Watch Out Google! – New EU Project Set to Unleash SME Use of Geospatial Data
Partners from six European Countries gathered in Antwerp this week to officially launch Open Transport Net (OTN) – a new European Commission funded project that aims to challenge the monopoly that large commercial vendors such as Google currently enjoy over geographic or geospatial data (GI). IS-practice will be responsible for the management of this project.
The increasing availability of open Geographic Information (GI) data presents a strong opportunity for European Private and Public stakeholders, especially SMEs, to extract extra value from OD due to the fact that a vast amount of information has direct or indirect spatial references that open up exiting new ways of interpreting it. At present, however, the true innovative potential of GI data in Europe is hindered by the fact that access to GI data remains limited in many European countries. These limitations mean many of the applications currently developed by non-GI experts are predominantly based on relatively easy Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and accessible data sources from large private technology providers such as Google. As a result, Europe is confronted with a potential monopoly of a few large commercial vendors at the expense of its most valuable source of home grown innovation – its SMEs.
OTN hubs will combine spatial (GI), dynamic data streams (sensors and monitoring of mobile objects) and non-spatial (OD) data using techniques to derive insights from the data through visualisation tools and pattern detection algorithms. OTN Hubs will help to drive innovation by (a) improving the accuracy of data insights by enhancing knowledge with Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), and (b) deploying a sophisticated Access Control and Identity Management system (ACM). A ‘data usage’ approach to structuring Hub content and services will enable visitors to the platform to be directed to the innovation tools that best suit their needs where they can then play with data mash-ups, share insights with the OTN community, post service needs, and create new business applications – all for free.