Third, the concern expressed by NGA that there is a need to avoid competition with the private sector is unfounded. It is clearly in the public interest to have this geospatial data broadly available to many constituencies for research and commercial use. It is not the role of NGA to promote competition or avoid competition in the marketplace. In addition, if this information is only available via selected commercial entities, this will limit access only to those who can afford the information thus hampering research in new and innovative directions. In fact, this may have the opposite effect of limiting competition by placing smaller firms at a disadvantage as they may not be able to not afford the cost of the data and the development of new value-added services. Moreover, removal of this geospatial information will thwart cooperative efforts among government, the commercial sector and those in not-for-profit settings including research and education.
The NGA comment period ended on June 30 and the agency is now reviewing the comments.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/27/2005 09:26:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
