Comments on: How the Danes get it right with address data http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2006/11/how-the-danes-get-it-right-with-address-data/ A Guardian Technology campaign for free public access to non-personal data about the UK and its citizens Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:15:46 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: Tuuli Toivonen, Risto Kalliola & Eeva Ennola http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/2006/11/how-the-danes-get-it-right-with-address-data/comment-page-1/#comment-5807 Tuuli Toivonen, Risto Kalliola & Eeva Ennola Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:10:13 +0000 http://www.freeourdata.org.uk/blog/?p=83#comment-5807 There was an error in the previous submission, I'll try again.. LENDING SERVICE – A FINNISH INNOVATION TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO SPATIAL DATA RESOURCES Tuuli Toivonen, Risto Kalliola & Eeva Ennola University of Turku, Finland In Finland, a new type of download service for spatial data has been developed and it has proved to at least partly ease the problems of poor data accessibility and high pricing. Operational since the year 2003, the Spatial Data Lending Service (Paikkatietolainaamo) delivers spatial data sets in their native GI format, free of charge. The downloaded data sets may be used for one year for testing, research, education and product development. The service idea has been acknowledged in the National Geographic Information Strategy (2004) and it forms part of the Finnish spatial data infrastructure. The secretariat of the service takes care of delivery mechanisms, and any data providers and users are welcome to use the service. The web service (www.paikkatietolainaamo.fi), which operates currently only in Finnish, includes a metadata search, a map viewer and a download tool, the use of which requires registration. Information on each download is stored in an database and data providers may follow from the statistics which of their data sets are being downloaded and by whom. Information of each download is stored in a database and data providers may follow from graphs and statistics the downloads and downloaders of their data sets. The participation in the service gives the data providers an extra channel for making their spatial data known, and it provides feedback on the applicability of their data. Under these conditions, it has not been difficult to attract data producers to participate. The current data providers include all major national data providers in Finland (National Land Survey, Finnish Environment Institute, Geological Survey of Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Road Administration, Finnish Maritime Administration, some Regional Councils and cities) but also private enterprises (AffectoGenimap and Experian). There are currently some 700 registered users representing public sector (56%), private companies (20%) or regular citizens (24%). The largest representation is from research and education sector. This year, until 1st Dec, the service has been visited by around 4000 users. Many of the users make just some downloads or rather just view the data – a good example that even free of change data is not over-harvested. Originally, the data was available from limited test region in Finland (200 x 200 km and some smaller windows for large scale data). Currently, an increasing number of data producers is interested in giving out the data from the entire country, as the service is seen as an easy solution for data deliveries. The implementation of the spatial data lending facility has been supported by EU’s Life Environment funds and it has proven to be an efficient way to make extensive spatial data resources available for a large number of users. The limited test area, limited use time and possibility to gain information on the potential data users has attracted even commercial data providers to deliver their data free of charge. Lending service is one step towards free sharing of data. As INSPIRE directive talks mostly about users in the administration, the lending is free for everyone. Therefore, the lending model could be integrated even in the future download services as defined in the INSPIRE directive. There was an error in the previous submission, I’ll try again..

LENDING SERVICE – A FINNISH INNOVATION TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO SPATIAL DATA RESOURCES
Tuuli Toivonen, Risto Kalliola & Eeva Ennola
University of Turku, Finland

In Finland, a new type of download service for spatial data has been developed and it has proved to at least partly ease the problems of poor data accessibility and high pricing.

Operational since the year 2003, the Spatial Data Lending Service (Paikkatietolainaamo) delivers spatial data sets in their native GI format, free of charge. The downloaded data sets may be used for one year for testing, research, education and product development. The service idea has been acknowledged in the National Geographic Information Strategy (2004) and it forms part of the Finnish spatial data infrastructure.

The secretariat of the service takes care of delivery mechanisms, and any data providers and users are welcome to use the service. The web service (www.paikkatietolainaamo.fi), which operates currently only in Finnish, includes a metadata search, a map viewer and a download tool, the use of which requires registration.

Information on each download is stored in an database and data providers may follow from the statistics which of their data sets are being downloaded and by whom.

Information of each download is stored in a database and data providers may follow from graphs and statistics the downloads and downloaders of their data sets. The participation in the service gives the data providers an extra channel for making their spatial data known, and it provides feedback on the applicability of their data. Under these conditions, it has not been difficult to attract data producers to participate.

The current data providers include all major national data providers in Finland (National Land Survey, Finnish Environment Institute, Geological Survey of Finland, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Road Administration, Finnish Maritime Administration, some Regional Councils and cities) but also private enterprises (AffectoGenimap and Experian).

There are currently some 700 registered users representing public sector (56%), private companies (20%) or regular citizens (24%). The largest representation is from research and education sector. This year, until 1st Dec, the service has been visited by around 4000 users. Many of the users make just some downloads or rather just view the data – a good example that even free of change data is not over-harvested.

Originally, the data was available from limited test region in Finland (200 x 200 km and some smaller windows for large scale data). Currently, an increasing number of data producers is interested in giving out the data from the entire country, as the service is seen as an easy solution for data deliveries.

The implementation of the spatial data lending facility has been supported by EU’s Life Environment funds and it has proven to be an efficient way to make extensive spatial data resources available for a large number of users. The limited test area, limited use time and possibility to gain information on the potential data users has attracted even commercial data providers to deliver their data free of charge.

Lending service is one step towards free sharing of data. As INSPIRE directive talks mostly about users in the administration, the lending is free for everyone. Therefore, the lending model could be integrated even in the future download services as defined in the INSPIRE directive.

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