NYS ITS GIS Program Office
Geographic Information Systems Clearinghouse
The NYS GIS Data Sharing Cooperative
Key Points
Bill Johnson
NYS Department of Transportation
October 2, 1997
Connection to Amended FOIL Legislation
- Enable licensing of GIS records
- Primary/secondary custodians
- Basic access rights unchanged
- Avoids reliance on copyright
Broad Participation
- Potential for more participants than Federal Model
- Gain access to some of the "best" data (bypass problem of public domain release)
- Combine aspects of Federal Model with marketplace mechanisms
- Scalable to multiple levels; local or regional cooperatives with links to statewide cooperative
Shared Maintenance
- No new effort mandated
- Channel ongoing efforts, data maintenance that would happen anyway
- Lower total cost & effort of data maintenance
- Improved data quality
- Primary Custodians maintain control of datasets, decide how to incorporate improved data
Simplified Sharing
- Within the Cooperative, all members use same agreement, sign it only once
- No "up front" data contribution needed to join, simply agree to terms of Data Sharing Agreement (license)
- Low or no cost data transfers, especially if performed over the Internet or NYT
Fees
- Not a revenue-generating business model
- Cost of duplication (or less) within the Cooperative
- Option to charge commercial users up to "fair market value"
- Encourage partnerships w/private sector for joint benefits
- Levels the playing field for better bargaining power by data owners
Empowered Custodians
- Retain ownership and maintenance autonomy of datasets; decide how best to maintain
- Sole source for obtaining a particular dataset; eliminates confusion, ambiguity, & orphaned datasets
- Option to put data into public domain
- Ability to negotiate outside of Cooperative for value-added improvements
- Decision on whether to charge fees to commercial users rests with Primary Custodians
Related pages: An Innovative New Model | Additional Information on the Cooperative