On the 8th of November Lorenzo Dalla Corte gave a presentation titled “Scoping Personal Data – Towards a Nuanced Interpretation of the Material Scope of EU Data Protection Law” at Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) during a colloquium on data protection. His presentation was about the purported expansive effect of the notion of personal data, and the ways in which it can be kept in check through interpretative means.
Today, the book ‘Open Data Exposed’ by KCOD Bastiaan van Loenen and Glenn Vancauwenberghe together with Joep Crompvoets (KU Leuven) was published online. The main objectives of this book are to expose key aspects that have a relevance when dealing with open data viewed from different perspectives and to provide appealing examples of how open data is implemented worldwide.
In addition to new insights, practical guidance and multiple disciplinary perspectives on open data, the book also addresses the transformation of current developments towards open data, which may be referred to as the democratisation of data.
On October 3rd, KCOD’s Agung Indrajit obtained the best paper award at the GeoDelft conference, a conference consisting of the ISPRS TC IV ‘Spatial Information sciences’ Symposium, the 13th International 3D GeoInfo Conference, the 6th International FIG Workshop on 3D Cadastres, and the 3rd International Conference on Smart Data and Smart Cities.
The winning paper “Designing Open Spatial Information Infrastructure to Support 3D Urban Planning in Jakarta Smart City” discusses the role of land administration in urban planning and Spatial Information Infrastructure (SII). The article proposes to have spatial planning information as an extension to the Land Administration Domain Model (LADM) in order to support spatial planning. The relevance of spatial planning information to be included into LADM is integral to Land Administration System development. 3D Spatial planning along with 3D land administration will provide a complete scene for land tenure, land valuation, land use, and land development to support sustainable development initiatives. Further, the spatial planning extension will contribute to support the UN member countries in obtaining indicators in the Sustainable Development Goals by improving interoperability and by integrating right, restrictions, and responsibilities from spatial planning and land administration which are often resulted from separate processes by different parties.
A packed programme with workshops and parallel sessions held simultaneously, which made it at times hard to choose. The INSPIRE Conference is slowly moving to reflect new developments, such as new OGC standards, e.g. WFS 3.0 and for sensor data APIs the SensorThings standard, and a strong focus on Smart Cities. It was interesting to see that presentations were not limited to Member States, also countries such as Turkey realise the potential of the INSPIRE Framework. It was also good to see that a number of INSPIRE organisations are developing interfaces to incorporate user feedback and citizens’ generated data. Many of the most valuable spatial data are produced, managed and maintained at the local level. The amount of data generated by organisations, citizens and objects is exploding in volume and variety. If we consider data to be no longer the property of one party but rather as an exchange mechanism between the public sector, companies and citizens, then the data need to be open, understandable and interpretable by all. Interoperability issues go beyond technical and legal aspects but should also include interoperability of services, human interoperability and good governance. The challenge of governing open spatial data at local level is twofold: municipalities not only have to decide how to govern their own relationships with other stakeholders in the open data domain, but also need to think about their involvement in, contribution to, and adoption of national open data initiatives. In other words, how to facilitate the exchange mechanism created by open data. On Tuesday 18 Sept. KCOD’s Frederika Welle Donker presented the findings of the AMS E-GOS project, where the link between governance and performance of open data policies at municipal level was investigated.
The article “Stakeholder analysis of the governance framework of a national SDI dataset – whose needs are met in the buildings and address register of the Netherlands?”by Serena Coetzee, Martijn Odijk, Bastiaan van Loenen, Janette Storm & Jantien Stoter presents a stakeholder analysis of the Basisregistratie Adressen en Gebouwen (BAG), a collection of base information about addresses and buildings in the Netherlands. The information is captured and maintained by municipalities and integrated into a national base register by Kadaster, the Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency of the Netherlands. The stakeholder analysis identifies organisations involved in the BAG governance framework, describes their interests, rights, ownerships and responsibilities in the BAG, and maps the relationships between them. Analysis results indicate that Kadaster and the municipalities have the highest relative importance in the governance framework of the BAG. The study reveals challenges of setting up a governance framework that maintains the delicate balance between the interests of all stakeholders. The results provide guidance for SDI role players setting up governance frameworks for national or global datasets.
On September 13, KCOD’s Bastiaan van Loenen presented the book ‘Open Data Exposed’ to the Open data working group of the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The main objectives of this book, edited by the KCOD and KU Leuven, are to expose key aspects that have a relevance when dealing with open data viewed from different perspectives and to provide appealing examples of how open data is implemented worldwide.
On Wednesday June 13, Agung Indrajit and Frederika Welle Donker presented their research at the AGILE conference in Lund Sweden. Agung’s paper was entitled ‘Prospect of open SDI in Developing Countries: Case Study Indonesia’. In his presentation he provided an overview of the open spatial data infrastructure in Indonesia acknowledging the importance of open data and open processes. The lack of openness has resulted in conflicting data within government about the need to import rice, while open data in Indonesia highlighted overlaps in provided permits to exploit land. In the latter case several high level bureaucrats were taken to court.
Aim and objectives
The aim of the ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’ Workshop is to initiate the definition of a renewed Spatial Data Infrastructure Research Agenda for ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’, incorporating both technical and non-technical perspectives and research challenges. The workshop took place on Tuesday 12 June 2018, in Lund (Sweden).
The workshop had three objectives:
- To provide an overview of recent and ongoing research on SDI and related topics
- To identify gaps and challenges in SDI research and define a research agenda for future SDI research
- To (re-)establish a research community for SDI research that promotes and enables active collaboration and engagement across multiple disciplines and regions
Workshop program
9:00 – 9:30 Welcome and introduction
On Tuesday the 12th of June the AGILE Pre-conference workshop ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’ took place in Lund (Sweden). The workshop consisted of a series of presentations of past, ongoing and future SDI research, followed by discussions on the development and implementation of a research agenda for future SDI research. The presentations were organised into three thematic sessions: Governance for innovation and sustainability; SDI for integration, visualization and exploration; and SDI and Open Data. The discussions focused on new research topics and challenges for SDI research in the future and strategies and actions for fostering collaboration and exchange in SDI research.
The deadline for submitting an abstract to the AGILE 2018 Pre-conference workshop ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’ has been extended to April 10. The ‘SDI Research and Strategies towards 2030’ workshop would like to offer SDI researchers an opportunity to share their research and contribute to formulating the SDI research agenda. Researchers interested in presenting their research at the workshop are asked to submit a short abstract of their research project. For more information on the workshop, please visit the workshop webpage.