During the recent SDI Executive Session at the 2011 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, there was a discussion about various elements of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI).  Comments arose related to the human element of SDI. This is a topic that has been very poorly addressed in SDI literature. Information systems or IT infrastructures in general are meaningless without considering the human aspects, since technology is only a method for facilitating communication.

The Master of Arts (MA) program¹ specialization “Human Aspects of Information Technology” at Tilburg University in the Netherlands addresses important topics in this regard. This MA falls within the Communication and Information Sciences Master's programme where the initial questions relate to how people communicate naturally:

• How do people ask questions, and for what purpose?
• What is the meaning of the words that are used and what kind of answers do people expect?
• When does miscommunication occur, and how can it be resolved in a natural way?

Some additional questions that could be considered for SDI stakeholders are

• Why should people share data?
• Where are the incentives or motivation to do so?
• What are the disincentives or barriers to sharing data?

The image below is a Wordle² of the various terms that were recorded during the SDI Executive Session. The size of the text indicates how often specific terms were used or how important certain terms were deemed to be:

This is a non-scientific approach but, from experience and involvement in SDIs worldwide, we know that these terms reflect a general trend and common issues. For example, data quality arises as an area where people are unwilling to release or share data because those data may be perceived as being of poor quality. There is a growing body of literature on data quality issues, but the human motivational factors are still the underlying reason for not sharing, irrespective of high or low quality levels.

Public-sector accounting practices also need to be revisited to properly account for the benefits accrued across government as a result of formalized data sharing practices.  A significant investment of time and resources can be involved in developing and maintaining ongoing data sharing relationships with other organizations.  The return on this investment may be unclear or intangible, especially when viewed only from an internal accounting perspective.  It can be frustrating for a manager to see the overall cost savings jurisdiction-wide and other organizations reaping the benefits of the shared data sharing when his or her own organization is bearing the associated costs.  

This is why senior executive-level support is critical to the success of data sharing initiatives in a spatial data infrastructure.  Especially in today’s environment government budgets and services are being reduced around the world, a senior champion is necessary to keep everyone’s eyes focused on the larger prize.

Useful References

1 - http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/education/masters-programmes/human-aspects-of-information-technology/programme/

2 – http://www.wordle.net

Learn more about the GSDI Association and how to participate here: http://www.gsdi.org/joinGSDI 

Steven Ramage is Chair of the GSDI Association’s Outreach & Membership Committee.  Based in Norway, he is the Executive Director, Marketing and Communications for the Open Geospatial Consortium.

An edited version of this article with graphics and/or photos was published in the October 2011 issue of GIM International.