Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Major Policy Breakthroughs Announced at Spatial@Gov 2012


The first day of this year’s Spatial@Gov conference saw two major government policy announcements: the establishment of a National Foundation Spatial Data Framework, and the imminent whole-of-government licence of PSMA’s Geocoded National Address File (G-NAF).

The National Foundation Spatial Data Framework defines the ten data themes that form the authoritative geographic data layers that underpin other data and decision making. The policy recognises these as so critical that government will focus its energy and resources on ensuring its authoritative, reliable supply.

The whole-of-government G-NAF licence means that individual departments no longer need to separately get a G-NAF licence, saving a lot of money and greatly extending its potential utilisation. It is my hope that this could extend beyond government as well.