Open geospatial data policy adopted by German Federal Government

G8 leaders (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, and the European Union) have recently signed a charter on open data.   The Open Data Charter sets out 5 strategic principles that all G8 members will act on. G8 members also identified 14 high-value sectors from which they will release data which include geospatial and infrastructure. 

Open data principles

The G8 countries to follow a set of principles that are the foundation for access to, and the release and re-use of, data collected by by G8 governments.

1. Open Data by Default 
2. Quality and Quantity 
3. Usable by All 
4. Releasing Data for Improved Governance 
5. Releasing Data for Innovation

Ond of the 14 high-value sectors identified by the G8 leaders was geospatial data.

Open Geospatial Data in Germany

In Germany since March 2013, legislation has been in place to enable all federal data to be available free of charge and for unrestricted commercial and non-commercial use (with attribution). 

At the INSPIRE conference yesterday, Stefan Sandmann gave a fascinating overview of the very rapid adoption of open data at the federal level in Germany.

Dec 2011 - Start of legislation initiative

 Jan-Feb 2012 - Publc consultation with all ministries and Laender

Feb-Sep 2012 - Consltation with upper and lower houses of German Parliament

16 Nov 212 - Open data legislation comes into force

23 Mar 2013 - Conditions for use come into force

Comparison of revenue and cost of bureacracy for geospatial data

One of the first steps that was undertaken by Stefan's team was to compare revenue derived from spatial data and the cost of bureacracy supporting this across the EU.

 

Italy - Infocamere 31.31 %

Netherlands - KvK 19.50 %

United Kingdom -  Companies House 20.73 %

Austria - BEV 26.5 %

Germany - BKG 0.24 %

Germany - SenStadt 10.38 %

Denmark - DECA 0.82%

Spain - IGN-CENIG 4.12%

Spain - Cadastre 0.00%

France - Cadastre 0.55%

Italy - Cadastre 0.50%

Netherlands - Cadastre 6.57%

At the European level, the INSPIRE legislation permits charges for geospatial data.

In Germany the total cost of the bureacracy to support revenue generation from spatial data is estimated to be € 540 000 and revenue covers less than 5% of this.  The result of this analysis was to implement a paradigm change and move to a  "free of charge" and unrestricted reuse business model.  The expected benefits of this approach are less bureacracy and hence less cost and  increased economic development as a result of freely available geospatial data with unrestricted reuse.

Other jurisdictions

Several other German jurisdictions are following the Federal Governments move to open data.

• Hamburg
• Baden-Wurtemburg
• Nordrhein-Westfalen
• Berlin

According to Stefan within the EU other member states also implementing open data including

• Denmark
• Netherlands
• Finland
• Iceland
• France