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

[Sindile Bidla]

Dear List,



Thank you for all the suggestions and inputs.



My take on the issue is as follows:



1. There is general agreement on the need for government spatial data to be openly available with no restrictions

2. Engage other parties who can assist in this process - GISSA, Code4SA, media

3. Gather information to build a case

http://geospatial.blogs.com/geospatial/value-of-spatial-data/

http://opendatahandbook.org/

http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/Open-Data-for-Economic-Growth.pdf

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tgis.12283/full

4. Petition platform - Avaaz.org


Taking into account the various inputs, as a way forward I would like to propose the following:



Have a small team (5 individuals? - I volunteer myself) to kick start the process:

1. Write a business case (there should be material that we can reuse with attribution)to support our petition - to be shared with the list for input

2. Create the petition on an appropriate platform



Regards,



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
 







---- On Thu, 15 Feb 2018 12:54:55 +0200 Peter Newmarch <newmarch at land-surveyors.com> wrote ----




Gavin,

 

If there is royalty on the data, the institution is obligated to pass such on and recover – even if public data. Similarly with any copyright restriction under which the data was obtained.

 

Exceptions to the user pay is of course the deeds office – where the legislation specifically says the user must pay (policies etc… cannot override an act of parliament).

 

Its certainly worthy having a wide discussion on this.

 

Regards

 

Peter

 

 

 

From: Africa [mailto:africa-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Gavin Fleming

Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2018 12:36 PM

To: Africa local chapter discussions <africa at lists.osgeo.org>

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




 

Hi all

 


'user pays' and 'cost recovery' are by law not applicable to public data in SA. Custodians of public data are allowed to charge a minimal fee for making the data available (such as writing a DVD) but not for the data. An example of a policy in this respect is https://www.westerncape.gov.za/text/2013/September/draft-pricing-of-spatial-info-policy.pdf.


 


And the economic benefits to the country of making the data free to the public without restrictions on use far outweigh the cost of capture and maintaining the data. 


 


And it’s one thing to make the data free, another to make it accessible. 


 


Some local efforts to make data accessible:


 


http://data.gov.za/


http://southafrica.opendataforafrica.org/


http://opendata.capetown.gov.za/


https://wazimap.co.za/


 


A group to collaborate with (were Code4SA): https://openup.org.za/ 


 


Gavin


 




On 15 Feb 2018, at 09:20, 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

 
 



 



 


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