Canada Releases Updated Guide for the Dissemination of Government Geo-data

Date: 17 December 2008

GeoConnections, a Canadian federally-funded programme, released Version 2 of The Dissemination of Government Geographic Data in Canada - Guide to Best Practices on 26 November 2008.

GeoConnections aims to link location-based information using the internet to develop, support and deliver the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure. They are considered leaders in the dissemination of geospatial data.

Version 1 of the Guide to Best Practices set out an integrated framework for what was then recommended as constituting the three types of geographic data dissemination and licensing models most commonly used in Canada, to be used for the purposes of licensing government geographic data.

The updated version enhances the initial version in several ways:

• it expands the types of licensing templates commonly used in Canada
• it reflects the rapid development and technological advances in web-based services, distributed computing and other user applications. It also accommodates changes in government data dissemination policy, and
• it offers standard legal clauses that allow customised data-licensing agreements.

For more information, including downloads of the updated Guide to Best Practices and an executive summary, visit the GeoConnections website.