Vienna: 21 December 2009

The Austrian Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen (Bev) (Federal Office of Metrology and Surveying) has announced the publication of the materials from the Austrian National workshop on Address registers that was held in Vienna on 30th November 2009. The workshop that was hosted by BEV but organised by the Austrian Umbrella Organization for Geographic Information (AGEO) was held within the framework of the EURADIN project and was attended by 85 participants considered eight presentations.

The announcement states:

“Die Inhalte der acht Vorträge reichten von den Zielen des Projektes bis hin zu den Notwendigkeiten und Möglichkeiten, Adressen in eine gesamtösterreichische Geodateninfrastruktur einzubinden. Die BEV-Beiträge befassten sich mit den Anforderungen an eine entsprechende Systemarchitektur am Beispiel des österreichischen Adressregisters, mit der Struktur eines Web-Services im Rahmen des e-Government und mit der Rolle des BEV als Partner im Projekt EURADIN. Weitere Themenschwerpunkte in den Vorträgen waren die bisherigen Fortschritte bei der Vernetzung öffentlicher Verwaltungsstellen aus Bund, Ländern und Gemeinden sowie die Ansprüche der Wirtschaft an die Verwaltung, um geeignete Dienste für Anwendungen bereitstellen zu können. Breit diskutiert wurden im Workshop auch das Experiment eines lizenz- und gebührenfreien Adressregisters und Rechtsfragen zu Datenschutz und Persönlichkeitsschutz.”

“The contents of the eight presentations ranged from integrating the objectives of the project to the needs and opportunities, addresses in a complete Austrian geodata infrastructure. The BEV-submissions deal with the requirements of a corresponding system architecture using the example of Austria's address register, with the structure of a Web services under the e-Government and the role of the BEV as a partner in the project EURADIN. Other issues discussed in the lectures were the recent progress made in bringing public administrations from the federal, state and local communities and the demands of the economy to the administration in order to provide appropriate services for applications. Have been widely discussed in the workshop and the experiment of a licensing and toll-address register and legal issues about privacy and personal protection.”

The AGEO President Prof. Dr. Mag. Josef STROB opened the workshop. The workshop then considered:

• The EURADIN project and the European Address Forum;
• EURADIN from the perspective of a project partner;
• The tensions within the PSI re-use value chain with respect to Addresses and the economic aspects;
• The Crime Atlas of Austria;
• Vienna’s Address and Building Register;
• Address Registers and Geo-Web;
• The Austrian (and Swiss) OpenAddress portal;
• Rights issues from the perspective of the PSI re-use and data protection frameworks and laws.

The EURADIN opening presentation titled: Addressing Systems: the EURADIN project at slides 14 to 17 summarises the analysis of the research undertaken by the EURADIN project on the work package 6 Business Model and states:

“How is the cost justified: WP6 “Business Model“ (reference slide 14)

• Research showed virtually all respondents felt their data had inaccuracies:
  • Wrong addresses 29%
  • Missing addresses 27%
  • Old addresses 23%
  • Ambiguous addresses 19%
• 94% stated addresses were important or business critical and virtually all that they were a vital part of the information infrastructure
• About 80% believed their business prospects were sensitive to improvement or degradation in address quality
• 72% felt that poor addressing cost their business money. Half of these (35%) reckoned the cost was more than 1% of turnover.
• Most considered addressing was a public sector responsibility

Analysis of research (reference slide 15)

1. Suppose 35% of economic activity improves its efficiency by 1% as a result of obtaining more accurate or comprehensive addressing

2. Suppose half of 35% (17%) increases its economic activity from better addressing by 1%

The total EU value would be Euros 63 billion per annum…..

Absurd? Perhaps but there is supporting evidence

• Of extra property tax of Euros 200,000 pa in one local government area from better addressing [total EU area equivalent Euros 554 million pa] and of more efficient refuse collection Euros 134,000pa [EU equivalent Euros 370 million]
• Of general local government efficiency gains of Euros 112,00 [EU equivalent Euros 308, million pa]
• Of more lives saved, of CO2 emissions reduced, of more successful eCommerce applications

(Reference slide 16)

In seven applications alone the total value is potentially Euros 6,000,000,000 pa for the EU area

Key recommendations for Address business model (reference slide 17)

• There should be a single national “official” address reference database;
• The process should be sponsored and controlled by the Public Sector;
• The data should be owned by the Public Sector and probably the State and fit for the purposes of central and local government;
• The data must be comprehensive, up to date, capable of national integration and of following the INSPIRE standard for subsequent Pan-European integration;
• There should be an integrated creation and maintenance process. Those bodies involved in the creation process should be encouraged to participate, preferably by law or possibly by binding contract with associated funding where necessary; and
• The basic data should be free or available at the marginal cost of distribution.”

The full details of the EURADIN Business model may be found in the report titled: Final WP 6 report - BUSINESS MODEL: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC BENEFITS, 107 pages, date 15th May 2009.

Related news topics

European Address Forum to be launched

EURADIN Newsletter No. 3