Call for Papers – Open Geographic Information, RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2011
Abstracts are invited for a session at the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society – Institute of British Geographers conference 2011. The conference runs between 31st August – 2nd September 2011; the exact date of this special session is to be confirmed. The session is hosted by the GIScRG, and will be chaired by Dr. Hanif Rahemtulla and Professor Paul Longley.
More about the session:
“The term “Open Data” refers to the philosophical and methodological approach to the democratization of data enabling citizens to access and create value through the reuse of public sector information. Today, Open Data is gathering momentum and forms part of a global movement linked to Open Access and comparable to other Open movements such as Open Source. To date, this movement is being led by government institutions in the UK, USA and Australia through pioneering initiatives such as Data.Gov and the London DataStore. These initiatives, which are being replicated across cities, states and countries (i.e., Open Toronto and New Zealand Open Data Catalogue) provide access to “non-sensitive government datasets, at no cost, to citizens, citizen groups, non-governmental-organisations (NGOs) and businesses” (Lauriault, 2008).
The Open Data Initiative will, it is envisaged, support greater transparency and accountability within Government and create new economic and social value (see Oxera Study, 1999; Cambridge Study, 2008). Furthermore, as O’Reilly (2009) and others argue, the advent of Open Data will fundamentally change the nature by which citizens interact with government. Specifically, the release of public data online and public APIs (which is already underway in some places) will create a platform supporting the development of third-party communication applications outside of government (Headd, 2010). This it is expected will provide a vehicle for expanding public outreach and enhancing public engagement leading to “a more responsive and citizen-focused government” (Madera, 2009).
Today, the Open Data movement has created great excitement in the developer community with a seemingly endless stream of novel and innovative applications, tools and visualizations that repurposes and enriches public data – and has lead to some of the most exciting developments in mobile GIS, web-cartography and LBS in recent years.
However, while Open Data gives rise to a many new opportunities it also poses many challenges. As Boyd (2010) states, access to public information to promote transparency represents only the first step to a more informed citizenry. The success of Open Data will depend in part upon addressing existing barriers to access which encompasses issues such as digital inclusion and information literacy. As such, there is much work still to do to make this promised future happen.
This Special Session aims to bring together some of the key developers, academics and writers on Open Data to document its lineage, debate its philosophy and methods and to envision its future. Contributions are welcome from any source, and in any style appropriate to the arguments being made.”
The session will be a series of presented papers with a lively explorative session in which the four/five scholars will debate about alternative interpretations/methods/solutions within this emerging research area on Open Data.
For more information, please contact the session convenors, Hanif Rahemtulla (Hanif.Rahemtulla[AT]nottingham.ac.uk) and/or Paul Longley (plongley[AT]geog.ucl.ac.uk). Please send abstracts (350 words max.) and key words to Hanif Rahemtulla, by 20th February 2011.
Further details about the conference can be found here.