Summary: In the domain of cartography and geospatial analysis, the term "Open Source" has an important meaning not simply for software, but for data, as well. In the absence of detailed and comprehensive data to work with, the utility of geospatial software becomes drastically reduced. The current petition at http://petition.publicgeodata.org/ aims at rejecting the directive proposal by the European Parliament. The INSPIRE Directive risks holding back the economic and social potential in maps and location-based technology in Europe by many years. The OSGeo Foundation supports the petition at publicgeodata.org. Read more…
