Graeme Blick
Chief Geodesist and Manager National Topographic Office
LINZ, New Zealand

Biography
Graeme Blick is the Chief Geodesist, National Geodetic Office and Manager National Topographic Office of Land Information New Zealand and a member of the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors. Graeme obtained his Bachelor of Surveying from Otago University in 1980. He worked for the then New Zealand Geological Survey (now GNS Science) in their Earth Deformation Section using geodetic techniques to measure, monitor and study crustal deformation across New Zealand. In 1992-1993 he received a visiting Scientist Award to work at the University NAVSTAR Consortium in Boulder Colorado using GPS to measure plate tectonics in Turkey, the South Pacific, and in USA. In 1995 he moved to Land Information New Zealand where he worked for the Office of Surveyor-General before moving to his current position as Chief Geodesist for the National Geodetic Office and Manager for the National Topographic Office. In this role he continues to work on the development and implementation of the geodetic system in New Zealand, while also overseeing the department’s topographic mapping and imagery activities. Graeme is currently the New Zealand Chair for the FIG Commission 5.2 on Reference Frames and Geodesy Examiner for the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors Admissions Panel.

Abstract
LINZ Data Service

The Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) Data Service is a revolution in the way anyone can discover, use and share New Zealand public data. Launched in 2011, it provides free and open access to LINZ’s fundamental geospatial datasets that can be used to create new and improved products, services and insights across business, government and the community.

Datasets freely available through the service include New Zealand topographic, hydrographic, survey, title, street address, and geodetic datasets; essential spatial infrastructure in a world where location-based information is changing the way we work, live and play.

We have made it as easy as possible for people to use, reuse and share this data by licensing it for the widest possible use through a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand licence (CC-BY). This flexible license acknowledges the potential of innovators, business and the public to add value to the data and do much more with it than a single government agency ever could.

The LINZ Data Service was the first standards compliant service established in New Zealand to provide open, free access to government-held public data. Before it was created, LINZ provided its data (used in its own production systems) to third-party companies for re-distribution. They added value to the data then on-sold it as a product. This model created a closed data environment where specific vendors were locked in and data products came at a high cost.

Now, many LINZ customers no longer need to purchase data from third-parties. They can come straight to the LINZ Data Service to get the data they need to integrate into their own services and systems. At the same time, opportunities remain for developers to create value added products for sale.

The LINZ Data Service is built on an open source technology platform developed by Koordinates Ltd and is provided as software as a service. LINZ and Koordinates Ltd operate under a partnership model to support the continued improvement of Koordinates platform while ensuring on-going enhancement of the service to make LINZ data more available and accessible.

The LINZ Data Service is a world leading open data service in terms of accessibility, availability and usability, and sets the benchmark for how Government organisations should be approaching the release of public data for re-use, innovation and enterprise. Its success is testament to the power of open source solutions, and the value of Government-Private business partnerships to develop innovative solutions to the storage, discovery and sharing of geospatial information.