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Abstract
Proving an Infrastructure The use of spatial data infrastructures in e-governance
Dr. Robert Barr
GIS Consultant
Manchester Geomatics
United Kingdom
Much of the extensive discussion on spatial data infrastructures has been dominated by infrastructure producers, typically national or regional mapping agencies, and academics. The user voice has been much less heard and often poorly coordinated. Those building infrastructures often complain about the lack of coherent user requirements or the difficulty in foreseeing the varying needs of many different users, and resort to a ‘producers know best’ message.
In this presentation the question will be asked “is an infrastructure an infrastructure if it isn’t used?”. Many user organisations are not interested in the additional cost and inconvenience of adapting to a provided infrastructure, when they have already built one to support their own application. Rather than saving money by adopting a generic infrastructure, they may find that there are additional costs in adapting their existing application to use it, without sufficient savings to provide a benefit. Infrastructure builders stress the importance, and the advantages for users, of sharing data and costs. Yet, their business models often expect users to provide, ‘share’, data for free, while then expecting them to pay to use the data when it comes back to them. It is not surprising, in such circumstances that users stick to their own silos of data ignoring the opportunities for data sharing or attempt to re-invent infrastructure by establishing sectoral data sharing models that avoid the producers. The way to avoid this impasse will be discussed and illustrated with examples of both good and bad practice and it will be argued that the best way to prove the value of an infrastructure is by analysing its use.
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