Beyond Spatial Data Infrastructures there are no SDIs – so what

Abstract

What might Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) look like in 2016? The paper envisions the future of SDI strategically as having three characteristics. First, SDI may loose its distinctiveness and its spatial functionalities become integral part of information infrastructure in general. Second, information infrastructures – including SDIs – may become an institutional property of governance beyond the narrow and traditional limits of the state. Third, the design, implementation and use of information infrastructure are likely to be different at different levels of governance because space is conceived of differently at these levels. Understanding these complex relationships between governance at different levels and the role of information infrastructure requires a genuine socio-technical science in its own right beyond the traditional realm of positivism. Contours are indicated of a needed research practice bringing together the conventional GIScience community, scholars of information systems and those from social sciences (including sociologists and scholars of public administration) into ‘communities of practice’.