ISRO to launch Israeli Satellite

The ISRO is planning to launch an Israeli satellite from Sriharikota. The launch is expected to cost approximately USD 15 million...

Bahrain Interior Ministry wins ESRI award

Interior ministry of Bahrain has won the special achievement in GIS award for its efforts in the introduction of GIS and information technology in its work environment and the impact that this had on improving its performance levels from ESRI at its annual ESRI International User Conference 2007. ..

New Zealand to free statistical data

The New Zealand government has announced that it is making statistical data available for free, with the specific intention of stimulating the business and nonprofit sectors of the economy...

Envisat data for extreme weather monitoring

Soil moisture maps based on data from Envisat to better understand weather and extreme-event forecasting...

Countryside Survey goes digital

A field-based GIS data capture system customized by ESRI (UK) will be used by CEH field survey teams across the country to map changes and locate fixed vegetation plot using real-time GPS...

TopoSys Streamlines Creation of True Digital Orthos and 3-D City Models

TopoSys LiDAR/Imaging systems has the capacity to synchronously acquire and record digital image data eliminating leaning edges and allowing all captured objects to be computed in their proper positions. ..

Geokosmos to conduct LiDAR survey of the French railways

Geokosmos has successfully completed LiDAR survey of the French national railways using combined airborne laser scanning and digital aerial photography...

The US set the trend, Canada, Australia and Japan joined it, New Zealand is the new kid on the block. A few unsung heroes also exist. Its all about democratisation of data and specifically spatial data. Data collected using tax payers money. Data which many a times lay unused on shelves or in today's context on RAID. Data which could have saved lives. Data that could have been converted into information and then into knowledge. The question often raised is - should government spatial data be free ? Proponents of the 'charge for data' model use the efficacy of BOT model comparing the toll paid by commuters for using a bridge or service charges by the fire department. These examples do not fit the bill. The wide spectrum of spatial data users, from school students to multi-national companies cannot be subjected to a uniform pricing policy and hence a 'common fair price' does not exist. The effective denial of spatial data due to cost, results in 'opportunities lost' and 're-inventing the wheel' situations where quality and reliability may be compromised by academic researchers in the wake of severe time and resource constraints. The ground reality in most cases is that 'charging' is expensive. The very setting up and maintenance of a governmental agency to formulate and implement the 'money collection' makes the entire model non-profitable. A workable model is off course like the one OS follows. The foundation datasets are free and academia, social service organisations and the curious citizen can use, value add and share while the high precision regularly updated and high resolution data is charged or licensed. The move by the government of New Zealand making statistical data available for free is welcome.

– Spatial Data – of the people, by the people, for the people... do tell us your thoughts.