Goals for 2021-2025

Use and benefit in society

Planning permissions, crises management, outdoor activities - the use for geodata are numerous. Our daily life is filled with digital information connected to a location. We expect the information to be accessible however and whenever and we need it - regardless of platform, tools or time of day.

For public geodata to be used and benefit society in the best possible way there is a need for easy ways to provide and give access to geodata for the users at the same time as the integrity of the citizens and national security need to be considered.

This means that the present models for financing the production of geodata, for national and local authorities, need to be adjusted in order to ensure a new and more user-friendly way to provide geodata.

A factor for success in the future development of the field is also a well-functioning collaboration between national authorities, local authorities and private companies.

The geodata council therefore considers that the four most important objectives for actors in the geodata field are:

1. Geodata are open

In a data driven society access to open data is a foundation. They make it possible for companies to create innovative services for a well-functioning society and contribute to a more efficient public service. It increases transparency and gives the citizens more influence in the development of society. A big challenge lies in maintaining the important principles of openness and accessibility as well as ensuring integrity and security.

The models for financing public geodata are an obstacle as they mainly are based on fees from users instead of taxation. Producers of geodata - national and local authorities - need models for financing that make it possible to provide basic geodata as open data.

Therefore, an overall goal is that geodata must be open and free to use.

2. Geodata are usable

Open and free geodata are not enough in themselves. For geodata to benefit citizens, companies and authorities they must be useable. This means among other things that they must be user friendly and of known quality.

With a total of 290 local authorities and several national authorities producing geodata standardization, harmonization and compatibility are important factors in order to provide geodata in the forms that the users request.

Therefore, an overall goal is that geodata must be usable.

3. Geodata are available

We are in the very beginning of a revolutionary transformation from data read by humans to data read by machines. Data that is expected to be available around the clock. This will demand a whole new way of working and new workflows in the production, distribution and the use of geodata. Professional users will want to integrate standardized, basic services with machine interfaces, so called API: s, in to their business systems in order to digitalize their processes.

Citizens want to be involved and to be co-creators and will demand e-services where geodata is presented in a user-friendly way.

Therefore, an overall goal is that geodata must be available.

4. A well-developed cooperation

A prerequisite for public geodata to be easy to use and easily available in ways that ensure the integrity of the citizens and national security is a wide, national cooperation between producers in the public sector, producers of refined products and end users. Actors from different sectors as well as actors on a regional and local level needs to look after the driving forces in such a way that it stimulates to increased knowledge, dialogue and coordination.

The national geodata strategy is an important tool for the coordination. It will contribute to a way forward, understanding, participation and knowledge among the actors in the field.

Therefore, an overall goal is that cooperation must be well developed.