Openness and Innovation in Geomatics and Earth Observation
Openness typically refers to transparency, to free and unrestricted access to information, and to inclusive consensus-based decision-making. Organizations are increasingly considering the adoption of open source software and open data. In the geospatial domain, this is no different, and the last few decades have seen significant advances in this regard. Openness has changed the way in which geospatial data is collected, processed, analyzed and visualized. This has led to innovative solutions based on open geospatial technologies. Despite the fact that global political power balances are changing and with looming trade wars some countries are ‘closing up’, in most parts of the world there is currently a strong sentiment towards openness linked to significant scientific activism by citizens, as well as a strong trend by governments towards publishing open data. The question is therefore whether openness will continue into the foreseeable future. How will the concept and practice of openness evolve into the future? How will it be impacted by deep learning, big data and cloud computing developments?