1. The Value of Open Data Sharing White Paper produced for the GEO Plenary by CODATA Dr. Simon Hodson Executive Director, CODATA GEO-XII Plenary Mexico City 11/11/2015

2. White Paper on the Value of Data Sharing Produced by CODATA in cooperation with the GEO Secretariat. Request for a survey of current evidence on the value and benefits of data sharing. White Paper is timely: –in support of the Ministerial Statement –reinforce the ‘Advocate’ function Lead author, Paul Uhlir. Input and commentary from large number of experts in the CODATA and GEO communities, including members of DSWG.

3. Five Categories of Benefits from Open EO Data Sharing Economic Benefits Social Welfare Benefits Research and Innovation Opportunities Education Governance

4. Benefits from Open EO Data Sharing Economic Benefits –Greater returns on public investment through open data sharing as opposed to proprietary distribution. –Evidence of a substantial number of studies. –Economic benefits of open distribution outweigh those of cost recovery. Social Welfare –Political and ethical arguments in favour of public access to publicly funded data. –Social expectation of availability of this resource to public and to enterprises.

5. Benefits from Open EO Data Sharing Research and Innovation Opportunities –EO data have particularly strong research and education applications. –Very strong global interest in the use of EO data for research (SBAs) –Benefits accrue across disciplinary and national boundaries such that it not appropriate to restrict access. –Data mining and ‘transdisciplinary’ data integration for major research questions. –Verification of results, reproducibility, depends on open data. –Citizen science. –Downstream applications and commercial innovation.

6. Benefits from Open EO Data Sharing Education –Considerable market demand for data skills, including GIS. –Considerable use of EO data in teaching. Governance –Open data for better research for better decision-making. –Essential component for capacity mobilisation and improved environmental, agricultural management in lower and middle income countries. –Equitable access to data ‘patrimony’ for all countries, including those with lower financial resources.

7. A Resource for the GEO Community Concise but thorough survey of evidence in favour of open data sharing. Lays out value and benefits of data sharing: –to help underpin GEO’s mission and the Advocate function. –to support the central message of the Ministerial Statement, and; –to encourage further contributions to GEOSS Data-CORE Provides a framework which will help DSWG and GEO community marshal further evidence and case studies to support GEO’s mission. Please send comments, further examples and case studies to simon@codata.org

8. 8 Thank you!