The Norwegian Mapping Authority has announced that they will open its topographic datasets to the public, free of charge, a milestone in Norway’s mapping history. Norway will follow progressive countries like Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, considering geographic data as a public good.
The topographic datasets at 1:50,000 scale will be freely available later this year, together with address, road and cadastre data. A database of 950,000 place names was released to the public one month ago. Source: Thematic mapping blog.