GeoData Policy

Google Unveils New Tool To Dig For Public Data

By Kim Hart, Washington Post, Wednesday, April 29, 2009

  

Google launched a new search tool yesterday designed to help Web users find public data that is often buried in hard-to-navigate government Web sites. The tool, called Google Public Data, is the latest in the company’s efforts to make information from federal, state and local governments accessible to citizens. … The company plans to initially make available U.S. population and unemployment data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, respectively. Other data sets, such as emissions statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency, will roll out in the coming months. …

   

For full text of the article, visit:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR2009042802280.html?hpid=moreheadlines

  

A. J. Wortley of the Wisconsin State Cartographer’s Office passed along the following through the Weary Mappers listsev (February 19, 2008):

• Abbas Rajabifard, Ian P. Williamson, Peter Holl, Glenn Johnstone – From Local to Global SDI Initiatives: a pyramid of building blocs
• David Maguire – Where Next for SDI?
• Exploring Spatial Data Infrastructures Workshop, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 19-20 January 2006
• Ir. Bastiaan van Loenen – How to Assess the Status of SDI?
• Ian Masser – The Future of SDIs
• Ian Masser – Multilevel Implementation of SDIs
• Ian Masser – Spatial Data Infrastructures: A SWOTS Analysis
• Garfield Giff and David Coleman - Funding Models for SDI Implementation: from Local to Global

Also,

• Developing Spatial Data Infrastructures: The SDI Cookbook (2nd Ed, 2004)
• SDI Africa Cookbook

For a very interesting critical analysis of the the SDI movement, visit the following posting by Paul Ramsey on his “Clever Elephant Blog”:

• Paul Ramsey - Why SDIs Fail

Read the rest of this entry »

Barack Obama’s Technology Position

In his Technology position, U.S. Presidential candidate Barack Obama comments on need to ensure an open Internet and on the importance of creating a transparent and connected democracy. This includes:

Making goverment data available online in universally accessible formats to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action in their own communities. Greater access to environmental data, for example, will help citizens learn about pollution in their communities, provide information about local conditions back to government and empower people to protect themselves.

Establishing pilot programs to open up government ecision-making and involve the public in the work of agencies, not simply by soliciting opinions, but by tapping into the vast and distributed expertise of American citizenry to help goverment make more informated decisions.

Interactive, dynamic web-mapping anyone? Looks like a great opportunity for those in the field of participatory mapping and public participation GIS (PPGIS)!

Obama also commented on the need to protect our privacy in an age of increased computing power, decreased storage costs, and huge flows of information. Obama supports updating surveillance laws, and notably remarks on the need to protect our location privacy.

Obama will also work to provide robust protection against misuses of particularly sensitive kinds of information, such as e-health records and location data that do not fit comfortably within sector-specific privacy laws.

John McCain’s Technology Position

U.S. Presidential candidate John McCain’s Technology Position emphasizes the need to encourage investment in technological innovation, to improve high-speed Internet access for under-served communities, to ensure an educated workforce in science and technology – in which we’re lagging behind China and India, and to keep the Internet free from unnecessary goverment regulation.

McCain’s Personal Security and Privacy Position comments on the role of government and industry in protecting citizens’ personal security and privacy:

Government — Government must promote a culture of personal security through consumer education initiatives, incentives for the development of secure technologies, and stronger enforcement of laws to protect our citizens, particularly children.

Industry — American industry must continue to lead the world in the development of more secure technologies and responses to new threats. Among other things, industry must exert appropriate efforts to protect sensitive personal information and prevent unintentional loss or theft. Industry also must pursue effective self-regulation and continue informing and educating consumers about the collection and use of personal information.

Report on Presidential Science Advice

Also worth looking at is a new report on Presidential Science Advice, published by the Center for the Study of the Presidency, Study Group on Presidential Science and Technology Personnel and Advisory Assets.

The Center for the Study of the Presidency has completed its report Presidential Leadership to Ensure Science and Technology in the Service of National Needs: A Report to the 2008 Candidates. The report contains a number of recommendations intended to be seriously considered by the presidential candidates’ staffs before and during transition planning, in order to strengthen the S&T advice provided to the President and federal agencies.

Source: AAAS Policy Alert, August 20, 2008