Question Two
From Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP)
Enter your discussion report-out below:
2. How is “data access” from federal agencies different from “data access” from commercial and other sectors? Where can federal agencies learn from private data/information providers (such as Google Earth and Flickr)?
A.
- Public and private entities are driven by different interests - profit vs. public good
- But in some cases there is no difference between commercial and public access
- Differing levels of transparency
- We often have different audiences
B.
- private market research for information products
- How to make money from data (bad idea)? Studies show that free (or minimum cost) data provide greater economic benefit than charging
- We can learn about how to make effective, well-packaged information products
- Accountability is inherent in private sector but needs to be constructed in public sector - we could learn about accountability mechanisms
- Consider new forms of public private partnerships that transcend existing partnerships
- People use Google
- Interfaces like Google that provide "keywords & click" access should be provided, but with more refinement of searches.
- Government data access must be more accurate because they are the primary source for the data.
