A Local-State Government Spatial Data Sharing Partnership

A Local-State Spatial Data Sharing Partnership Model to Facilitate SDI Development
Therefore, it is important that the outcomes of the data sharing partnership be defined in
terms of measurable benefits to the organisations, business and the community. One of the
important aspects of this research was to identify the relationship of data sharing
partnerships to SDI development. Although SDI development is not the only outcome of
the spatial data sharing partnerships, it is one that has a long lasting and multiplying
impact through the continued re-use of the information infrastructure.
7.4 Model Application and Evaluation
7.4.1 Evaluation Methodology
In order to evaluate the potential of the model it was decided to test the application of the
model using the three case studies. The primary advantage of testing the model against the
three case studies was that detailed empirical evidence was already available on each of
the partnerships. The evaluation process consisted of assessing the impact of each
component of the model for the three case studies. Rather than assessing the impact of
each partnership using an arbitrary point scale, the methodology chosen was to simply
assess each model sub-component as making a positive contribution (+), negligible
contribution (o) or a negative contribution (-) to the partnership outcomes.
This assessment process was considered to be objective as the judgements on the positive
or negative contributions were supported by both quantitative and qualitative evidence
from the case studies and survey. In addition, it was decided that the cumulative effect of
these individual assessment of the sub-components minimised the impact of any subjective
judgement.
7.4.2 Assessment of Contextual Factors
The jurisdictional and institutional environments can have a significant impact on the
establishment and sustainability of collaborative initiatives. Most commonly local-state
government partnerships are established by a single state government agency directly with
one or more local governments. The institutional arrangements within that state or local
government agency will often have a direct influence on the policies and operations of the
partnership. To a lesser extent the political or jurisdictional environment will have an
influence on the institutional or organisational policies and operations. Although many of
these impacts are implicitly recognised by those individuals or groups who are forming the
partnerships, it is often helpful to understand the potential of these impacts prior to
development of a partnership model. A summary of the impact of the jurisdictional and
institutional environments is given in Table 7.2.
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