[OSGeo Africa] Ideas on writing a petition to access municipal spatial data

[Gerhardus Geldenhuis]

Hi Sindile,
An absolutely fantastic idea!

I think there is merit to the this more publicly, as there is an
educational opportunity. In my experience very few people are aware of
there rights with regards to access of data and I strongly believe it could
only be of benefit to the the greater South African public to be more open
about data, not just in a spatial context. This could encourage more
openness about other data, through public awareness.

Perhaps we could even find a journalist who would be interested in doing a
piece on data sharing in a national newspaper. A piece that contrasts the
stance of Capetown vs Johannesburg in terms of data access could be really
helpful, and given that both are now DA run, we can do away with it
becoming a DA vs ANC and focus on the actual issues. I attended a
OpenStreetMap US conference a few years back and one of the talks there
were about New York's open data policy. They mentioned a number of how much
they calculated open access has meant in terms of extra development and
business benefit for the city and the number was staggeringly high.

So perhaps in the first instance we should consider gathering information
that supports the argument for open data and details the benefits to
society and business.

Regards

On 15 February 2018 at 07:20, Sindile Bidla <sindile.bidla at geoilocate.co.za>
wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> Most municipalities in the country are making it difficult to access
> spatial data that has been paid for through our taxes:
> 1. selling of spatial data
> 2. signing data agreements that prevent reuse
> 3. providing access to spatial data only if conducting a municipal project
>
> I am proposing that we start a petition in this regard, because government
> policy is quite clear with regard to access to spatial data.
>
> What I would like ideas on is:
> 1. is there appetite from the community in this regard?
> 2. should we have a single petition which will be sent to individual
> municipalities and key government department?
> 3. is there an online platform that we could use?
> 4. any other idea.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
> Sindile XJ Bidla
>
> *Geoilocate*
> p:
> 087 373 0982  m: 082 340 8538
> a:
> Block B3, Science & Technology Park, East London IDZ
>
> Lower Chester Rd, Sunnyridge, East London
> w:
> www.geoilocate.co.za <http://www.bizwebhost.co.za>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Africa mailing list
> Africa at lists.osgeo.org
> You can UNSUBSCRIBE at https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/africa
>



-- 
Gerhardus Geldenhuis
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/africa/attachments/20180215/ad60cc68/attachment.html>