What are the main challenges and risks of sharing GIS data online?

1 Data quality and accuracy

Ensuring the quality and accuracy of GIS data when sharing it online is a challenge. Data quality refers to completeness, consistency, and reliability, while accuracy refers to how well the data reflects reality. Poor quality and accuracy can lead to inaccurate results and damage the credibility of the data provider. To guarantee data quality and accuracy, you should adhere to best practices such as documenting sources, methods, and limitations; validating and verifying the data before publishing; regularly updating and maintaining the data; and providing mechanisms for users to report errors or suggest improvements.

2 Data security and privacy

Another challenge of sharing GIS data online is protecting the data from unauthorized access, use, or modification. Data security and privacy are especially essential for sensitive or confidential information, such as personal details, health records, or national security. Data breaches can have dire consequences, such as identity theft, fraud, or legal liability. To ensure data security and privacy, you should encrypt the data during transmission and storage, apply access control and authentication mechanisms, comply with relevant laws and regulations, and anonymize or aggregate the data to reduce the risk of re-identification.

3 Data interoperability and compatibility

Ensuring data interoperability and compatibility with different systems and platforms is a third challenge of sharing GIS data online. This refers to the ability of the data to be exchanged, integrated, and processed by different software, hardware, or standards. Without this capability, the usability and value of the data can be diminished, and data management can become more costly and complex. To improve interoperability and compatibility, some best practices can be followed such as adopting common or open data formats, using standard metadata schemas, implementing web services or APIs to facilitate data access and sharing, as well as testing and validating the data across different systems and platforms.

4 Data licensing and ownership

A fourth challenge of sharing GIS data online is defining and respecting the data licensing and ownership rights. These legal and ethical terms and conditions govern the use and distribution of the data, which can affect its availability, accessibility, and reusability. To avoid any issues, you should provide clear and explicit data licenses, such as Creative Commons or Open Data Commons. Additionally, you should acknowledge and cite the data sources and authors, respect the intellectual property and copyright of the data, and seek permission or consent before using or sharing it. Although there are challenges to consider when sharing GIS data online, following these best practices can help you do so with confidence and responsibility. This will bring many benefits, such as enhancing collaboration, innovation, and transparency.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?