[OSGeo-Discuss] Re: open <geospatial> data access

[P Kishor]

On 18 Apr 2007, at 08:35, I asked:

> Dear all,
>
> In a workshop I will be attending in Brazil in a few weeks time, I
> have been asked to propose a "cooperative activity" that would improve
> access to digital scientific data, particularly in Latin America.
> Well, I turn to your collective and collaborative brainpower to come
> up with ideas for such an activity as it concerns digital "geospatial"
> data.
>
> My immediate thought is to work on developing a licensing/contracting
> framework that might be suitable for the Latin American context. But,
> perhaps that is too messy and complicated. The next thought is for
> setting up a digital spatial warehouse of some sort -- more do-able,
> no?
>
> I particularly welcome ideas from OSGeo/list members who are from
> Latin America. So, thinking solely of advancing the cause of open
> access to digital geospatial information --
>
> What would such an activity be?
> Who could be involved in it?
> What would be the main steps to initiating and running it?
> How long could this take?
> What would be the recognizable milestones?

I got four responses, all good, that I will summarize here. The
following two responses suggest grassroots data collection activities.

On 4/25/07, SteveC <steve at asklater.com> suggested that I should "Run a
mapping party :)" and on 4/18/07, Andy Robinson
<Andy_J_Robinson at blueyonder.co.uk> "immediately thought it would be an
ideal opportunity for a talk about the project OpenStreetMap (OSM)."

<note to SteveC: consider joining the edu.OSGeo mailing list>

On 4/18/07, Paulo Marcondes <paulomarcondes at gmail.com> told me that
"there is no such thing as a latin american culture." Although I never
implied that there is, thanks to Paulo, we are reminded of the
difficulty of conducting a pan-continental activity because of
cultural and legal differences. Paulo's suggestion is to have national
initiatives for building geodata "warehouses" (my term) of some sort,
perhaps with the national/regional universities taking the lead.
Political continuity and backing would be a key factor in sustaining
such national initiatives according to Paulo.

On 4/18/07, Ned Horning <nedh at lightlink.com> pointed out the work
being done by CATHALAC, NASA, and a bunch of other agencies (too many
to list here; see <http://servir.nsstc.nasa.gov/about.html>) under the
SERVIR banner. Although it is currently targeted to Mesoamerica,
perhaps a similar initiative could be started for the rest of Latin
America.

Rather than choose among these, I am actually going to talk about all
of the above in Atibaia two weeks from now. These activities, however,
concentrate on the data side, although Paulo's suggestions are only
possible if, along with the technology, the legal and cultural hurdles
are also tackled. To that end, encouraging the open geospatial players
in Latin America to take the lead in licensing/contractual issues
would be very important. OSGeo's geodata licensing group offers a
space for them to get involved and take the debate/discussion beyond
Canado-Euro-American framework.

Anyway, thanks for your ideas. Helps me "rightfully" spread the OSGeo
ideas. If you have more, please do send them my way, as collectively
you know way more than any one person does.



-- 
Puneet Kishor http://punkish.eidesis.org/
Nelson Inst. for Env. Studies, UW-Madison http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/
Open Source Geospatial Foundation http://www.osgeo.org/education/
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