In 2017 I wrote about a paper that documented the value of open data released by Transport for London (TfL).  The analysis revealed that the opening up of data by TfL has generated approximately £130 million for the London economy.

It’s perhaps not too surprising that the British government are aiming to open up more data to be developed upon.  They recently announced the release of key parts of the Ordnance Survey MasterMap to the public, with initial estimates that this move will boost the UK economy by a suspiciously similar £130m per year.

Such figures highlight the huge potential value of geospatial data, especially as technologies like driverless cars and drones begin to enter more widespread usage.  The importance of this unsung data was highlighted by a recent report from the Open Data Institute.

The report suggests that geospatial data generates around $400bn in revenue globally, whilst also saving $550bn worth of time and driving $1.2bn in indirect sales. In the EU, the benefits of the European-wide geospatial data infrastructure INSPIRE is penned at up to €1.15bn per year.  Big numbers, but these are only likely to increase as commercial players have a growing role.

“One of the most important trends being felt by governments and public sector geospatial data stewards (those who collect, maintain and share data) is the increasingly large role played by commercial and community organisations in the same space – that is, also as collectors and aggregators of geospatial data,” the authors say.

Making data available

Of course, just as many would like to see this value spread across society, many companies are also all too well aware of the value their data has, but are rather less keen to share it.  So whilst governments are increasingly bought into the value of sharing geospatial data, the real challenge is in encouraging companies to do the same.

A number of technological advances have emerged in recent years that heavily utilize geospatial data, from satellites and LIDAR systems, to IoT and other GPS-enabled devices. What’s more, technologies such as machine learning and computer vision are making it easier and more effective to extract insights from these datasets.

“These technological advances have made it possible for commercial organisations to collect geospatial data at a scale previously reserved for national mapping agencies and to analyse those datasets in novel ways,” the authors say. “This has meant they can create innovative geospatial products and services, which in many cases, rival those offered by national mapping agencies and public sector bodies.”

Indeed, many of the commercial datasets owned by the likes of Garmin and Uber exceed those stewarded by public bodies, both in terms of their breadth and depth. The value of opening this data up is especially great in areas such as transport, where city planners can utilize it to understand travel patterns and restructure cities accordingly. A good example of this in action is Strava Metro, which aims to give city planners access to data around cycling routes undertaken in their cities.

Uber Movement is a similar resource that offers aggregated journey data from its drivers. These two examples highlight both the potential and the challenges however, as whereas Uber Movement is freely available, Strava Metro is a service that requires a subscription to access.

The challenge is even greater in areas such as mapping, where companies like Google have a huge lead in the quality and breadth of geospatial data that sits behind Google Maps, Street View, Waze and Waymo products.

Rich datasets

As with so much other data, geospatial data is especially valuable when it’s combined with other data types.  For instance, data about location can be mixed with other sources to provide new ways of analyzing and viewing data from other sources.

The report suggests that the general public are generally happy for their data to be mixed in this way, providing their privacy is maintained, and they retain an overall degree of control over when and how their data is being used.

“People are more willing to share data about them if they understand how it will be used. If individuals become unwilling to share location data, then this will impact the ability for that data to be used in ways that create economic and social benefits,” the authors say. “When aggregated, information about people’s movements can help to improve quality of maps, inform transport and mobility policy or increase road safety.”

They believe that an open geospatial data ecosystem is generally beneficial, but does create challenges in terms of sustainable stewardshop and long-term access to data assets, but this is a challenge that is not unique to geospatial data. The report highlights a number of possible business models to ensure this occurs, but also identifies the very real risk that such is the value of data to businesses, that their capabilities will rapidly outstrip those of national bodies.

As such, even if attempts were made to build open data repositories, commercial operators could invest their considerable resources into building their own, closed data sources that are more uniquely tailored to the needs of their customers. To prevent this happening, the authors urge a number of things to occur, including investing in open data infrastructure, making sure data is openly available, providing support to startups to help them utilize open data, and to utilize legislation to encourage commercial operators to open up their data sources.

Whether that happens obviously remains to be seen, but the report is a valuable contribution to what is an increasingly important area.