Public Geospatial Data Project

There is an official official foundation committee page which provides more detail on meetings and discussions.

Mission

Promote the use of open geospatial formats

Providing best-practise guidelines and examples for use of open and free standards for data (GML, WMS, WFS-T) and metadata (Dublin Core, RDF).

Promote public access to state-collected geodata

Lead by example in demonstrating economic value and research activity generated by open access to public geographic information.

Run a repository of open geodata

A collection of geospatial datasets shall be hosted by the PGDP. Additionally, links to other open data repostories shall be collected.

Present and explain licenses for public geodata

The PGDP aims to collect licenses suitable for the publishing of public geodata. The license shall be presented along with a summary of its benefits and focus.

Approach

After a Definition phase this has become an official committee within OSGeo.

Working Groups

At the first meeting of the geodata committee we decided to focus interest through three Working Groups:

A Geodata Discovery Working Group which would focus on indexing and search of data and metadata repositories.
A Geodata Packaging Working Group to look at creation and maintanance of really high quality and rich data packages to offer for educational purposes with software packages, with GRASS GIS in particular.
A Geodata Licensing Working Group to look into parallel licensing developments and to consult on guidelines for open licenses for geodata.

Mailing List

There is a mailing list for discussion of geodata activities within OSGeo.

Subscribe: geodata-subscribe@geodata.osgeo.org
Unsubscribe: geodata-unsubscribe@geodata.osgeo.org
Digest Subscribe: geodata-digest-subscribe@geodata.osgeo.org
Digest Unsubscribe: geodata-digest-unsubscribe@geodata.osgeo.org
Help: geodata-help@geodata.osgeo.org

Meetings

This group is having regular meetings on IRC on the #osgeo channel on irc.freenode.net. At the moment this is happening on Wednesdays at 15:00 UTC. fixed time around the world

People interested in participating

David Bitner
Allan Doyle
Florian Kindl
Pericles S. Nacionales
Markus Neteler
Jo Walsh
Helton Uchoa
Aaron Racicot - Ecotrust - aaronr at ecotrust.org
Daniel Brookshier
Schuyler Erle
Jeff McKenna (DM Solutions)
Steve Coast
Mikel Maron
Alessandro Frigeri
David Blasby
Dan Putler
Arnulf Christl
Ned Horning
Please add yourself

Organizations to beneficially connect with

Events

Events where we can either promote our positions or are likely to run into like-minded individuals.

Geo Data Repositories / Group Collection Projects

OpenStreetMap Project
Free Earth Foundation
Canadian Base Data
Various Free Datasets via Bittorrent
Global Map - International Steering Committee for Global Mapping
Geonames.org - Geonames is integrating geographical data such as names, altitude, population and others from various sources
Geospatial One Stop
Global Change Master Directory

Geo Data Repository & Policy Research

University of Maine Commons for Geographic Data
MetroGIS Datafinder Twin Cities, MN Metro Area Public Agency Data Sharing Effort (includes section on benefits/testimonials from public geodata)
MN Governor's Council on Geographic Information
New York City Open Accessible Space Information System
Massachusetts GIS

On the Geodata Repository page, a draft outline for OSGeo's own repository project is being prepared.

Geo Data Policy Advocacy

Public Geodata Project (IRC: publicgeodata) with the support of the Open Knowledge Foundation
Open Access to State-Collected Geospatial Data Manifesto
Free Our Data: Make taxpayers' data available to them (United Kingdom)

Open Access

There are also more general open access movements, often aimed at scientific data, that could provide a venue for broadening awareness of the geo-specific issues.

Berlin 4 Open Access - From Promise to Practice - March 29-31, 2006 Golm, Germany
Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities
Conservation Commons - "The Conservation Commons is characterized by an underlying set of Principles which supports open access to, and in particular the fair use of, data and information related to the conservation of biodiversity."
The Locus Forum - "The Locus Association is a trade association of private organisations working to increase opportunities and reduce barriers to fair trade between the public and private sector, particularly in the use of Public Sector Information."
Public Participation GIS - "