Abstract. The development of spatial data infrastructures is often the victim of an excessive focus on data and standards. In this paper we use the hermeneutics of Gadamer and Habermas to understand the problem of how spatial data infrastructures (SDI) can succeed, both in emergent and developed countries. We use Gadamer's concept of phronesis to show how being an application-driven project is a key for success, and Habermas' view of knowledge to show the importance of emancipatory knowledge (a form of knowledge that combines practical and technical knowledge) in the implementation of SDIs in transitional economies. A case study on a GIS project in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is presented. The project has been continuously evolving for fifteen years, even though it started with a focus on data and standards, and generated a strong and active spatial data infrastructure for the city. The reasons for success were manifold, but we highlight the application-driven nature of the project and the combination of multiple disciplines and multiple levels of expertise (ranging from practical to theoretical) in the team responsible for its design and implementation.
In conventional data envelopment analysis, it is assumed that the input versus output status of any particular performance measure is known. In some situations, finding the status of some variables from the input or output point of view is very difficult; these variables are treated as both inputs and outputs and are called flexible measures. In this paper, using the TOPSIS method, and also using a voting model, the status of such a variable will be determined, and the results obtained will be employed to evaluate the efficiency of homogeneous decision making units. Note that all the models used in this paper are linear programming models and there is no need to solve any integer programming model. The approach is illustrated by an example.
As part ofthe national innovation co-funding seheme 'Space for Geo-inforrnation' (ROl) the project "GeoPortal Network: Liberty United" ran frorn late 2005 until the end of2008. The paper elaborates the stages the project went through; tbc software and IT-architectural developments that teak place; three important spin-offs of the project (Atlas Demonstrator, thc Red Portal and the reuse of components for thc Romanian NSDI); thc institutional aspects that were studied; thc different ways 'Liberty United' has worked in the project; the different levels of engagement and the passing on of lessons learnt into other settings (both of one's employer and national activities related to SDI development). It is conc1uded that GeoPortal Network can be seen more as a catalyst of the process of developing the Dutch SDI, rather than as a project in the usual sense.
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