Special Report

Special Report (Vol. 43)

  • 2019-01-15
  • You Chanyong

Special Report Vol. 43 (2018)

RESEARCH ON PROPOSING OPEN SOURCE GEOSPATIAL POLICY IN ORDER TO IMPROVE GLOBAL GEOSPATIAL COMPETITIVENESS


Chapter I. Background and objectives of the research

1. Growing importance of open source technologies in the era of “participation”and “sharing”

2. Objective of research: to propose open source geospatial policies to cope with the technology environment characterized by participation and openness


Chapter II. How do open sources contribute to the global geospatial competitiveness?

1. Open source geospatial softwares

2. Competitiveness of open source geospatial data

3. Open source gives advantages to venture firms and SMEs in improving the global competitiveness of geospatial data

Chapter III. Policies and trends of the open source geospatial data market

1. Trends of the open source geospatial data market : Korea and overseas

2. Open source geospatial policies at home and abroad

3. Implications

Chapter IV. Analysis of geospatial data software companies; technology ownership and market participation

1. Characteristics of the geospatial data software sector

2. Status of geospatial data software companies; technology ownership and market participation

3. Korea’s contribution to the global open source communities

4. Implications


Chapter V. Introduction of the open source geospatial policy

1. Considerations

2. Open source geospatial policy(proposal)

3. Step-by step introduction

Chapter VI. Conclusion

1. Summary

2. Policy Proposals

3. Limitations and future tasks of research


References



Summary

In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution which is characterized by ‘participation’ and

‘sharing’ more than ever, open source is gaining greater importance in the technology

industry. Open source technologies available to users for free, accelerates the

development of new technologies based on it in a short period of time, so it is drawing

greater attention as a solution to help small and medium-sized companies lacking source

technologies narrow a technology gap with global market leading companies. This study

proposes open source geospatial policies for the purpose of innovating the national

geospatial policy of Korea so as to cope with the changing environment relating to open

source.


Research findings on relevant policies and companies show that open source markets

are growing fast at home and abroad, but Korea is lagging behind on both the

government’s policies and businesses’ efforts to keep up with them. In surveys and

interview conducted on companies in geospatial software industry, 91.2% of them

called for government support on open source geospatial policy, however it had not

been provided any government policies related to open source for geospatial in reality.

More than 77% of the companies which developed geospatial software including SI

had not taken a open source license compliance test and hence it could be resulted in

a potential risk for them, such as legal disputes associated with non-compliance with

licenses. Moreover, it was a low level that contribution from Korean geospatial society in

technology development activities going on in the global open source communities such

as OSGeo.


The global open source market is expected to grow by 15.2% per year according to a

forecast of National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA ) of Korea. Countries such as

the European Union, the US , Chile and Mongolia are encouraging open source geospatial

policy with various reasons, for instance, to reduce costs and to make strengthen

their national technology competitiveness. Open source geospatial policy should be

introduced also to Korea so that Korean companies can cut technology dependence on

foreign companies and acquire core manpower on technology. In particular, this study

proposes four action policies in order to enable domestic geospatial companies with low

overseas presence to promote their global recognition and lead into development of

high quality open source technologies armed with strong market competitiveness.


Build an ‘open source geospatial policy’ in consideration of the fact that Korean

government already has put in place the 「National Geospatial Data Infrastructure Act」

and a governmental organization dedicated to national geospatial policy.

❶ Build an ‘open source geospatial policy’ in consideration of the fact that Korean

government already has put in place the 「National Geospatial Data Infrastructure

Act」 and a governmental organization dedicated to national geospatial policy.

❷ Implement policies to develop and support open source geospatial technologies, such

as converting the government's R&D outputs into open technologies and expanding

the proportion of R&D for open source in geospatial fields.

❸ Develop open source technologies and cultivate core manpower (advanced

developers, etc.).

❹ E ndorse compliance test of open source license mandatory when introducing

technologies to the public sector.

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