The Geospatial Commission has developed a benchmarking process based on Q-FAIR principles for improving access to location data.
It has created a framework around the principles of making the data findable, accessible, interoperable, re-usable and of the right quality that is fit for purpose (Q-FAIR) – saying it will make better location data available to more people.
Callum Irving, senior data and standards advisor at the Geospatial Commission, said it adopted the principles to help structure and communicate its aims as part of its data improvement programme.
“We went beyond the Q-FAIR acronym to establish requirements and recommendations associated with the Q-FAIR principles which we called the Q-FAIR Framework,” he said in a blogpost.
“This helped us to establish a holistic view of improved data supply from the perspectives of the data itself, the organisation creating the data and the organisations as collective suppliers to the UK.”
He said that applying the framework to the programme provided a benchmark and helped to deliver improvements, including the development licensing principles, a data sharing agreement, metadata standards and a data exploration licence for the commission’s partner bodies.
Clear benefits
“Through the data improvement programme, we saw the clear benefits of using the Q-FAIR Framework as a common language between the Geo6 (the group of partners), the Geospatial Commission and our wider stakeholders,” Irving said.
The commission is now implementing the framework in benchmarking data in business plans, standards and the regulatory framework against the Q-FAIR principles. It is beginning by working with its partner organisations and then plans to build out across the public sector.
Image from iStock, Shomiz
