Call for papers – JoSIS journal special issue Open Geographic Information

Journal of Spatial Information Science (JoSIS)

CALL FOR PAPERS – Special Feature on Open Geographic Information


Guest editors:  Dr. Hanif Rahemtulla, Horizon Digital Economy Research, Nottingham University and Professor Paul Longley, Department of Geography, University College London.

Call for papers

This special feature 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.

We invite full research articles. Potential contributions should consult the Guidelines for Authors and discuss their article with the Guest Editors Hanif Rahemtulla or Paul Longley before submission. All papers will go through the normal JOSIS peer review process. The deadline for submission is 30th June 2011. We look forward to receiving a wide variety of stimulating papers dealing with either the theoretical and/or practical aspects of this emerging research

Background

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. This new wave of creativity characterised by Sir Tim Berners-Lee as the combination of information, creative vision and digital technology – 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.

GUEST EDITORS:

Dr. Hanif Rahemtulla

Horizon Digital Economy Research

University of Nottingham

Nottingham NG7 2TU

Email: hanif.rahemtulla@nottingham.ac.uk

Professor Paul Longley

Department of Geography,

University College London

London WC1 6BT

Email: p.longley@ucl.ac.uk