Fwd: [GSDI Legal Econ] French government auditors recommend IGN make data sets freely available on the Web

[Allan Doyle]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Kate Lance <klance_remote at yahoo.com>
> Date: October 24, 2006 03:58:18 EDT
> To: SDI-legal-econ <legal-econ at lists.gsdi.org>, SDI-Europe <sdi- 
> europe at lists.gsdi.org>
> Subject: [GSDI Legal Econ] French government auditors recommend IGN  
> make data sets freely available on the Web
> Reply-To: Kate Lance <lancekt at aya.yale.edu>
> Sender: legal-econ-bounces at lists.gsdi.org
>
> http://www.gisdevelopment.net/news/viewn.asp?id=GIS:N_arzuefcpdw
> Government auditors recommend French national mapping agency to  
> make data sets freely available on the Web
> September 28, 2006 - The Institut Géographique National (IGN), the  
> French national mapping agency, is being accused of hindering  
> France's knowledge economy by the high prices it charges for  
> digital data and the obscure way it calculates them.
> Government auditors also accuse the institute of conflicts of  
> interest in setting national policy for a sector in which it is the  
> dominant player. These criticisms have cross-channel resonance.
> Although the directly subsidised IGN is run on a different model to  
> its British equivalent, Ordnance Survey, its problems spring from  
> the conflict that arises when a public agency tries to market data  
> commercially. Now an official inquiry in France has suggested a  
> possible solution along the lines of that proposed by Guardian  
> Technology's Free Our Data campaign. This is to make taxpayer- 
> funded data sets freely available to all comers on the web.
> The inquiry, by government inspectors, probed the institute's  
> flagship project, a large scale geographical database known by its  
> French acronym RGE (référentiel à grande échelle). Like Ordnance  
> Survey's digital MasterMap, the RGE is much more than a map. It has  
> several layers of data, including administrative boundaries, aerial  
> photography and postal addresses. It is supposed to be the basis  
> for all official mapping in France, as well as being available to  
> commercial developers of value added products.
> In a forthright 50-page report (tinyurl.com/r6ajp - a 660KB PDF),  
> the inspectors condemn several aspects of the RGE programme, as  
> well as the general governance of the institute.
> Far from encouraging the use of geographical data, the report says,  
> the institute has discouraged the RGE's take-up by setting high  
> prices, despite a 70% government subsidy. The mechanism for setting  
> charges is complex and secretive, relying on the "good sense" of  
> administrators. Their incentive, is to get as much income as  
> possible in the short term, which encourages squeezing more money  
> from captive customers. Altogether, the inspectors find "a lack of  
> rigour" in the institute's commercial policies.
> "This situation is responsible for the low level of sales and the  
> feeble development of the geographical information sector in  
> France, compared with other European countries," they comment.
> One problem is that government allows the institute to wear two  
> hats, that of publisher and author. The report says that government  
> has abandoned matters of geographical information strategy to the  
> institute "allowing it to set policy according to its own vision  
> and interests".
> The inspectors recommend that the institution's commercial  
> activities be separated from its "public good" functions, with  
> separate and transparent accounts. They also say that public data  
> should be priced to encourage wide take-up. "To take this reasoning  
> to its logical conclusion, free online access on the internet could  
> even be envisaged."
> Source : http://technology.guardian.co.uk
>
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-- 
Allan Doyle
+1.781.433.2695
adoyle at eogeo.org