1. Availability 

Location information generated by the WA public sector is released with the WA Whole of Government Open Data Policy principles in mind. This can be achieved by Data Custodians:

• publishing Open Data to the Data WA catalogue
• publishing suitable geospatial data to the Shared Location Information Platform (SLIP)
• publishing data to their own site and making it discoverable by linking to the Data WA catalogue

See Options for making data discoverable in Data WA for details.

Info: Before sharing data agencies should classify their data in accordance with the WA Information Classification Policy to understand the sensitivity and risk of sharing their data assets. Agencies can then apply appropriate controls including own specific legislative provisions relating to the release of data and information. Classifications should be re-assessed prior to data release, to account for the context of the release, and clear information classification labels applied. 

2. Discoverability

The first step in using data is finding it. A lot of time can be spent searching for information - whether data is openly available or access needs to be discussed, better discoverability reduces the effort (and cost) involved. Data custodians can improve the discoverability of their data by:

• providing linkable, machine-readable metadata at the right level for the intended audience 
• publishing metadata on Data WA
• arranging for metadata published in their own portal to be harvested into Data WA.

Tip: ANZLIC (the Spatial Information Council) provide guidance and resources to assist in the implementation of the endorsed metadata standard, AS/NZS ISO 19115.1:2015 - geographic information. 

3. Accessibility

Once the user finds the required dataset, they need to know how it can be accessed. This can be achieved by:

• direct, open access in a machine-readable format
• providing a clear pathway to request access if it is not open
• details on where the location information can be found (if direct access is not possible).

Resources to support data accessibility are available from the Help Centre.

4. Interoperability

Interoperability is the ability to access and process data from multiple sources without losing meaning, and then integrate that data for mapping, visualization, and other forms of representation and analysis.

Capturing data and metadata according to shared data standards allows multiple datasets to be compared or combined without losing meaning.

By providing data and metadata in commonly used, machine-readable formats, it can more easily be integrated with other datasets in a variety of applications. Data custodians are encouraged to use non-proprietary formats e.g. the Open Geospatial Consortium standards.

5. Coordinated capture

The Capture WA program allows Western Australian State and Local Government to collaboratively request and access location data to improve efficiency and avoid duplication. In essence, the program relies on a ‘capture once, use many’ principle.

The program coordinates the capture and sharing of different types of location information from across WA - from aerial and satellite imagery, to LiDAR, DEMs, cadastral, topographic data, and more.

Members of the public sector are strongly encouraged to submit their capture needs to the program, to boost coordinated capture opportunities across the state.

6. Licensing

When location information products are made available, they need to be done so under licence, to the extent they are protected by copyright. The data custodian is responsible for determining and applying the appropriate licence. Where possible, Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) is preferred as it promotes maximum reuse of data. CC BY is one of a number of licences in the Creative Commons licensing suite.

Please refer to Licensing options for in formation on applying licensing to datasets discoverable via Data WA.

7. Pricing

It is preferable, but not always possible, that location information be released at no/low cost. A range of circumstances are relevant to different data custodians, such as:

• legislative, contestability, competitive neutrality considerations
• customisation, extraction, and service costs.

Therefore, it is not practical to establish a uniform approach to pricing. Instead, each data custodian is encouraged to make the rationale and methodology behind their pricing decision transparent and available to data consumers.

WA Government Policies

• WA Whole of Government Open Data Policy
• WA Information Classification Policy: provides a common language for agencies to identify risks and apply appropriate security controls to protect, store and share their information assets. 
• Interoperability Policy: ensuring that systems across the public sector can seamlessly interact, exchange data and share functions and resources. 
• WA Government Cyber Security Policy: specifies the measures WA Government agencies are required to undertake to manage their cyber security risks.