basic geographic data is technically and economically feasible" |
Statement
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In the domain of cartography and geospatial analysis, the term "Open Source" has an important meaning not simply for software, but for data, as well. In the absence of detailed and comprehensive data to work with, the utility of geospatial software becomes drastically reduced.
Distribution of spatial data is cheap in the Internet age. Indeed, maintaining and managing spatial data costs more than the transaction itself. The governments of the United States, Canada and other nations show that granting free access to basic geographic data is technically and economically feasible, and helps to spur innovation and the growth of commercial markets. The contrast in public access to geographic data between, for example, the United States and Europe, suggests that undue restrictions on the availability of geodata slows down economic and technological development, and limits the information available to the public and organizations about important civic issues, such as health and the environment.
The OSGeo Foundation promotes and supports:
- the public availability of a basic minimum of useful state-sponsored geographic data, under well-defined licenses that guarantee the right to use, reuse, and redistribute that information, without limitation;
- the use of interoperability standards in both data and software, to guarantee that the public can access and make use of state-sponsored spatial data over the long-term, without technical barriers, such as patent encumbrances or undocumented data formats.
Naturally, the OSGeo Foundation seeks, as part of its mission, to provide software to make use of public geographic data, whenever and wherever that data is available.
About
OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. It represents the interests of many business and academic entities that work with open source geospatial software.