CoastGIS’99: geomatics and coastal environment
and employment. It is important to launch European initiatives, to
maintain competitiveness.
Electronic administrations should improve services to citizens and
enterprises now that information society technologies enable greater
interactivity, providing services for information, communication and
transactions between public bodies, citizens and companies.
The Green Paper is a discussion document, it also raises many questions
to consider in building an information policy. Everybody is invited to
provide answers:
- What do we mean by public sector information? What categories of
public sector mformation should be used in the debate?
- Do different conditions for access create barriers at the European
level ?
- How can we develop practical tools to facilitate access at the European level?
- What is the impact of different pricing policies on access and exploitation ol public sector information?
- How should competition to the public sector organization be handled?
- How should the copyright on public sector information be handled?
- Right to information versus right of privacy: how can we strike a
balance?
- How should different liabihty regulations affect the access to or the
exploitation of public sector information?
- Is the European policy on access to and exploitation of information
adequate?
- What are the priorities for action at the European level?
If we consider that GI is a significant part of public sector information,
this initiative is important for the entire G,I community. The information society debate has been launched in many countries, with arguments like the following: the Napoleonic law stresses that nobody can
ignore the law, but many legal texts have a strong spatial component,
the first being land ownership. To be compliant with such a basic legal
principle, everyone should have access to this information. In addition,
legal texts must change to take the emergence of the information society and providing digital data into account. The second important question is that of better assessing the impact public sector information
exploitation has on economic activity, employment and the political
decision to set the rules of the game for this.
GI2000
GI2000 is a communication from the Commission to the Council, to the
European Parliament, to the Economic and Social Committee and to
the Committee of the Regions: “Towards a European Policy Framework
for Geographic Information”.
GI2000 is still in an EC internal process, and has been delayed due to
the Commission’s resignation. It first presents the current GI market,
48
and employment. It is important to launch European initiatives, to
maintain competitiveness.
Electronic administrations should improve services to citizens and
enterprises now that information society technologies enable greater
interactivity, providing services for information, communication and
transactions between public bodies, citizens and companies.
The Green Paper is a discussion document, it also raises many questions
to consider in building an information policy. Everybody is invited to
provide answers:
- What do we mean by public sector information? What categories of
public sector mformation should be used in the debate?
- Do different conditions for access create barriers at the European
level ?
- How can we develop practical tools to facilitate access at the European level?
- What is the impact of different pricing policies on access and exploitation ol public sector information?
- How should competition to the public sector organization be handled?
- How should the copyright on public sector information be handled?
- Right to information versus right of privacy: how can we strike a
balance?
- How should different liabihty regulations affect the access to or the
exploitation of public sector information?
- Is the European policy on access to and exploitation of information
adequate?
- What are the priorities for action at the European level?
If we consider that GI is a significant part of public sector information,
this initiative is important for the entire G,I community. The information society debate has been launched in many countries, with arguments like the following: the Napoleonic law stresses that nobody can
ignore the law, but many legal texts have a strong spatial component,
the first being land ownership. To be compliant with such a basic legal
principle, everyone should have access to this information. In addition,
legal texts must change to take the emergence of the information society and providing digital data into account. The second important question is that of better assessing the impact public sector information
exploitation has on economic activity, employment and the political
decision to set the rules of the game for this.
GI2000
GI2000 is a communication from the Commission to the Council, to the
European Parliament, to the Economic and Social Committee and to
the Committee of the Regions: “Towards a European Policy Framework
for Geographic Information”.
GI2000 is still in an EC internal process, and has been delayed due to
the Commission’s resignation. It first presents the current GI market,
48