A Report by the Geographic Information Panel to Baroness Andrews, Minister for the Geographic Information Panel, November 2008

AGI welcomes the publication of the Location Strategy by Communities and Local Government (CLG). 

The Location Strategy is a highly significant document. Never before has GI been placed so high on the UK Government agenda and received such cross Government recognition with ministerial approval. The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) will chair the newly formed Location Council with contributions from stakeholder Departments across Government and engagement with the broader community including AGI.

The Location Strategy offers a structured approach to facilitate the effective exploitation and realisation of the value and benefits of GI as well as enabling the implementation of the INSPIRE Directive across the UK. Whilst this is a strategy aimed at the public sector, it should also offer opportunities to commercial companies.

AGI has sought a national GI strategy for many years. The Location Strategy signifies many achievements and takes the exploitation of GI and the maximisation of its use and benefit in the right direction. AGI believes that the implementation of the Strategy is the critical area and hopes that the activities of the Location Council and its supporting bodies will be effective in this. AGI remains committed to contributing to the process. The Location Strategy will facilitate operational changes in the following areas:

• Metadata access: AGI has run the Gigateway discovery metadata service for several years and is keen that a replacement service will be put in place as soon as possible. AGI has carried out a lot of preparatory work for this through the development of the GEMINI metadata specification, and investigations into technical and operational issues associated with a metadata service.

 

• Core reference data: AGI supports making these available for common, widespread and unrestricted use.

 

• Data exchange: AGI supports the establishment of suitable standards for data exchange through its sponsorship of the British Standards committee for Geographic Information, and their input to International and European Standards.

 

• Education: AGI provides a range of informative events to increase awareness of geographic information in the user community in line with the Strategy's objectives.

 

• Governance: AGI welcomes the intention to revise and modify the governance model overseeing the implementation of the Strategy, to increase the availability of data.

 

• Licensing: AGI supports the review and simplification of licensing of core location based datasets to remove barriers to their usage.

AGI looks forward to its future involvement in the implementation of the Strategy.

For reference the Location Strategy can be obtained from: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/communities/locationstrategy
 

For further information contact Chris Holcroft, Email: chris.holcroft@agi.org.uk