link to the data generator – the original source. Nor do they know how different the spatial data visible to end users are compared to data that the developer pulled from the original source. While it is true that developers of open data policy are concerned about whether all interested parties – developers and creators of value added – can access data, including spatial data from the original source, it has not in any way been determined what happens to the data after the developer processes them and resells them. It will be likely left up to the market – and end-user awareness – to regulate the area.
Principles worth mentioning include machine-readability, up-to-dateness of data and use of free standards. These are principles where conformity can be ensured largely using technical means. In Estonia, many databases that include spatial data were established only 20 years ago, they can be administered in machine-readable form, not as scanned sets of historical documents. This is a big difference and advantage compared to Western Europe, where states have had to spend noteworthy sums on digitization and vectorization of maps. To ensure up-to-dateness of spatial data between the information holder’s database and the place where the spatial data will be available in re-usable form, the state’s open data consolidated site to be established will likely be an aid, allowing the data user to be sure that the data he or she downloaded are identical in the information holder’s database. A more troublesome question is whether the data in the information holder’s database are up to date and reflect reality.
In the case of open data, importance is placed on the principle that the data be presented in an open format that is not the exclusive property of any one company or person. A propos of the needs of spatial data users in Estonia, we should mention that users wish to obtain data in a format compatible with their GIS/CAD software. Converting spatial data from one format to another is an inconvenience that causes dissatisfaction even if the software enables conversion. Estonia makes use of both proprietary GIS software from specific manufacturers and freeware GIS programs, the latter being less common. Thus open spatial data should be available in the formats that are predominantly used, including in some producer-centred and closed as well as open format.
Open data policy will be effective if it proved possible to unify access, release and terms of use and fee-charging principles for public data in re-usable form nationwide.
As the last group, we can mention open data principles dealing with rights, restrictions and availability of the use of the data. For many reasons these aspects are regulated quite inconsistently in Estonia. The Public Information Act establishes a single set of principles for publishing data. With regard to spatial data, the Spatial Data Act governs questions of availability, the Act reflects the principles of the INSPIRE directive. The Spatial Data Act obliges information holders to make the spatial data they administer available via services (including download services) that conform to specific requirements, and in a format that likewise conforms to specific requirements. At the same time, the Act leaves the terms and conditions and procedure for distributing information – i.e. user privileges and licensing matters – open and empowers the minister in whose area of government a given database resides.
In large part, matters pertaining to use of data are governed by the relevant legal acts. The principles that pertain to requesting data from data sets and conditions for use of data are set forth in many legal acts, and it is difficult to orient in this landscape.
Money
Should public information be available free of charge in re-usable form to all or should people pay for it? How much should the fee be? These questions are at the centre of passionate debate in Estonia and throughout the European Union and are also salient among information holders administering spatial data.
For public sector information holders, spatial data from other information holders are available free of charge in Estonia. The situation varies greatly in terms of fees for data for the private and third sector. If we generalize (and do not distinguish what the fee is being charged for exactly – provision of service, issue of spatial information or other services) we can say that the fee and fee levels vary by data set. For instance the Spatial Data Act establishes fees for Topography database, but there is no fee charged for certain environmental data, such as Forest Register data, which can be freely downloaded from the Environmental Information Centre page. Or, for instance, address data are free of charge for all in re-usable form from the Land Board site, but the State Fees Act establishes a fee for releasing cadastral unit data.
Such a situation has developed over quite a long time and it is not only typical of spatial data but all public sector data. We can speculate that in the case of certain databases, a monopolistic status is sensed and the authorities are reluctant to forgo the possibility of charging a state fee. In the case of certain databases, it is in the interests of the information holder and the state to make the data more widely usable in society – in such a case they would be free of charge and available in as simple a manner as possible.
The situation in different European countries also varies. Much depends on the extent to which information holders receive state budget funding and how much they need to earn the money themselves. A telling example is the wording, pertaining to fees, of the draft act supplementing the PSI directive. It appears there is an attempt to find a compromise between opposing interests and the result is a wording that is open to many interpretations.
Conclusion
Open data policy will be effective if it proved possible to unify access, release and terms of use and fee-charging principles for public data in re-usable form nationwide. Currently much effort is spent establishing technical infrastructure to promote greater availability of re-usable data. But this is not enough and presumably no huge changes will take place in regard to availability of data in re-usable form. Whether this is progress or stagnation depends on the viewing perspective. Spatial data have at least become more open over the last few years and this trend will continue.
CHAPTER 2
GREEN IT
We are facing a situation where natural resources keep on decreasing and become more difficult to access even as countries need more and more of them to continue their growth. Raising the economy’s competitiveness will require more intelligent and resource-efficient production and use of smarter technologies. The OECD considers ICT a key enabler of sustainable economy and has indicated that while the ICT sector generates 2 per cent of the world’s carbon dioxide, it can alleviate the negative impact of the remaining 98 per cent. This chapter gives an overview of the results of a survey conducted to map Estonia’s green ICT potential and looks at plans for implementing the recommendations issued in this regard. The chapter also gives an overview of developments in the private sector: the ambitious Smart Vormsi initiative on that western island, and the ELVIS project – the timber industry’s electronic waybill project.
Green ICT as enabler of environment and resource conservation
Kristiina Kitsik
Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications
In late 2011, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications in cooperation with Ernst & Young Baltic conducted a study for mapping the level of awareness of green ICT areas and their potential in Estonia.
Green ICT is a concept that has developed in the early 21st century. It is a combination of ICT solutions and environmental conservation. In the big picture, green ICT is engaged in two main areas: environmental sustainability of ICT equipment and solutions (making ICT greener) and raising sustainability in other walks of life through ICT solutions. Earlier environmental conservation topics were considered purely green-movement topics but today, with ICT solutions developing, they are becoming increasingly intertwined with
