The MetroGIS Policy Board adopted a Resolution of Support for Free and Open Public Geospatial Data in October, 2013 and are advancing their recommendation and supporting research to the governments in their Seven County Metropolitan region (Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area).
The MetroGIS Data Producers Work Group identified benefits to a County Government in making its data open and freely available:
- Transparency of government and improved public service;
- Better use of county staff time and resources;
- Fostering entrepreneurship and open development;
- The authoritative data becomes the default ‘norm’;
- Pro-actively meeting demand for data;
- Indirect benefits and “thinking beyond the horizon”.
MetroGIS is a voluntary collaboration of organizations in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area that use geographic information systems technology to carry out their business functions.
MetroGIS’s primary purpose is to promote and facilitate widespread sharing of commonly needed geospatial data and information among organizations that serve the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Area. More specifically, the goal is to institutionalize sharing of accurate and reliable geospatial data and information so that MetroGIS’s data user and producer communities can both share in the efficiencies of users being able to effortlessly obtain data needed from others, in the form needed, and when it is needed.