Speech by Colin MacDonald to 2nd Annual GIS Summit

25 June 2009

LINZ Chief Executive Colin MacDonald gave the opening address at the 2nd Annual Geospatial Information System (GIS) Summit on 22 June. The focus of his speech was LINZ's commitment to taking a leadership role in geospatial information.

Colin emphasised the value of geospatial information and the potential gains it has to offer businesses and everyday New Zealanders. He also highlighted the need for a concerted effort across the geospatial community to capture these opportunities.

The summit had a theme of "Advancing the Role and Use of GIS through Innovative Applications and Collaborative Working.” Other speakers from local government, research organisations, utility companies, consulting firms, and emergency services provided a range of case studies and perspectives.

Presentation by Colin MacDonald, Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) at the 2nd Annual GIS Summit

Monday 22 June 2009, Wellington

Thanks for that introduction and for the invitation to talk with you today. I’m not a geospatial expert however I do have a background of working with technology in business and government and I’m very excited about the opportunities geospatial information offers to make a real difference in people’s lives.

In my talk today you will hear me cover the following things:

You will hear me suggest that now is a time of real opportunity to realise the value and potential of geospatial information in New Zealand.

And you will hear me describe seven high level activities that I believe are needed to capture these opportunities. These are shown on the slide and include:

• leadership
• awareness of the benefits of geospatial information
• cooperation and collaboration
• accessibility and affordability of datasets
• research and development, and global knowledge
• skills and education
• funding.

As I move through these seven areas, you will hear me describe some of the things LINZ is doing (and planning on doing) in each of them. In doing this, I intend to show that LINZ is taking a more active leadership role in the geospatial arena, and that this needs to form part of a concerted effort across the geospatial community.

So, why is a concerted effort necessary?

I am sure you are converts to the power of Geospatial Information.

• You know that better and more accessible geospatial data enables better decision making, creates opportunities for the private sector to add value, and can lead to better services.
• You know that technology has advanced to a point where technology is not the main barrier.
• And you know that New Zealand has some good achievements in the geospatial arena.

For example, we can be proud of our efforts to develop a digital cadastral data base and with the development of Landonline. In February this year the final 100% e-lodgement phase came on stream for Landonline which means that electronic lodgement of property dealings and plans is now business as usual for solicitors and surveyors in New Zealand.

The annual World Bank “Doing Business” publication uses several indicators to assess how a country’s regulatory framework provides an efficient and effective environment for doing business. One of those indicators is property registration. For the last three years New Zealand has consistently ranked in the top three of over 150 countries for property registration in this World Bank publication. This is a significant external endorsement of the success of Landonline.

These are important successes. However, after nearly 12 months as Chief Executive of LINZ I also realise we have to face some stark realities.

Without some concerted action in the geospatial arena, we risk missing out on some important, national opportunities. These are opportunities around industry growth and exports, and around productivity and efficiency across a range of domains.

The opportunities hinge on improving the access, availability and integration of important datasets. The opportunities require a range of actions from across the geospatial sector, and, importantly, require strong leadership from LINZ.

I have heard loud and clear the views about LINZ taking a more active role in the geospatial arena. However, I want to make the point that prior to 1 July 2008 when I took up my appointment, this was not within LINZ’s mandate. However, under the terms of my appointment, I have an agreement with government that this will be an area of priority for LINZ.

I will now describe seven high level activities that I believe are needed to capture the opportunities that geospatial information presents for New Zealand.

In many cases this is occurring in collaboration with many of you and your agencies, so we are already on this journey together.

Leadership

Strong leadership is needed and is a priority area for me as Chief Executive of LINZ.

LINZ’s new Statement of Intent for 2009–2012 was published in late-May 2009 and reflects our intentions in this area. It commits LINZ to a new end outcome for Federated Geospatial Information. This aligns with the goals of the Geospatial Strategy, which are:

• Governance: Effective governance arrangements support the management, development and access to our national geospatial information.
• Interoperability: Geospatial datasets, services and systems owned by different government agencies and local government can be easily combined and re-used for multiple purposes.
• Access: Government geospatial information and services can be readily discovered, appraised and accessed.
• Data: Priority geospatial datasets are captured, preserved and maintained.

Users of government information need to be able to take the reliability and fitness for purpose of certain kinds of information for granted. In addition a greater range of users are demanding better access to the geospatial data that underpins government products and services. At present it is not always easy for end users to discover or access the underlying data. Under a LINZ end outcome for Authoritative Land Information, we will work on our processes, resources and systems for data collection, regulation, maintenance and provision to enable and encourage greater access to our data. With a better understanding of common user requirements, it may make sense for LINZ to undertake some additional work at source so that data can be used for a wider range of applications.

As an example of this, LINZ has recently researched a proposal to upgrade the PositioNZ geodetic stations throughout New Zealand to real time status. Data will be provided to private company service providers for provision of real time, 2 centimetre accurate positioning. An economics report LINZ commissioned states there are significant benefits from such accurate real time positioning, particularly in applications for construction and utility services.

To give emphasis to LINZ’s leadership role, and ensure that geospatial is firmly integrated in the department’s strategy, I have chosen to align the New Zealand Geospatial Office with the organisational strategy function in the new LINZ structure.

In addition to this, discussions with the government have confirmed that LINZ’s leadership of the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy and a national spatial data infrastructure (SDI) is one of the top 3 ministerial priorities in the land information portfolio.

Another important element to leadership is to ensure that we have a critical mass of agencies pulling together to champion the geospatial agenda within government. To assist with this, I instituted a review of the governance structure associated with the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy. As a result, the Geospatial Executives Group has a reduced number of members from around 18 to 20 previously, which was, to say the least, unwieldy. The group is now based on sector representation and focused on strategic direction. Sector members rotate. For example, the CE of the Ministry for the Environment takes over from the CE of the Conservation Department after two years as the environmental sector representative.

I am Chair of the Group, and other members include the CEs of Conservation, Statistics, Fire Service, Research, Science and Technology, the Auckland Regional Council and the Vice Chief of the Defence Force.

A Geospatial Steering Committee is being formed in place of the existing Geospatial Advisory Committee. This change will also include a reduced number of committee members. The committee will provide collective leadership to develop, steer and evaluate the Strategy work programme.

A new position has also been advertised to head the New Zealand Geospatial Office. The working title for the position is “Geospatial Custodian”. This role:

• is the working champion of the Geospatial Strategy and will head the Geospatial Office
• is the day-to-day business owner of the Strategy, responsible for its management, maintenance and improvement within approved scope, timescales and budget
• ensures that the geospatial industry and regional and local government are kept well informed and engage with the Strategy where appropriate.

Awareness

The next area is awareness. A wider understanding of the benefits and importance of geospatial information is critical – not because of what geospatial information is, but because of what it can do. So our messages need to sell geospatial information not as a “thing” in its own right, but as an “enabler”.

It is important that the geospatial story has a very firm basis. LINZ has provided most of the funding for a study to estimate the value of spatial information to the New Zealand economy (with some funding coming from the Ministry for Economic Development and the Department of Conservation). A report is being prepared by ACIL Tasman (who undertook a similar study in Australia), SKM (from Wellington) and Ecology Associates (from Auckland).

Final results are due at the end of the month however preliminary results indicate that spatial information adds at least $1 billion a year to New Zealand’s economy through productivity improvements. The quantifiable historical measure is at least 0.5% of Real GDP which is similar to the Australian study.

In addition, by investing in making geospatial data more accessible and reducing access charges, the potential exists to boost the economy by an extra $500 million a year. These figures are based on fairly conservative estimates.

Communicating these findings and the wider benefits of geospatial information will form part of a project that LINZ is leading around communications. This will look to craft the key messages for important audience groups. It is important, particularly for those at a senior level, to understand the succinct ‘why’ of geospatial, the value proposition, or in other words, the elevator pitch.

When talking with people across the geospatial community, I often hear them being frustrated that key decision makers ‘just don’t get it’, they ‘just don’t understand’ when it comes to how important geospatial information is. But I would ask - whose problem is that – and who needs to solve that problem? We need to make sure we communicate the right messages to the right people in the right way. The communications project will help in this regard, but it is a job for everyone in the geospatial community to think about how we frame the opportunities.

Both of these projects are on the work programme of the New Zealand Geospatial Strategy. The economics project in particular will help shape the next stage of the work programme.

Cooperation & collaboration

The third element I want to talk about is cooperation. A culture of cooperation is a crucial element of success in the geospatial sector. We still need to see much greater cooperation between central government, territory authorities, industry and academia.

It is very positive to see a New Zealand chapter of the Spatial Industry Business Association (SIBA) being established. Having a coordinated industry voice to work with central and local government and the wider business community is important. I have met with the Chairman of the local chapter and look forward to an ongoing and productive relationship with SIBA.

Another important sector is Local Government. There is an opportunity to develop more effective engagement with Local Government both from the perspective of the Geospatial Strategy and from more general central government activity.

As a small example of this, LINZ is working, principally with local government, to collate and publish details of what high resolution elevation data (mainly using Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) technology) has been collected, and is planned to be collected throughout the country.

I am encouraged by the general willingness of the various players in the geospatial sector to work together. This is positive, as the more we can agree on our top priorities at a national level, the more traction we can make. It is important to remember that none of us can do this alone.

Accessibility & affordability of key datasets

The fourth component I want to mention relates to key datasets. There is a need to agree on what the fundamental datasets are and to work through the arrangements around content, acquisition, maintenance and sharing (integration).

A project is underway as part of the Geospatial Strategy work programme to develop a live inventory of datasets. This needs to be supported with a programme that identifies priority data and any gaps.

Access and pricing policies that support the goals of the Geospatial Strategy are basic building blocks. Some work is underway with the State Services Commission in this respect under the umbrella of their Open Government Information and Data Re-use project. The outcome of this work is expected to be a commitment from government to more open access to non-personal government information. Greater use of simple, on-line creative commons licenses is likely.

LINZ is giving new emphasis to access to our data, as part of working toward the outcome of Authoritative Land Information. Where there are common requests from users, there may be instances where LINZ could make changes to our data to better meet user needs.

As you know, standards have an integral part to play in making data more easily accessible. LINZ has funded project work on defining government’s role in the coordination of geospatial data standards which will form the basis of a report to the Geospatial Executives’ Group. The great thing about standards is we have lots of them! However this creates a need for communications and coordination, to help with their uptake and adoption.

Again this project is one from the Geospatial Strategy work programme.

Research & development, & global knowledge

Global knowledge is the fifth area I want to mention. It is vital to tap into international work in the geospatial sector. New Zealand needs to contribute to (as resources allow) and benefit from important knowledge networks, as we are too small to have the scale in some areas and we don’t want to reinvent any wheels. Having said that, being small can have benefits in terms of being agile and responding to needs innovatively in a short timeframe, and we have work happening in New Zealand that is of interest internationally.

To help identify opportunities here, in July I will be visiting the UK and sharing aspects of New Zealand’s experience related to geospatial information as well as finding out where we might learn from others’ experiences.

Closer to home, Australia is an important partner for us in respect to knowledge sharing. Last week I presented at the spatial@gov conference in Canberra which had over 340 attendees. I stressed how important it is that the geospatial communities of Australia and New Zealand work closely together for mutual gain. As part of this, we are exploring options to enable New Zealand to participate more closely in the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRC-SI) programme.

In early July I will be representing New Zealand at a meeting of the Australia New Zealand Land Information Council (ANZLIC) in Sydney. One concept that ANZLIC is exploring is an Australia New Zealand Spatial Market Place, with the aim of making it easier to discover, access and transact with geospatial information. This concept is very much in alignment with the commitment from both the New Zealand and Australian governments to the idea of a Single Economic Market (SEM).

Another important ANZLIC initiative is the recent development of a standalone metadata entry tool which uses the ANZLIC metadata profile. This tool was launched at the spatial@gov conference last week and is freely available for download from the ANZLIC website by the regional geospatial community. A series of workshops on the tool and the ANZLIC metadata profile will be run in Australia and New Zealand during July and August. LINZ is coordinating the New Zealand workshops which are planned for Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland in early August.

Skills & education

The sixth area of importance relates to skills and education. Without a skilled and knowledgeable geospatial workforce, it will be difficult to achieve the goals that we are striving for.

It is positive to see tertiary institutions adapting programs to help meet the sector’s needs. There is an extramural Postgraduate Diploma in GIS available through Massey University. And starting in 2010, Auckland University will be offering a badged Postgraduate Diploma in Geographic Information Science. In addition, the Tertiary Education Commission is providing some funding to investigate a collaborative option through four universities (Auckland, Victoria, Canterbury and Otago) for a Masters Degree in Geographic Information Science.

It is also pleasing to hear that a GIS Education Web-Portal Group is being formed as an initiative from Eagle Technology. The initiative aims to make GIS widely accessible to all schools in New Zealand. Involvement will include school teachers, universities, government agencies, industry and professional industry bodies such as the Spatial Sciences Institute. So there are some positive signs in the education sector and I will be looking to see what I can do to support this progress.

Funding

The final area relates to funding. Now of course this is a challenge in the current economic environment - but part of our collective challenge is to ensure that we have a clear proposition for geospatial and use it to drive an appropriate level of investment in this area. The economics project that I have already mentioned is an important part of this, as is engaging ministers and ensuring they are clear on the opportunities presented by geospatial information.

The GEG group provides an important collective voice that can champion geospatial issues at senior levels, and I will be looking for more opportunities to foster this collaborative leadership.

But all of us have a role to play – we need to frame discussion in terms of business benefits and benefits to citizens. As I mentioned earlier, geospatial information is not an end in itself and when it comes to realizing the benefits, we need to under-promise and over-deliver.

Summary

In summary I want to repeat that as Chief Executive of Land Information New Zealand I am committed to actions in the geospatial area.

The key messages I want to leave with you are that:

• now is a time of real opportunity to realise the value and potential of geospatial information
• concerted effort is required across the geospatial community
• LINZ will take a more active leadership role in the geospatial area.

I believe the future for geospatial information is exciting. And I want to acknowledge before I close that many of you in this room will have been working towards this future for many years. I would like to thank you for your efforts to date. Your knowledge, expertise and enthusiasm are absolutely vital to our shared success and I look forward to working with you on the opportunities (and challenges) in the geospatial area in the future.

Thank you for the chance to talk to you today and I wish you every success for the remainder of the 2nd Annual GIS Summit.

Media enquiries: Dionne Barton, Land Information New Zealand, phone +64 4 460 2718, mobile +64 27 444 4223, email media@linz.govt.nz.