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New challenges in development of NSDI in Croatia

Synergy of different initiatives and activities concerned with improvement of the existing national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) in Croatia resulted in 2007 in enforcement of a new Law on State Survey and the Real Estate Cadastre (OG no. 16/2007), in which a separate section deals with the NSDI, which is in this way legally defined (Cetl et al. 2009a). NSDI is defined as a set of measurements, standards, specifications and services which, within the framework of establishing e-government, aim at enabling effective gathering, managing, exchange and usage of georeferenced spatial data. The Law gives definition of NSDI and metadata, content of metadata information, services, NSDI data and subjects that are obliged to participate in its establishment and maintenance, and what is very important gives institutional framework and defines NSDI bodies and their responsibilities (Cetl et al. 2009b). It is to be stressed that at the time the Law was being drawn, the INSPIRE directive was in its final phase, so it was used in the draw-up. Result is a high compatibility between the Law and the INSPIRE directive (Bačić et al. 2008). NSDI development is a very complex task. It is a joint effort involving stakeholders from different governmental levels, the private sector, academia and the ordinary users. Individuals or groups may each play a single but different role or take on multiple roles. It is very important to engage all stakeholders in a development process. Based on the mentioned Law, in 2007 NSDI Council and NSDI Committee have been established. During 2008 two working groups were created: a WG for NSDI technical standards and a WG for spatial data sharing policies. At the end of 2009 three new working groups were created: WG for building the NSDI establishment capacities, WG for linking the NSDI program and e-Government and WG for establishing a business model for the NSDI (Bačić and Rašić 2009). So far it is obvious that in Croatia a good NSDI organizational framework has been established based on an efficient strategy (Cetl et al. 2009c), but now we have to face with some new challenges. Most of people believe that technical issues in NSDI development have already been overcome and that is mostly correct. Real obstacles are political and financial issues as well as lack of capacity. One of the biggest problems is data sharing. Unfortunately the culture of sharing data and information especially of spatial nature in Croatia is at very low level. Actually there is no tradition in licensing at all, unlike in the other EU countries. In the long term practice data was sold as it is, for the fixed price as any other goods without control of further use/abuse. There is a Law on the Right of Access to Information (OG no. 172/03) but it can be just partly applied only to public spatial data. For now even in state bodies there are no efficient arrangements for spatial data sharing. Although State Geodetic Administration (SGA) is a state body, in practice we have situation that other state bodies have to pay a full costs for SGA's spatial data not just the costs of delivery. Is it the right way? The mission of WG for spatial data sharing policies is to create a policy, to define a term of uses and to provide a customizable license model (template) regardless to the fact whether a data is free of charge or prised. They have to coordinate and conduct the development and maintenance of an interoperable and customizable license model which will ease the sharing and reuse of spatial data across NSDI subjects and whole Croatian geospatial community with full respect of intellectual property rights. The general agreement will be offered to all subjects who are, according to the national law, obliged to participate in the establishment and maintenance of the NSDI. The main purpose of this agreement is to set in advance an unambiguously terminology, minimum rights and obligations and terms of uses. The approach will be in line with INSPIRE and implementing rules for data sharing The second major challenge is an efficient business model that will support sustainable NSDI. Development and the move from the 1st-generation to 2nd-generation NSDI mark its ability to stimulate productivity and the spatial data and service market, to achieve benefits and contribute to the overall society welfare. The key word here is building of partnerships. Partnerships are formed to create business consortia to develop specific data products or services for users, by adopting a focussed approach to NSDI development. The main task of WG for establishing a business model is to build partnerships of three different groups: infrastructure management, content management and sales management which will be the basis for creating a business model. Of course, this work has to be closely coordinated with WG for spatial data sharing policies. Last but not least is a capacity building which is a task of WG for building the NSDI establishment capacities. Implementation of a NSDI is a process of organisational change management. From this point of view, capacity building includes not just improvement of human potential but also organizational changes and social transformation in general. This work will present current activities and some concrete results of three WGs in Croatian NSDI: WG for spatial data sharing policies, WG for establishing a business model and WG for building the NSDI establishment capacities.

NSDI; Croatia; data sharing; business model; capacity building

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