Zorica Nedovic-Budic
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department of Urban and Regional Planning
611 East Lorado Taft Drive
Temple Buell Hall
Champaign, IL 61820
Phone: (217) 244-5402
Fax: (217) 244-1717
E-mail: budic@uiuc.edu
URL: http://www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/budic
Project:
COORDINATING DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION DATABASES
PIs:
Zorica Nedovic-Budic, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Jeff Pinto, Penn State at Erie
Objectives
A substantial amount of research and experience indicates that in spite of governmental calls to the contrary, few public agencies and governments are willing to share geographic information across organization boundaries, leading to substantial duplication and inefficiencies. The primary objective of this research is to formally identify and verify factors and processes influencing sharing of geographic information both with other departments within an organization and between organizations. The project particularly focuses on describing the current practices of sharing, and exploring the behavioral and organizational factors that can facilitate or inhibit the flow of geographic information. It is our further goal to model the decision process by which key actors and decision makers determine whether they will or will not share such information.
Methods
Following an extensive literature review, the researchers will conduct a multiple case study of sharing situations relevant at local and regional level government agencies and other organizations. The sample includes 8-10 multi-organizational setups in which geographic information sytem, data, or both are jointly developed or used. Site visits, interviews and documentation are the main sources of evidence. After the exploration by the case study, in the next research phase we intend to conduct a large-scale mail survey of key respondents and decision makers in local, state, and federal agencies that could benefit from the exchange of information in order to determine what are the key decision
criteria that shape their willingness to share information and to find out which sharing configurations yield greater benefits.
Significance
From the identified factors and processes, our goal is to develop an analytically-based model of information sharing that can predict whether geographic information is likely to be freely and comprehensively shared across organizational boundaries and identify optimal sharing arrangements and conditions. In the cases of non-sharing and wasteful duplication of effort, the model should also identify those technical, economic, insitutional, and social variables that are the most critical in impeding the data and information sharing process. This work is a substantial step toward a realistic and useful model of the information sharing process for agencies that would benefit from information exchange but to date have been loath to make their data available to other parties
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