[The French] Institut Géographique National...is accused of hindering France's knowledge economy by the high prices it charges for digital data and the obscure way it calculates them. Government auditors also accuse the institute of conflicts of interest in setting national policy for a sector in which it is the dominant player....
Although the directly subsidised IGN is run on a different model to its British equivalent, Ordnance Survey, its problems spring from the conflict that arises when a public agency tries to market data commercially. Now an official inquiry in France has suggested a possible solution along the lines of that proposed by Guardian Technology's Free Our Data campaign. This is to make taxpayer-funded data sets freely available to all comers on the web....
Far from encouraging the use of geographical data, the report says, the institute has discouraged the RGE's take-up by setting high prices, despite a 70% government subsidy. The mechanism for setting charges is complex and secretive, relying on the "good sense" of administrators. Their incentive, is to get as much income as possible in the short term, which encourages squeezing more money from captive customers. Altogether, the inspectors find "a lack of rigour" in the institute's commercial policies.
"This situation is responsible for the low level of sales and the feeble development of the geographical information sector in France, compared with other European countries," they comment....
The inspectors recommend that the institution's commercial activities be separated from its "public good" functions, with separate and transparent accounts. They also say that public data should be priced to encourage wide take-up. "To take this reasoning to its logical conclusion, free online access on the internet could even be envisaged."
Guardian Technology wholeheartedly agrees. Citoyens! Libérons nos données!
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/28/2006 09:48:00 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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
