Geospatial Data Portals and Open Geospatial Data

Data is valuable when used to make better decisions. The true value of data can only be unlocked if it is re-used and shared, not siloed. Data sharing is the process of making the same data resources available to multiple applications, users, or organizations. It improves efficiency within an organization and fosters collaboration with partners and stakeholders, creates new opportunities, contribute to better decisions with positive social impacts. Data sharing includes technologies, practices, legal frameworks, and cultural elements. Governments, NGOs, businesses, and others embrace open data. Open data is free, accessible data that anyone can use for any purpose. It drives increased transparency and accountability, and enables innovative applications and services. Governments and intergovernmental organisations are main providers of open data. Many governments are now mandated to provide open data to their citizens. NGOs have always paid attention to the democratization of data. Many NGOs are producing open data, but they can also be supported by e.g. crowdsourcing. Open research data is a core component of Open Science embraced by academic institutions. Corporations realized that producing open datasets can improve their businesses and public relations. Data portals enable efficient data sharing and management. A data portal is a gateway to data with a core purpose of enabling the rapid discovery and use of data. Along with the essential basic catalog features, modern portals now incorporate an extensive range of functionality for organizing, structuring and presenting data. These include publication workflow and metadata management, interactive exploration, data storage and API for applications and analytics workflows, access control, and data ingestion and transformation. A well implemented data portal goes beyond simple convenience but is a powerful tool in building better overall organisational data governance. Cloud computing platforms facilitate access and use of data. They are accessible through a web browser. Various access interfaces are available (e.g. interactive notebook, remote desktop, terminal). Software is ready to use and up to date. Various computing resources are available on demand (e.g. GPU, large memory, large storage, computing cluster). Shared workspaces allow assets to be shared by groups. Public assets can be shared by all users (e.g. OpenStreetMap, ESA Copernicus, etc.). ITC Geospatial Computing Platform is used by IDEAMAP SUDAN (https://crib.utwente.nl)