Introduction
In October 2013, Mayor Fischer signed Executive Order No. 1, Series 2013 entitled “An Executive Order Creating an Open Data Plan” that directed Louisville Metro Government to review its data and make it more accessible to the public through an open data portal. Geospatial data maintained in the community’s shared LOJIC GIS was identified as a source of data that should be included in the open data portal. However, LOJIC’s existing data dissemination policy as endorsed by the LOJIC Policy Board, which are in accordance with KRS 61, establish data cost recovery fees on some of LOJIC GIS databases utilized for commercial purposes. LOJIC GIS data are available from LOJIC upon request, but are not currently available through an online data portal. In spring of 2014, at the request of Louisville Metro Government, the LOJIC Policy Board approved the availability of a limited set of LOJIC GIS data on Louisville Metro’s Open Data site and agreed to consider recommendations for an Open Data Policy pertaining to LOJIC GIS data. In 2016, LOJIC created an Open Data portal that provides download of selected geospatial databases and access to web services in various formats.
This policy cites the purpose and requirements for LOJIC GIS Open Data and documented terms and conditions for the use of LOJIC GIS data.
Purpose and Requirements for Open Data 1
Purpose of GIS Open Data
There are many benefits to making GIS data open and freely available:
1. Transparency of government and improved public service
Making non-sensitive geospatial data publicly available helps demonstrate the transparency of government operations and a willingness to provide good public service. Geospatial data that is a byproduct of government business processes should be part of the public record.
2. Better use of staff time and resources
Publishing digital geospatial data in standardized forms for Internet download reduces staff time required to process and manage numerous individual requests for data.
3. Fostering entrepreneurship and open development
Private usage of public data is becoming integral to the development and advancement and growth of the ‘digital economy’ and enables businesses to make quicker decisions on investments and enhancements in the community.
4. The authoritative data becomes the default ‘norm’
Providing consistently available authoritative data ensures that all derivative products, maps, services, analyses and publications accurately reflect current conditions.
5. Proactively meeting demand for data
The demand from the general public, public sector, private sector and other sectors of society for accurate and readily consumable data continues to increase along with availability of GIS tools and other analytical tools.
6. Indirect Benefits and “Thinking Beyond The Horizon”
Making public data easily available in readily consumable formats to a wide variety of audiences enables them to query and utilize the data in ways not in common practice, yielding new tools, applications, analyses and understanding.
Requirements for GIS Open Data
To realize the benefits of open and freely available data, the data should:
1. Derive from an authoritative source
LOJIC is the recognized authoritative source for geospatial data in our community. Therefore, LOJIC staff should implement, manage and maintain a web-based portal to insure the availability of local geospatial data that is publically available upon approval by the appropriate data owner. It is important that data owners/maintainers document approval of the inclusion of the data in an open data environment or document restrictions prohibiting the inclusion of data in an open data environment within the metadata in the published LOJIC database. Not all data currently published in the LOJIC database can or should be published in an open data site. There are security, privacy, licensing and cost recovery issues that prohibit some data from being widely available.
2. Be kept up to date to remain as an authoritative source
Owners/maintainers of geospatial data must commit to keeping their data up to date by reviewing and/or updating data available in the open data environment on at least an annual basis and documenting updates in the metadata. Accurate and reliable data insures that LOJIC remains an authoritative GIS data source.
3. Be provided in established formats defined by the Open Geospatial Standards;
Currently, the use of the Esri Open Data portal through ArcGIS Online insures that the data will available in formats for a variety of uses with automatic conversion to these formats from LOJIC ArcGIS server web services or ArcGIS Online hosted feature services.
4. Have current metadata
Updated and maintained metadata is a key component to providing useful and relevant open data. The standard for requiring robust metadata on all LOJIC published data should extend to the LOJIC data available on an open data portal. This metadata must document GIS data owner/maintainer approval of inclusion in the open data environment and document a review/update schedule.
5. Have a defined update schedule
Data available in the open data environment may be on different update cycles than data in the published LOJIC database. (Example: Address and Street data is updated nightly in the published LOJIC database but updated quarterly in the open data environment.) Providing the currency of data is another key component to providing useful, relevant open data.
6. Have a flexible licensing agreement
Entities accessing the data need to clearly understand how they can use the data and if there are any terms and conditions applied to the use of the data. The LOJIC Open Data Terms and Conditions Statement define these and should be reviewed regularly and updated as needed.
Approved by LOJIC Policy Board on 8/28/2018 and signed Tony Lindauer, LOJIC Policy Board Chair
1 Excerpt from the Minnesota Metro GIS Data Producers Working Group