Fathom's Dencity shows the world's population using bright, small dots for "lots of people" and dark, large dots for "just a few people." Via Fast Company's Co.Design. Used with permission. © 2011 Fathom Information Design.

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Fathom's Dencity shows the world's population using bright, small dots for "lots of people" and dark, large dots for "just a few people." Via Fast Company's Co.Design. Used with permission. © 2011 Fathom Information Design.

Is it time for a global licensing framework for geospatial data? The GSDI Legal and Economic Working group thinks so and offered a presentation and a way forward at the GSDI 13 conference held in Quebec City in May. The effort aims to harmonize existing licensing without changing fundamental access policies and funding models and be compatible with the diferences in national legal systems. That's a tall order, but an important one as the world moves toward geodata sharing. Geoff Zeiss reports.