The UK Ordnance Survey is an example of a mapping agency whose dissemination practices for spatial data are directly influenced by a mandated level of cost recovery. In the UK, the British Treasury office obliges the Ordnance Survey to collect 100 percent of its revenues from data sales and services. The result is a near-monopoly provider of very high quality data that meets the needs of most government and commercial users. While the data costs are expensive for some users, the Ordnance Survey has worked hard to accommodate the price sensitivity requirements of its diverse user base. Some might argue the OS provides a one-stop shop for all the nation’s spatial data requirements. While this might be the case now, the growing demands for value-added data produces and services will undoubtedly pose a challenge for any government agency. The OS’s strategy of partnering with 3rd party value-added intermediaries is a good step in addressing the need for enhanced data products and services.

In contrast, the US Geological Survey’s, National Mapping Division is bound to marginal pricing guidelines for Federal government information. US Federal policy maximizes broad public and private use and commercialization by providing low cost access to USGS topographical datasets and other Federal information resources. The marginal low price of US Federal digital mapping data, coupled with the absence of Federal copyright, is the outcome of an explicit national policy not to transfer the cost of digital map production to end users. This relatively open access policy leverages both scientific and private sector initiative to undertake use and value added processes. The dissemination policy of the USGS, and similar federal mapping agencies, has stimulated the use and value-addition of these information resources. This in turn has invigorated the domestic GIS and location-based services software industry. A drawback to US national mapping activities is that Federal appropriations are not keeping up with demand. For example, USGS digital map features are on average over 15 years out of date. While this problem is the result of appropriations and not dissemination policy, it does highlight how USGS has one less tool (cost recovery) for maintaining its outdated map features.

Role of Commerical Sector in Data Products and Services
The private geographic information industry is an important stakeholder in government information dissemination policy and should be carefully examined since it is better suited to provide a wide variety of end user products and services. The work of leading economists on new growth theory (Romer 1986) suggests that the ability of firms to identify and secure low-cost information resources is vital to stimulating economic growth in an information-based economy. The spin-off benefits of basic science and related government information resources have long been recognized in the scientific community as being the seedbed for promoting innovation and discovery (Nelson and Romer 1995). In explaining why it is generally not good practice to impose restrictive intellectual property rights on scientific information, some economists argue that "there are important efficiency advantages in a system where the government subsidizes the production of fundamental concepts and insights and gives them away for free" (ibid., 20).