Earth observation, data policy and society

Earth observation technology has been highly successful over the past four decades in placing space in the service of society. Earth observation technology provides very large volumes of data and is one example of how modern technologies are dramatically changing the opportunities of society to use technology. This paper sets the context of the concerns about data access and data management, gives an example to show why an interest in access to data is important and then discusses six data policy issues that can be used to influence the future shape of Earth observation.