The ASIBA last week release a set of recommendations for the Australian government. These recommendations were based on a economic study evaluating what the spatial industry in Australia is worth. A staggering 6-12 billion dollars is the figure mentioned.

But lets look at the recommendations: I quite like the aims of some of these: government initiatives to commercialise OZ spatial information R&D; government policy that improves the quality, quantity, currency and accuracy of spatial data; management of digital rights and information sharing and a whole-of-government approach to licensing of geodata.

There are a number of initiatives already in the pipe-line to address some of these issues for example to address constraints on information sharing, OSDM is developing a whole-of-government approach for licensing of spatial data. There is also a push to use existing standards for discovery of spatial data where applicable such as OGC‘s CSW whose most well known implementation is FAO’s GeoNetwork. There are also projects that look to make taxpayer funding research data free. The question now is how long will it be before we start seeing the fruits of all the good intentions from the government and traditional Spatial industry. How long is a piece of string?

Meanwhile neogeography projects such as OSM continue to flourish and so do the related standards such as GeoRSS. Another recommendation that will hopefully see greater support for such open and community driven initiatives in Australia is that

… priorities are user driven, not ‘producer’ driven

Hopefully this means that the OZ government’s inacceassable silo’s of geodata that’s currently begging to be freed may one day become available in formats that ease their use online and amongst the developer community. This would no doubt lead to the emergence of new industries, a responsibility that governments have towards their nation.