[Geodata] A FOSS community response to the INSPIRE Implementing Rules for Metadata Draft

[Jo Walsh]

Now that we have an INSPIRE Directive, what are we going to do with it?
INSPIRE mandates that data providers follow 'Implementing Rules'; the
first of these, on metadata for geodata, is in public consulation.

http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Reading_the_INSPIRE_Metadata_Draft

OSGeo's Geodata Committee is putting together a reading guide and
formal response to the Metadata Implementing Rules. The rest of this
email explains the background to the process. 
Everyone who Cares A Lot About Metadata is encouraged to participate 
in the response, which will be written openly on the wiki.

INSPIRE will oblige public authorities collecting and holding geodata
to comply with a set of Implementing Rules which are still being
defined. The implementing rules for metadata were published at the
beginning of last month. The draft for public consulation is
publically available, but comments and improvements can only be
submitted through an SDIC or Spatial Data Interest Community.
Thanks to Markus Neteler, the open source geospatial community has an
FOSS SDIC available to it.

Recently having had the chance to speak with Metadata Drafting Team
participants and hear the process outlined by Alessandro Annoni of the
Joint Research Council, I am more convinced now that this isn't simply
"illusion of participation", but that the JRC really is in search of
best practise and sanity checking of what has been produced.

All the other Implementing Rules drafts will be built up from, and
refer to back, this one. If you are in any way involved in the
collection or publication of geodata through any publically funded
institution in Europe then what results from these IRs will affect
you, and this is our first and last chance to affect the process.

If you want to help out, this is what to do:

- Read the draft! If you don't have time to read the whole draft but
  want to know what is going to affect you, quick pointers are at
  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Reading_the_INSPIRE_Metadata_Draft#Reading_the_draft
- Sign your name up to the wiki page if you want to be included in the
  loop (this is the last cross-list spam about this you will see from
  me, and followups/discussion should go on the wiki, not via email)
  http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Response_to_INSPIRE_Metadata_Draft 

- By the 20th the useful parts of [Reading] will have moved over to a
  more formal version at [Response] and there will be a week during
  which one can edit that page. 

- Then we will de facto lock it down for final edits

- On the 27th or so i hope to have a telecon and after that move the
  response into the form required by the feedback process for SDICs.

Even 5 minutes spent structuring, editing or proofreading would be 
of great help; Many eyes make better metadata...

cheers,


jo