Location Based Services

Just read an article on www.siliconrepublic.com by Colm Butler, Director of Information Society Policy, Department of the Taoiseach. He tells us that The Department of Environment and Local Government is working with other spatial data creators with a view to coming up with a spatial data strategy.

Colm also mentions how it would be great 'if you could do a search on an area where you might be thinking of setting up home or a business and check out all the facts about the location — from environmental conditions to industrial activities, to demographics and hot spots of activities like sport' (WiFi access etc.) Connect have launched a free service in South Dublin
County where you can do these data searches & more. You can explore the local area in which you live or work. It's called Connect Me. Check it out here: www.sdublincoco.ie/localview/

Colm also expalins 'From a public policy perspective, the availability of that type of joined-up information is proving to be a great advantage in many countries for policy makers, politicians and citizens — and is reshaping the relationships between all three as the quality of location-specific knowledge and connected insights informs discussion and debate on policy options.

Spatial information is relevant in many applications from the basic land registration and management, infrastructure, health monitoring, socio-economic planning, monitoring the environment, statistical analyses, conservation and development and natural resource management. And in the era of evidence-assisted policy-making, the availability of spatially relevant information is extremely useful. It is an area where we can expect to see further developments over the next few years. '

'To get a closer look at the issues around spatial data infrastructures, I would recommend the Spatial Data Cookbook, available in PDF for free from http://geonetwork-opensource.org. It gives a very comprehensive picture of the requirements for a spatial data infrastructure, with good case studies on where spatial information has improved the quality of information and public service responses at local, regional, national and global levels.'

I promise to provide some introductory information on Spatial data shortly. I know that some of this language can be overly packed with technical words. I will get back to you on that one!