SDI Convergence - Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

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Figure 1: The ‘SDI-based network’ within a ‘magnetic field’.
4. GENERAL AND SPECIFIC FINDINGS
Government
SDI
SDI-based
-syste
network
m
Users
Literature covering SDI as well as cooperation show quite a dispersed pattern but
show interesting trends and developments over a period from about 1990 until today.
Papers dealing with cooperation as the main subject are scarce but there are many
papers that in some respect deal with issues of cooperation (see Campbell and
Masser,1995; Huxhold and Levinsson, 1994; Craig, 2005). The way this has evolved is
quite interesting. Issues of cooperation have often been treated as questions of data
sharing (Carter, 1992; Onsrud and Rushton, 1995), information policies (van Loenen,
2006), interoperability (Cabinet Office, 2005), the role of governments and other actors,
openness, harmonisation and benefits to society (Assimakopoulos, 2000; McDougall et
al., 2005; van Loenen and Kok, 2004; van Loenen, 2006). It is evident that cooperation
has been an important factor in the development of these aspects, but cooperation as
such has often played second fiddle; an important factor but not a main target for discussion
and research.
However, during the last decade one can notice a considerable change. There are still
a few studies where cooperation is the main subject, but developments in the SDI context
shifting from pure technical issues to questions of ‘how to put the pieces together
for maximum benefits’ are evidently coming closer to questions of cooperation. We
identified three distinct periods of SDI in which cooperation is addressed differently.
4.1 Findings since about 1990 – the first period
This first period focuses on questions about data sharing, technical standardisation,
questions of project management, and simply how to use GIS and for what. Georgiadou
(2006) characterised this period as “a period dominated by techniques and visionaries”.
This period approximately started around 1990 and lasted until 1997/98.
Examples are Carter (1992), Campbell and Masser (1995), and Onsrud and Rushton
(1995).