Spatial Law and Policy Update (January 4, 2010)

I decided to include this link because it highlights how many different types of regulations an industry may potentially face.

There has been a good deal of discussion about the couple in Oregon who got stuck in the mountains for a few days while using their GPS device. Many commented that consumers are foolish for trusting their GPS devices and that you should always bring a map along just in case. I responded to one such comment here.

The attempted bombing of the Delta aircraft on Christmas day highlighted a number of issues associated with current state of homeland security. From my point of view, one of the most important issues is simply the value in sharing of data - while one piece of data may not seem important to a person sitting in one office, it may be of critical importance to someone sitting in another office. Perhaps I am more sensitive about this issue because of the work I have been doing on legal and policy issues involved in developing national spatial data infrastructures. But it seems a government agency too often can give all the reasons why data should not be shared (liability, intellectual property rights, privacy, "need to know", etc.) but is less aware of the benefits of sharing (i.e. how the data might be used by other government agencies). This is of particular concern with spatial data because its value is greatly underappreciated, particularly by agencies where spatial data is not mission critical.