A book chapter on the ‘Governance of open spatial data infrastructures in Europe‘ by Glenn Vancauwenberghe en Bastiaan van Loenen was published in the book ‘The Social Dynamics of Open Data’.  The chapter provides an analysis of how several European member states have been dealing with the governance of their open spatial data infrastructures since the adoption of the INSPIRE Directive in 2007.  In recent years several countries and public administrations started to make a shift towards the establishment of a more ‘open’ spatial data infrastructure, in which also businesses, citizens and non-governmental actors are considered as key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the infrastructure. This move towards more open spatial data infrastructures also created additional challenges related to the governance of the SDI, as new and additional governance approaches and instruments had to be implemented. In order to engage different stakeholder groups, including data users and producers outside the public sector, and take into account their needs and requirements, the scope of traditional governance structures, mechanisms and processes had to be expanded.

The book ‘The Social Dynamics of Open Data‘ is a collection of peer reviewed papers presented at the 2nd Open Data Research Symposium (ODRS) held in Madrid, Spain, on 5 October 2016. The objective of the Open Data Research Symposium and the subsequent collection of chapters published here is to build a strong evidence base on why and how open data is valuable. This base is essential to understanding what open data’s impacts have been to date, and how positive impacts can be enabled and amplified. Consequently, common to the majority of chapters in this collection is the attempt by the authors to draw on existing scientific theories, and to apply them to open data to better explain the socially embedded dynamics that account for open data’s successes and failures in contributing to a more equitable and just society.