Government and business at odds over open data

An Earth observation company has said that it fears losing business because of the Dutch government’s attempts to comply with the European Public Sector Information Directive.

SkyGeo, a university spinout that monitors soil via radar imaging, told Research NL that the Dutch government’s Wet Hergebruik van Overheidsinformatie, a law aimed at making all public-sector data available for free, is bad for business. The Rijkswaterstaat department for public works and water management, which maps the surface height of the Netherlands, has said that it will be publishing and updating its own soil maps and making them available free of charge.

“The Rijkswaterstaat is destroying our business, as many of our customers will soon be able to retrieve the information free of charge from the agency,” says Pieter Bas Leezenberg, SkyGeo’s chief executive. “Furthermore, the danger exists that the Rijkswaterstaat will work with companies from abroad that offer the service cheaper but of lower quality.”