The principle of free and open access to government geospatial data has been adopted by many governments including US Federal, Canada, Japan, South Africa, Brazil, California, and by the City of Vancouver and other cities.
But being able to access prepared maps and other derived material is
just a first step, governments need to provide access to raw geospatial
data in commonly used Web-friendly formats. Tim Berners-Lee, in Government Data Design Issues,
is a strong advocate of making raw data accessible over the web
including supporting standard Web methods, most critically, searching.
An Executive Order has been released by the White House which makes open and machine readable (raw) data the default for government information.
“To promote continued job growth, Government efficiency, and the social good that can be gained from opening Government data to the public, the default state of new and modernized Government information resources shall be open and machine readable. Government information shall be managed as an asset throughout its life cycle to promote interoperability and openness, and, wherever possible and legally permissible, to ensure that data are released to the public in ways that make the data easy to find, accessible, and usable. In making this the new default state, executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall ensure that they safeguard individual privacy, confidentiality, and national security.“
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