Within information societies

MY research

Current research interests

My current research interests are:

The role of information policies in the development of Geographic Information Infrastructures
Location Privacy
Land Registration Throughout Europe

The role of information policies in the development of Geographic Information Infrastructures

Within information societies, information availability is a key issue affecting society’s well being. The infrastructure underlying the foundation of the information society may be referred to as the information infrastructure. A geographic information infrastructure (GII) supports the information infrastructure with regard to geographic information. A GII facilitates the availability of and access to geographic information for all levels of government, the commercial sector, the non-profit sector, academia and citizens in general (see Onsrud 1998). It encompasses the policies, organizational remits, information, technologies, standards, delivery mechanisms and financial and human resources necessary to ensure that those working at the local, national, regional or global scale are not impeded in meeting their objectives (GSDI 1997). Within the context of a GII access-to-government-information policies are important for the availability and successful use of the information, and the success of the GII itself. However, few access policy researches have been executed from the perspective of GII development. This PhD research has evolved around the following question:

What is the role of access policies in the development of a geographic information infrastructure (GII)?

Government has an important role in GII development. It is both provider and user of geographic information, and in many instances government agencies lead GII development. Especially in its role as provider of geographic information, government may both decide what information is collected and through its access policies determine the extent to which a dataset can be used.

Two access doctrines are dominant in the literature: open access policies and cost recovery policies. The open access approach assumes that government information is available for a price not exceeding the cost of reproduction and distribution, with as few restrictions in the use as possible. In the cost recovery approach, the price of government information covers at least the cost of creation and dissemination, and may include a return on investment. The use of the information is restricted and government may even choose to have exclusive arrangements. Many researches have compared open access policies with the cost recovery model. Most studies compare the open information policies of the federal U.S. government with the restrictive policies of European countries and conclude that the open access policies of the federal United States should be implemented in other countries because it may lead to significant macro-economic benefits. However, few of the access policy researches have been executed from the perspective of GII development. Accomplished research on government access policy has not, or only briefly addressed the impact of an access policy on the quality of a dataset. Most research in comparing access policies ignore differences in scale in both datasets and economies, and most do not specify between specific user groups, making these researches less useful than currently acknowledged. Since it is crucial for the development of a GII to understand the role information policies may have on the information qualities in general and on the GII more specifically, this study has researched access policies from the perspective of the development of the GII. It provides policy makers paving the strategy for GII development guidelines about which access policy should be in place in order to promote the use of geographic information and to develop the GII so that the GII can perform the infrastructural function it needs to have in the information society.

Location Privacy

It is increasingly possible to determine the place and time of the whereabouts of persons using mobile phones and other terminal equipment as part of location based services (LBS). The desire for a safe and secure society has to be balanced with these technological possibilities, which calls for a rethinking of ‘location privacy´. In this research project, the extent of the right to location privacy in relation to the national security needs to know people’s whereabouts will be highlighted in the context of the interpretation and implementation of article 15 EU Directive 2002/58. Through the development of a decision support model, different legal and technological options were presented and compared to balance the needs of location privacy with those of the (national) security sector.

Publications on this Location privacy project

Land Registration Throughout Europe

An increase in cross-border transactions of immovable property within the European Union puts a demand for easy access to the information of the national land administrations of the member states. The European Union Land Information Service (EULIS) project brings together the registrations of eight European jurisdictions in one portal. In this way it provides cross-border access to information about the rights on real estate, using the information in the computerized databases of the participating land registries. The EULIS project is the first step towards a more transparent system of real estate transactions. The next logical step, from the viewpoint of international accessibility of the information, is that the national land registries within the united Europe will be harmonized or even integrated in one European land registry or administration. In order to promote cross-border transactions and to facilitate the European mortgage market a new common way of land registration is required, in addition to the existing national land registrations: the EuroTitle system. This is a challenging concept, which may bring the required uniformity of land registration in Europe. This approach is in the beginning stages of development and the legal and organisational consequences need to be further explored and developed in order to assess the feasibility of the introduction of such a concept in European land registry.

Master students supervised

Pieter de Graaf (2006). GIMA thesis: "The relation of digital exchangeable spatial plans with geographic information infrastructure within Dutch municipal organisations"

Anouk van Zijp (2008). Geomatics thesis: "DE INVLOED VAN ORGANISATIE EN CULTUUR OP EEN GEO-INFORMATIE INFRASTRUCTUUR"

Niek Goorman (2010). GIMA thesis: ""

Erica Black (2010). GIMA thesis: ""