This presentation will talk about the recent positive change of Korean government's policy toward open source GIS and its background rationale by reviewing past investment on Korean GIS from 1995 to 2011 and related research reports on open source GIS adoptions in Korea. January 2013, Ministry of Land and Transportation, Korea, announced new mid-long term Korean National GIS R&D plan composed of 16 major action items. Surprisingly Korean government included ‘Development of Open Source GIS’ within 16 major action items. According to this tentative R&D plan Korean government will invest around US$ 15 Million in ‘Development of Open Source GIS’ for next 7 years, this open source GIS development plan should go through feasibility study and get final budget approval though. This announcement was widely accepted as a positive sign of policy change toward open source GIS in Korean government, since Korean government has usually given much preferences to Korean local GIS technology against so-called foreign GIS technology(e.g. ESRI, Intergraph, ERDAS..) and open source GIS. This presentation will mainly talk about the rationale why Korean government changed its policy toward open source GIS by reviewing the results of past Korean NGIS(National GIS) R&D program. And a research report, ‘Strategies on Building the Platform for GeoSpatial Information Technology Development: Based on Open Source Thinking’ by KRIHS(Korean Research Institute of Human Settlements), will be introduced largely, since this report had great impact on policy change of Korean government toward open source GIS. 3 main parts will be delivered through presentation. Those are as follows: First, current market situation and R&D model change will be discussed including closed innovation and open innovation. Rapid market change and paradigm shift of innovation model raised fundamental questions on Korean NGIS R&D structure. Second, past Koran NGIS R&D program, goals and strategies will be introduced. Korean government invested around US$ 200 Million from 1995 through to 2011. And the results, merits & demerits of this investment will be discussed. Third, proposed strategies to Korean government will be introduced, those are ‘Inside-Out strategy’, ‘Outside-In Strategy’ and ‘Select & Focus Strategy.’

1. 20th, Sep 2013
FOSS4G 2013 Nottingham
Choe, Byungnam(bnchoe@krihs.re.kr)
Shin, Sanghee(shshin@gaia3d.com)
Why Open Source GIS is a Viable
Option for the Korean National GIS?

2. January 2013, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transportation, Korea,
announced a new mid-long term National GIS R&D plan.

3. US$ 15 million was assigned to ‘Open Source GIS Development’
for next 7 years in total.

4. It was real shock!!!
Oh My!!!

6. Because,
Korean government really love
Korean own technologies.
GIS

7. Let’s look back on
past Korean government’s investment.

8. When Korean government started
NGIS program in 1995,
they found that very little Korean GIS
technologies were available.

9. So, they applied some strategies
to develop geospatial technologies.
GeoSpatial
Technology
Development
1. Develop Own Technology
2. Mid Entry Strategy
3. Utilizing Foreign Technology
: Mapping, DBMS, Etc
: Purchasing GOTHIC SW
: ESRI, Intergraph, MapInfo..

10. To promote & foster
Korean own technology,
Korean government planned NGIS R&D.
Phase I (1995~2000)
- Mapping Technology
- DBMS Technology
- General GIS SW
Phase II (2001~2005)
- 3D GIS
- High Resolution
Remote Sensing SW
Phase III(2006~2010)
- Intelligent Land
Information SW
- Ubiquitous GIS

11. Phase I
Title Period
Institution
in Charge
1. DBMS Independent GIS Basic S/W
- GIS API Development
- GIS Analysis S/W Development
- GIS Operation S/W Development
- GIS User Interface Technology Development
1995
~
1999
Ministry of
Science and
Technology
2. Mapping Technology Development
- Data acquisition and modification S/W development
- Data processing and three-dimensional topographic S/W development
- Map printing and map design automation S/W development
3. DB Tool
- Spatial object management system development
- Spatial object storage system development
- RDBMS Interface development
- OODBMS Interface development
4. GIS System Integration
- System integration development
- GIS advanced technology monitoring and spread
- Public facility management GIS application software development
- GIS data editing and integrated management technology development
- Internet environment three-dimensional spatial analysis S/W development

12. Phase II
Title Period
Institutio
n in Charg
e
1. Open GIS component technology development
1999~
2001
Ministry of
Information
and
Telecommu
nication
2. 3-dimensional GIS S/W technology development
2000~
2002
3. High-precision satellite image processing technology development
2001~
2003
4. Spatial information(4S)-connected technology support business
2001~
2003
5. Multi-sensor spatial image information integration technology development
2004~
2006

13. Phase III
Title Period
Institution
in Charge
1. Spatial information infrastructure innovation
2006
~
2010
Ministry of
Land, Transp
ortation and
Maritime Affa
irs
2. Real-time territory monitoring
3. Establishment of intelligent urban space information infrastructure
4. Realization of safe and convenient construction space
5. Induction of u-GIS standard and technology

14. National GIS R&D
Investment by NGIS Plan
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
35,000
40,000
45,000
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
In Million KRW
1st NGIS : 18.5M US$
2nd NGIS : 20.0M US$
3rd NGIS : 144.7M US$
Total 183.2M US$
è Vision : Development of world class geospatial
technology and new growth engine

15. Results?

17. GeoSpatial
Technology
Development
1. Develop Own Technology
2. Mid Entry Strategy
3. Utilizing Foreign Technology
: Little world class products
: Not useful GOTHIC SW
: Proliferation of ESRI..
è Not so satisfactory…
Still around 80% of Korean GIS market is dominated by
foreign technologies and little world class Korean products.

18. What went wrong?

19. To investigate reasons of
poor performance in NGIS R&D,
KRIHS carried out a research.

20. Possible reason 1 :
Linear R&D process neglecting
importance of knowledge flow

21. Korean government believed
investment would yield significant outputs.
R&D Process
Inputs
- R&D Funds
- Human
Resources
Outputs
- Technology
- Patents
- Publications
è ‘Linear Model of Innovation’ that more focus on Inputs & Out
puts.
§ Traditional Approach

22. What a ideal & impressive
NGIS R&D Model!!
Government
Company
Research Inst.
University
Research FundRoyalties
Market & Customers
Products & Tech SellingRevenue & Profits

23. However this R&D model didn’t work
as expected.
Government
Research
Institute
University Company
X XLack of flow Lack of flow
Hard to find outcomes of R&D
No update & further development after R&D
GeoSpatial Market – What market should we target?
Short-term based

24. And, money isn’t everything!!

25. Real R&D process is not so linear!!
ProductsR&D SuccessNGIS
R&D
ProductsR&D
Market SuccessNGIS
R&D
R&DR&D
R&D
R&D
Lack of
interactions
Source & documents only
Repeated development, test
• Source : Prof. Kwangwoo Nam, 2012
Market

26. And still much money is
needed for commercial success.
• Source : Osawa and Miyazaki, 2006
R&D Valley of Death Sea of Darwin

27. Interactions among actors involved in R&D
are as important as investments itself.
Universities
R&D
Institutes
Companies
R&D
Process

28. Possible reason 2 :
Closed innovation focusing
on IPR(Intellectual Property Rights)

29. Closed Innovation:
We believed we could develop all the things.
Technology
Innovation
New
Technology
New
Product
Revenue &
Profit
Increase
Increased
R&D
Investment
Inside R&D Ecosystem
• Source : Henry Chesbrough, 2003

30. Closed Innovation:
It looks good.
Closed
Leverage own knowledge
§ Designed and developed by
nation inside or firm inside
§ Leverage inside knowledge,
intellectual property,
experiences
§ Idling knowledge, limitations of
leveraging outside knowledge
In-House
Development
è What if outcomes of long R&D could not meet fast changin
g market needs?

31. Current Market Situations
Technology
Oversupply
Market
Uncertainty
Global
Competition
Everybody
Innovates
Technology
Paradox
Doing More
with Less
Economic
Recession

32. Decreasing R&D Success Rate
Total R&D Investment 100%
Failed R&D 60% Commercialized R&D 40%
Profitable
60%
Non-Profitable
40%
§ Only 40% of R&D Projects is commercialized in spite of high
R&D investment
§ In total only 24% of R&D Projects make a penny
§ R&D success rate has continuously been lowered down due to
shortened life cycle of products & technology

33. So, we saw the
appearance of Open Innovation
Our current
market
Our new
market
Other firm´s market
External technology inso
urcing
Internal
technology base
External technology base
Henry Chesbrough, 2004
Internal/external
venture handling
License, spin
out, divest

34. Open Innovation:
Let’s connect together!!
Internal
Resources
External
Resources
Quick &
Efficient
Development
è Leverage smart people inside & outside of the nation!

35. Open Innovation
Open
Leverage others knowledge too
§ Designed and developed with
other outside partners
§ Inside knowledge + outside
knowledge
§ Cost reduction, increase
innovation capabilities, shortened
response time to market change
Collaborative
Development
è So, how to apply open innovation to National R&D while ke
eping a National interest?

36. Open Innovation changes R&D Process
Research Development
Research
Development Business
From traditional R&D model
To D&B Model
Connect
Business

37. Also we raised some fundamental questions
to ourselves.

38. Questions 1:
Q01 Haven’t we tried to develop all the technologies
by ourselves so far?
è What if we applied Google’s Android model to NGIS R&D?

39. Questions 2:
Q02 How to rejuvenate the stopped development
for the people in need?
è Let’s pull out the source codes from the shelf!!

40. Questions 3:
è Need to consider ‘Select & Focus’ strategy.
Q03 Can we hit multiple targets at the same time?

41. Implications from KRIHS research
Closed R&D System
- Try to develop almost all the technologies by
itself.
1
University & Research Inst. Centric
- Heavily rely on traditional linear downstream
R&D model.
Ambiguous R&D Goal
- Not clear whether it is R&D or D&B. Need to
set clear goal.
2
3
Need to leverage outside technology and reso
urces to respond to fast changing market situ
ations.
Need to engage more enterprises’ request an
d enterprise itself in development system.
Need to address R&D and D&B separately. R&
D for basic research and D&B for commerciali
zation.
Implications
Need to set up platform to increase the flow o
f knowledge and dissemination of technology
during & after R&D.
Hard to Reuse R&D Outcomes
- After R&D project period, finding & reusing R
&D outcomes is difficult.
4

42. As a result of KRIHS’s research,
KRIHS proposed several strategies
to Korean government.

43. Suggested Strategies
Inside-Out Strategy
Outside-In Strategy
Select & Focus Strategy

44. Inside-Out Strategy
Inside-Out Strategy
Change previous R&D outcomes to open source
Need to Start Open Source Based R&D
1
2
§ Encourage to change previous R&D outcomes to ‘Dual License’ based open source
§ Let the technology flow to the people in need
§ ‘Technology in the Shelf’ doesn’t create any value
§ Approach open source as a disruptive innovation
§ Participate in international open source GIS activities and lead the communities
§ This will increase the quality and interactions among actors!

45. Outside-In Strategy
Korean Situations
• Limited human resources
• Limited R&D funds
• Small & medium size GIS companies
• Unable to target all the fields
• High dependency on proprietary GIS
Open Source GIS Strategies
• Internalize the outside resources
• Active adoption of Open Source GIS
• Reduce GIS SW cost using Open Source GIS
• Targeting professional fields
• Reduce the dependency on proprietary GIS
Outside-In Strategy

46. Select & Focus Strategy
Targeting Cutting-Edge Technology
- From Catch-up to Leap-frogging
1
Select & Focus Strategy
Niche Market Strategy
- Not only technology create values
2
Clear Discrimination between R&D, D&B
- Need to increase the commercialization capabilities
3
More Business Centric Policy Needed
- Growth of business will create the virtuous circle of
NGIS R&D
4
Consider not only R&D itself but
D&B as well!!

47. Proposed NGIS R&D System
World
R&D
Inst.
Firms
NGIS R&D Infrastructure
Open Source Thinking(Open/Share/Participation)
Select & Focus
Govnt
Outside-In Inside-Out
NGIS R&D Activities

48. Wrapping-up
• Need to consider fast changing market & customers needs
• Not future prediction, but increasing adaptabilities
Open Innovation
Strategy
• Rejuvenate sleeping technology by changing it to open source
• Let the technology flow to the people in need
Inside-Out
Strategy
• Need to actively embrace the open source GIS technology
• Internalize the outside high-performance resources
Outside-In
Strategy
• Changing strategy from catch-up to leap-frogging
• Need to target cutting-edge technology that could leverage hidden assets
• Need to discriminate R&D and D&B
• Every country has its own unique invisible assets
Select & Focus
Strategy

49. Current Status
• Feasibility study is underway for budget approving.
• Around US$ 500,000 was approved for next year’s
seed money.
• Still Korean government’s top priority is promoting Korean
local technology.
• However open source GIS is regarded as one of viable options.

50. Thank you!!