Open Access to Public Data Significantly Improves Municipality Efficiency and Collaboration
Vancouver, BC, February 2, 2010 – Safe Software today announced that FME® Server, the leading spatial ETL (extract, transform and load) solution, has been selected by the City of Vancouver to power key aspects of its ‘Open Data’ initiative. FME is enabling the city to improve collaboration and efficiency by creating an open, centralized spatial data resource for public and private businesses, individuals, governments and others to access and share up-to-date spatially based information.
The City of Vancouver will be using FME Server to convert and distribute large volumes of spatial data for easy and universal end-user access. Municipalities and other organizations can combine this spatial data in real time from a variety of disparate systems, formats and data models, and make it readily available as a service over the web for direct use in mash-ups and other applications.
Government agencies across the globe want to better harness the energy and involvement of citizens, community-based organizations and private businesses. The first step in making this happen is effective data sharing, and FME plays a central role by enabling organizations to organize and convert diverse spatial data sets for ‘Open Data’ or other similar initiatives.
By deploying FME, cities aim to enhance creative community problem-solving and encourage the development of new service delivery ideas and solutions. And by making spatial data available as a service, it also enables users to develop mash-ups and other applications.
The City of Vancouver’s Open Data and related initiatives are encouraging other organizations to unlock data and make it readily available for public and third-party analysis, visualization, and decision-making. FME’s on-the-fly transformation capabilities can provide these organizations with the technology they need to remove spatial format and data model barriers, so that they can compile and deliver access to this otherwise incompatible data.
“Municipalities have longed for system interoperability, where a large number of disparate entities can share and grab public data as needed,” said Dale Lutz, Vice President of Development at Safe Software. “When it comes to spatial data, FME is the most complete and efficient path to creating this centralized and transparent data resource. We look forward to working with cities across the globe to open their public data to millions of users, improving collaboration, planning and budget use.”
FME’s on-the-fly data transformation capabilities have proven to meet the demands of other data sharing initiatives. The most complete spatial ETL solution, FME dynamically transforms and integrates data from disparate systems, enabling organizations to distribute their spatial data for end user access where, when and how they need it. Moreover, organizations can use FME’s data sharing services to enable the delivery of spatial information over the web, ensuring that the most current data is available for immediate use.
About Safe Software and FME
Safe Software powers the flow of spatial data with its software platform, FME. The recognized standard in spatial ETL (extract, transform and load), FME is the only complete solution for data conversion. It delivers the most extensive format support for data translation and integration, and provides unlimited flexibility in data model transformation and distribution. FME is used by thousands of customers worldwide in a variety of industries including government, utilities, and petroleum. Its powerful data access technology also makes FME the choice of leading GIS, CAD, and database vendors for integration into their own solutions. Designed for true data interoperability, FME unleashes spatial data so people can use it where, when, and how they want to. For more information, visit www.safe.com.