B. McLeod CCRS Sept 16, 2003 Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure Collaborative Evolution 16 th WGISS Plenary and Subgroups meeting

Overview Canadian GeoSpatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI) overview and architecture Information sharing and collaboration within the CGDI – lessons learned

Canadian GeoSpatial Data Infrastructure Canadas geospatial information on the Internet Growth of the CGDI co-ordinated by the GeoConnections program, led by Natural Resources Canada GeoConnections is currently in year five of six year, $60,000,000 program (follow-on program formulation in progress)

Services Providers Data Providers CGDI Conceptual Architecture e.g. Sustainable Development Transportation Planning Climate Change Monitoring Disaster Response Site Assessment Infrastructure Portal... e.g. Features Coverages Projects, Studies, Activities Events, Situations... e.g. Routing Analysis Visualization Location-based... Applications Consumers CGDI CGDI enables applications via online data and services Consumers will be able to access many kinds of geospatial capabilities.

Distributed Applications, Data, Services CGDI enables distributed applications, data and services CGDI. Applications Data Services

Autonomous Interdependent Organizations CGDI Federal Govt Agencies Municipal Govt Agencies Provincial Govt Agencies Private Companies UtilitiesOthers Autonomous organizations... … that are interdependent CGDI enables organizations to remain autonomous Academia while working together.

CGDI Key Information Communities Applications Consumers Data Providers Services Marine Provincial (Ont,BC,NS) Forestry Other Canadian SDIs Environment Providers.

Information Sharing – Lessons learned CGDI information sharing –CGDI Community is well engaged thru information sharing via metadata catalogue (Z39.50) and visualization (OGC WMS) services and national data framework data activity –Above services demonstrate potential benefits of Web services concept to new CGDI partners while mitigating policy issues relating to data sharing/licensing/etc. –Beyond metadata/visualization: Shared data access via Web services has many barriers Traditional policies/licenses inhibit sharing (e.g. cost recovery) Immature business model support for Web services Lack of uniform operational architecture (service availability, failover, quality of service, network thruput between service provider and consumer, etc.) Lack of education/training on Web services concepts Lack of collaboration between potential partners

Lessons learned - Collaboration* Why collaboration is difficult? When will collaboration occur? Shared vision model of collaboration

Why collaboration is difficult? Collaboration is about not competing We spend more time learning (and being rewarded) to compete, than collaborating We take it for granted people will learn how to collaborate, we dont take time to learn to collaborate you must have missed school the day you were taught sharing in Kindergarten – Diane Fisher, 2002 If we are having trouble collaborating, we tend to revert back to competing

When does collaboration occur? When people choose to collaborate A belief that there is more to be gained by collaborating than by competing People choose to collaborate when they see their personal and organization interests are acknowledged, valued and taken into account

Shared vision model of collaboration What are your personal/organizational interests with respect to the issue before us? What can we agree upon as the best outcome that takes into account the vested interests of each of us – what is our shared vision? What are we currently doing and what are others doing that enables the outcome weve all chosen? What are we currently doing and what are others doing that interferes with the outcome weve all chosen? What do we need to start doing that will contribute to the outcome weve all chosen?

CGDI response to foster collaboration Shared leadership: all GeoConnections advisory committees are co-chaired by external partners Shared vision framework to develop partnership agreements with contributors to the CGDI Community collaboration/resources CGDI Development Network National, community and regional workshops Training and communication of CGDI best practices Common requirements gathering, project steering for enabling technology development (e.g. CWC2/Chameleon) Participation in standards activities (Open GIS Consortium, ISO TC211) Cost shared agreements (minimum 2:1 leverage) are requirement for GeoConnections funding

Success metrics GeoConnections program budget leverage exceeded expectations (planned – 2:1; actual 2.7:1) Increase in number of new partnerships across information community boundaries (e.g. environmental, provincial, forestry, agriculture) Increase in re-use of infrastructure technology components and services Change in beliefs/attitudes w.r.t. information sharing

Summary In general, technology availability/maturity is not the major issue for CGDI growth/adoption A future self-sustaining CGDI is dependent on collaboration, independent of GeoConnections sponsorship Collaboration is a learned behavior and applicable to workgroup, enterprise and inter- organizational issue Establishment of personal relations is key facet of collaborative endeavors Change in beliefs/attitudes w.r.t. information sharing move from information ownership to stewardship

References * Collaboration Is A Choice, Not An Accident, GeoTec 2003 [A spirit of collaboration], Vancouver, B.C., Wayne Boss, BA, BEd, MSc, CPsych, CHRP Beliefs and attitudes affecting intentions to share information in an organizational setting, Kolekofski and Heminger, Information and Management, January 2002,