UN-GGIM and Legal/Policy Issues Related To Geoinformation Management:

UN-GGIM WorkshopFebruary 27, 2013Kevin D. PomfretCentre for Spatial Law and Policy

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Geospatial Technology Is Now Pervasive

Resulting In Rapid Growth in Many Diverse Uses of Geoinformation

Social Media– Geotagged photos, tweets,

Smart phone apps Business Intelligence

– Big Data Open Data Law Enforcement Smart Grid Tracking (assets, loved ones)

Sustainable Development Infectious Disease Disaster Response Climate Change Protecting Endangered Species Smart Cities Insurance Intelligent Transportation

Systems

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And Creating A GlobalGeospatial Community

Geospatial Community

Data Provider

Data User

Data User

Data Provider

Data Provider

Data Consumer

Geospatial Community

An international ecosystem that collects/uses/stores/distributes geoinformation.

– Cuts across technology platforms, industry groups and user communities.

All segments of community are contributing to community’s growth

Products and services increasingly being developed based upon aggregation all types of data collected from diverse sources.

As a result policies/laws that impact the collection, impact, and distribution in one segment will impact others.

– Traditional stovepipe approaches are obsolete/detrimental

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Innovation Coming From All Segments of Geospatial Community

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Geoinformation Has Many Benefits

Cost-savings and Efficiencies Creates Jobs Improves Governance Provides Greater Transparency Vital in Addressing Critical Transnational

Issues– Climate Change– Pandemics

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Has Happened Almost OvernightVatican City (2005)

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Privacy ParadoxVatican City (2013)

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Policy/Legal CommunitiesHave Failed to Keep Up

A number of policy/legal issues impact the collection/use/storage/distribution of geoinformation Privacy Intellectual Property Licensing National Security Open Data Liability

Policy/legal communities not keeping up with geospatial technology, geoinformation, and the geospatial community

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Uncertainty Making It Increasingly Difficult to Collect/Use/Store/Distribute Geoinformation

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UN-GGIM’s Efforts In This Area

Identified Legal and Policy Issues as one of the main challenges facing geospatial community in next ten years

Engaged with the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy to help identify issues– White paper

UN-GGIM and Centre conducted a joint survey of member nations on impact of legal/policy issues on collection/use/distribution

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Privacy

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Licensing/Data Sharing

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Liability

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Homeland/National Security

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Impact of Bad Laws/Policies/Regulations

Increased costs and expenses to collect/use Longer roll-out times for new products/services Lawsuits may increase As a result . . .

Geoinformation will be harder to collect/use/distribute Demand/market for geospatial products/services could

decrease

This will impact the entire geospatial community How do you measure opportunity costs of not

collecting/using geoinformation?17

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Potential Role of UN-GGIM

Create regional/local forums that include all relevant stakeholders to identify issues.

– Work within UN-GGIM regional system?– Research impact of issues particular to each

nation/jurisdiction.– Include legal communities/universities in the process

Facilitate development of appropriate legal and policy frameworks (as necessary)

– Local solutions but need to address global issues– Work towards “legal interoperability” of geoinformation