1Spatial Presented at ePSIplus Thematic Meeting

11 July 2007, 4:23pm

1Spatial participated in the first of three thematic meetings focusing on Information Management Standards and Data Quality for ePSIplus in London.

1Spatial were invited to speak on data quality at the event, with a presentation by Steven Ramage entitled 'Improving Quality for PSI Re-use'. ePSIplus is a Thematic Network, funded by the eContentplus programme, to support the implementation of the European Directive on Public Sector Information (PSI) Re-use, in the period leading up to its review in 2008.

More than 15 Member State representatives from across Europe attended the event. The main objective of the meeting was to gather information from those organisations involved in the public sector across Europe and determine best practice for PSI re-use.

Steven presented case studies from a number of 1Spatial customers in this sector, including AdV Germany, City of Amsterdam, City of Oslo, IGN Belgium, OSNI and the Environment Agency in England and Wales. He covered a number of general issues related to data quality and focussed on spatial data quality since a large percentage of public sector information is geographic in nature; principles from INSPIRE, the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe, also align well with the PSI Directive. He explained some of the challenges faced when aggregating and harmonising spatial data and pointed out the risk management and supply chain considerations when tackling spatial data quality.

Steven Ramage, Business Development Director at 1Spatial, commented:

“It was an honour to speak at such an international gathering. There were some really useful presentations from my co-presenters, such as Mary Rowlatt from Essex County Council and Serge Brack from the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. There is a great deal of awareness still required in this area and extensive work to be done in determining fitness for purpose for spatial data sets, as well as other sources of public sector information.”

Brian Green, ePSIplus Analyst responsible for Management, Standards and Data Quality, added:

"We are grateful to 1Spatial for an important and meaty contribution to this lively and valuable meeting. Steven emphasised the key role of geographic data in the potential re-use of public sector information and the importance of data quality, providing many helpful pointers, case studies and references."

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