Licensing Spatial Data and Services of National Geographic Information System

• Main Authors: Lu, Erh-Sang, 盧鄂生
• Other Authors: Shih, Tian-Yuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/77452069004399426761

博士 === 國立交通大學 === 土木工程學系 === 97 === The twenty-first century will be a "knowledge economy" era, that is, its operation will be directly based on the excitation, diffusion and application of "knowledge" and "information" on the economy. This makes the "knowledge" a new source of wealth. The ability and efficiency of Knowledge creation and application will prevail the traditional resources of fortune, such as land and capital. Knowledge becomes the support for the continuing economic development. The Executive Yuan announced that our country has entered the era of knowledge economy in early 2001. In recent years, there are rapid advancements in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), Geographic information System(GIS), and Remote Sensing(RS). These technologies are mainly used in the military or in a particular area of expertise originally. Due to the widespread Internet, the so-called "3S (GPS, GIS, RS)" technology have found applications from a small group of expertise towards the general public. Different types of spatial data can be integrated with other data through Internet, this expands the geographic information system applications rapidly, especially in land-use planning, resources conservation, management, disaster prevention. This also makes geographic information systems a knowledge-based economy, the new impetus for industrial development. The National Geographic Information System program started since early 1990s. Through this program, the establishment of a nation-wide geographic database and the promotion of information circulation become a primary task of government. The geographic data collection, maintenance, provision and application is actually an information circulation activity. With the rapid progress of the Internet and the growing frequency of market transactions, the supply and circulation of spatial information formed naturally a series of upper, middle and downstream of economic activities. This established an inter-network-based market composed of the government, business suppliers, the middle value-added providers, and the end users. The circulation of geographic information can be a key factor to the success of the promotion of the National Geographic Information System. The central government should lead the establishment of the value chain and supply chain of geographic information, and take the entire operation of the geographical information as an economic activity which guides the national resource flow. During the past 30 years of development of the national geographic information, on the circulation supply side, it is still limited among government agencies. The private enterprises for value-added applications, and create business opportunities with others are still inadequate. With Morakot typhoon occurred on August 8, 2009, heavy rains in central and southern area caused landslides, flood, and the bridge thrust. In such a devastating disaster, the early warning and the rescue after the incidence indicated that the disaster prevention information system of central and local government agencies established after the 921 earthquake is inadequate. The crisis still exists. GIS decision support system is still on paperwork and difficult to be implemented. The United States well-known legal scholar Lawrence Lessig brought up the concept of "Some Rights Reserved" in 2001. The owner of information can select the most appropriate licensing terms. This provides an alternative to the voluntary sharing. And, it also provides an opportunity for working together to build a more extensive library of public resources. The main purpose of this study is to review the government role based on the concept of public administration, economic theory and public policy. Analysis is also made from four aspects: legal, economic, public benefits and licensing strategy, to build a properly functioning appropriate authorization decision-making mechanism and platform. The following six issues are addressed: 1. Productive Data Maintenance: When the government faces financial difficulties, the insufficient budget prevented the progresss of the nine databases in a coordinated manner. 2. Circulation of the supply charges: The government departments generally lack of the concept of authorization. Functionally, the automation of information distribution is limited due to a number of restrictions. The related Charges and Fees Act provides further problem of the information supply. 3. Support popular applications: The ownership and maintenance responsibility of geographical information spread over a number of government units. The quality varies. Keeping information updated is also a problem. This cannot be resolved with advanced GIS tools alone. 4. Establishing Regulatory system: The normative content of the legal system for the copyright, privacy act and public interest with various government agencies remain inadequate. The lack of the authority balance concept imposes further problem. 5. Industrial competitiveness: Due to lack of proper government policy support, the geospatial industry worked independently without coordination. This makes the national competition capability low. 6. The overall development of Geographic Information: The current coordination is established between ministries with the leadership of MOI. Administratively, the level is too low for proper execution. Cross-agency coordination is difficult. The scope of this study is to focus first on the licensing of the spatial data and services, including the outsourcing authority of government , and GIS software technology patent licensing. Secondly, the issues of policy, including Access Rights, Privacy, Intellectual Property Rights, the quality of responsibility (Liability), the fee schedule (cost & price). The original geospatial information and the derived products, such as the "information products" and "information services", are all included. Before the analysis with the legal, economic and public-benefit view points, the development of spatial information industry and the value chain shall be briefly explored. Thirdly, Land Surveying related spatial information will be used as an example. Comparing with the the other database of the nine major databases, the Land Surveying database is relatively built earlier and having better integrity. In this study, the concepts of the authorization, public administration, economy and public policy are adopted for analysis. Intensive investigation on the status of National Geographic Information System, in terms of the production, maintenance, supply, application, and the regulation, rules, and law are performed. Relevant cases of the United States are also studied. The impact of the national e-government program on the Land Information System is studied. The status of the spatial IT industry development, in terms of the value chain and market structure is reviewed. Software-related patent issues, including the characteristic content analysis, legal, economic, public interest and authorization decision-making related to spatial information are all addressed. The ultimate goal is to breakthrough the bottlenecks in the production, maintenance and the supply of land information. Providing a smooth flow to encourage the use of value-added industrial development and the implementation of new GIS applications.