GIS@development March 2002: Economic and capacity implications of Geo-ICT

Developments in Geographic Information Systems are increasingly influenced by global developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Thus, one speaks of “Geo-ICT” developments that are taking place against the background of the establishment of (National) Geospatial Data Infrastructures ((N)GDI). While NGDIs are considered a mechanism to improve governance and sustainable development, in publicly financed production of geo-information, the economic and capacity implications for public use have until recently, received sporadic attention in Asia, Africa and South America.

Context of Geo-ICT developments

Context of Geospatial Data Infrastructures (GDI)
A GDI is defined as encompassing the networked geospatial databases and data handling facilities, the complex of institutional, organisational, technological, human and economic resources that interact with one another, implementation and maintenance of mechanisms facilitating the sharing, access to, and responsible use of geospatial data at an affordable cost for a specific application domain or enterprise (Groot and McLaughlin, 2000).

The GDI concept seeks to support sharing and optimal use of data in the national context through standards like a national spatial reference system, a national topographic template, a national elevation model, any other standardised spatial data set of national scope (geographical names, administrative boundaries, etc.), thematic data sets (soils, hydrology, vegetation, population, etc.) and meta data standards, to describe in a consistent manner each of the GDI holdings.

Figure 1: Geospatial data infrastructure
Groot and McLaughlin (2000) present the mechanisms through which this obligation can be met schematically (fig 1). Salazar and De Vries (2001) describe how this could be worked out taking into account national settings, particularly those of developing countries.

Globally there have been discussions and presentations through the Global (Geo-) Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) consortium, with a working group on legal and economic issues - although the documents published so far relate mostly to North America and Europe. In addition, the economic issue was addressed at the UN Regional Cartographic Conferences (Asia and Pacific, and the Americas), as well as during the CODI (Commission for Development Information) meetings in Africa.

Academically, there are a few well structured publications dealing with the economics issue, including Rhind (in Groot and McLaughlin, 2000), Gupta (2000), Blakemore (2000), Groot (2001) and Van der Molen (2001a and b). Most of these apply almost exclusively to western countries such as Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, the USA and Australia. A few review and research the economic issues of geospatial information within the context of less developed countries. This reveals the difficulty in getting research questions on the table, particularly in the context of less developed countries.

Context: role and effect of Geo-ICT on economics
National surveys and cadastres, being in the business of information production and provision, are affected by Geo-ICT developments. The advantages of Geo-ICT result not only in a new range of products and services, but also in the universal availability of information and a decrease in the relative cost, thereby requiring a new paradigm of the impact of (Geo-)ICT. Castells (1996) describes this new paradigm, illustrating a number of significant characteristics:

Information is the raw material of the economy, where a focus on physical products is being replaced by digital products and services. The technologies (re)act on information not only as a product, but also as a production factor.
Persuasiveness of effects of new technologies (such as Internet, telematics) as they become part of every human activity. Opoku-Mensah (1998) describes how the private sector is “invading the South” with ICT, compelling governments to open up their information and communication systems and – more importantly – share their political power and reduce state involvement in the economy.
Networking logic. The morphology of the network of sectors and organisations adapts to new complex interactions. This leads to a change in the marketplace, and possibly a change in traditional customers and their behaviour. A customer becomes a partner rather than a target.
Flexibility of both processes and organisations. In their book on e-commerce, Turban et al. (2000) describe how the market place (physical) is changing into a market space (virtual), where mass production is becoming mass customisation.
Convergence of new technologies into highly integrated systems also results in growing integration of business firms in strategic alliances and cooperative projects, and increasing privatisation of governmental agencies.

This new paradigm is having a tremendous effect on the organisational structure and network of public geo-information providers, and on how, where and for how much their information can be delivered, produced and provided. It is against this background that GDIs are developing.
Table 1 Indicators to assess performance of national organisations

Indicator	Description
Productivity improvement	Increasing output to input ratio
Just-in-time	A comprehensive production and inventory control programme
Total quality management	Corporate-wide effort to improve quality translated into improvement indicators
Improved decision making	Measurable effects of making better (measurable) and more timely decisions
Managing information and knowledge	Quantitative indicators on storage, retrieval and use of information
Innovation and creativity	Cost indicators to enhance the ability of people and processes to find new solutions to new problems
Change management	Flexibility of processes to adapt to a new environment and change monitoring
Customer service	This would include information on delivery time, distance to sales offices, etc; in the context of e-commerce. This would even include revenue (loss) because of inefficient websites and electronic front doors