Compass will attend and present at the GeoDATA series of events across Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales through 2010. Our presentations will focus on INSPIRE Clear Steps to Compliance, but we will also demonstrate some of our other solutions including our new spatial video solutions for tagging video with location; our bioenergy and land management systems; and our wide range of geomatics services. See our events page for the GeoData dates.
The following is our presentation abstract:
Clear Steps to INSPIRE Compliance - while gaining real value too!
Gearóid Ó Riain, Manuel Treiber, Ali Robinson, Roger Longhorn
Compass Informatics – www.compassinformatics.eu & inspire.compass.ie
What’s important to know now is the what, when, and how of ensuring compliance with the EU INSPIRE Directive, and also to consider whether we can obtain more value from INSPIRE than simply compliance. Given the changed world we live in we often need to have statutory drivers for much of our work, but also need return on investment beyond that. Add in the maturing of open source technologies and we have a changed world in our technology options too. Finally consider that in many organisations in-house resources are reduced and the importance of external reasonably priced services becomes apparent.
Based on these realities and changes, clear workflows towards compliance have been prepared that are used to guide organisations in developing a work programme that efficiently delivers compliance but also delivers resources that have value across the organisation and when interfacing with external users and clients. These workflows are organised under the headings of Programme Management & Planning; Metadata, Network Services, and Data Services. Programme planning is key to getting it right first time and so emphasis is placed on an initial information audit and systems review, leading to a best-fit INSPIRE compliance work solution. This is then progressed through the other related workflows.
The compliance portfolio that has been formulated by Compass seeks to match each step of the workflows with a solution – the all important ‘how’. The ‘how’ is typically a mix of a human resources and technology solution with emphasis placed on open source options where feasible, although recognising that integration with existing systems has to be part of any best-fit approach. While up to recently, the Compass team have considered many of the open source options as too immature and unreliable as regards long-term product stability, this view has changed greatly. A hybrid approach has been followed in a number of operational systems over the past year or more. This has taken proprietary operating and database systems e.g. Microsoft Windows and SQL Server 2008, and tied them to solutions such as MapServer and GeoServer for network or OGC web services (WMS, WFS, WCS), and GeoNetwork for CSW and INSPIRE-compliant metadata services and editors.
So out of this changing circumstance there comes opportunity – to be compliant with the ‘rules’, to get value beyond those rules, and to do so cost-effectively and reliably.
About INSPIRE
The INSPIRE Directive – Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community – is a legal Directive of the European Council and Parliament setting out the principles, goals and legal requirements for creating a harmonised pan-European SDI spanning all 27 EU Member States.
It introduces common standards for publishing metadata about geospatial data and services; provision of interoperable network services, data harmonisation, data access and sharing principles, and monitoring and reporting the effectiveness of SDI implementation at national and regional levels.
For more see http://inspire.compass.ie where a full resource library is available to all registered users.