NORDIC Address papers published
Tórshavn, Faroe Islands: 1st June 2007
Norðurlendskur adressufundur við 35 luttakarum úr Íslandi, Bretlandi, Noregi, Svøríki, Danmark, Finlandi og Føroyum var hildin tann 29. og 30. mai 2007.
The annual NORDIC Addresses Meeting (an informal grouping with no legal mandate) was held in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands on 29th and 30th May 2007. The meeting was attended by representatives from the public sector, private sector and academia from six NORDIC countries Faroe Islands, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The 20+ presentations made during the meeting have now been published. They language of the meeting was Danish and most of the presentations are in Danish with a few in English. The ePSIplus Thematic Network took part in the meeting.
The meeting is an excellent example of how regional or linguistic groups of nations can meet to share knowledge and information which in this case relates to public sector registers that hold Addresses. The organisers should be commended for organising and holding a well-attended and informative meeting for the fifth successive year. The next meeting is scheduled to be held in Finland in 2008.
The meeting brought out the differences between the NORDIC countries in relation to Addresses and also the issues related to keeping Registers in line with the constant changes in society. For example the Citizen register and the consequences of split families where children maybe resident with their parents at different times when the parents live separately and at different addresses – one person (the child) has two addresses. Other social issues raised included that of common law marriages, migration. Aspiring to maintain registers that are 100% accurate and up to date maybe a laudable objective but in reality may not be quite met due to the rapid changes in society, this is the reality of the world!
The presentations also brought out that when the use of Addresses within the registers is widened to other applications both within the public sector and elsewhere in society so the data model related to Addresses needs to be re-considered. The meeting brought out many interesting aspects of re-use of base registers and how the re-use of public sector information would assist to add value and to enable different applications to be accommodated within the value chain downstream from the base register on Addresses. It was also apparent that the failure to open up public registers such as Addresses meant that other parts of Society would produce their own Addresses registers as such the concept of one common register for all potential users evaporates!
The country updates made at the meeting also highlighted the latest developments and publications on Good Practice guides for local government with respect to addresses. For example that produced by the Association of Finnish Municipalities.
A number of presentations made direct or oblique references to the PSI re-use Directive in particular Iceland where the transposition of the Directive was reported as being beyond the minimum within the Directive and more in line with the wider objectives of the Directive especially with respect to pricing.
The meeting during the conclusions and meeting review considered the INSPIRE Data Specification related to Addresses. It was agreed that the NORDIC Addressing documents and standards should be brought to the attention of those within INSPIRE for data specifications related to Addresses.
The meeting ended with an agreement to establish formally a NORDIC Address Thematic Network (or Best Practice Network) and to build relationships with other Thematic Networks such as ePSI plus and EUROGI where pertinent to do so.
Base Registers underpin Society!
Related ePSI plus reports NORDIC 2007 Address Meeting
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