Digital Norway Sweeps Away Barriers to Information Sharing

This article details the Digital Norway plan, an arrangement through which different Norwegian government agencies give each other free access to geographical, environmental and administrative databases.

According to the article, government agencies must make data clearly and easily available through a national portal called geoNorge. The plan calls for all public bodies responsible for geodata to collaborate in the establishment, operation and maintenance of geoNorge. According to Olaf Ostensen, the head of Statkart, Norway's national mapping agency, "Instead of buying information from each other, we all put money in to a joint fund to finance an information infrastructure we can have for free." 40 government bodies, 93 utility companies, 17 out of 19 counties and 356 out of 431 municipal authorities have signed up to exchange data through the system.

According to the article, the Digital Norway plan could play a key role in Norway's bird flu contingency plan, where information about a possible outbreak could be quickly communicated by an automated phone call or a text message informing those at risk about what is going on and what precautions they need to take.