INTRODUCTION As agencies function within the context of an increasingly digitally interconnected world, the ability for information to flow from a source to many other unanticipated individuals has been accelerated, especially through networks of other interested individuals (Watts 2003). The response to this phenomenon of many people involved with local government geographic information systems (GIS) continues to be apprehension and resistance. The resulting data-sharing networks exhibit a variety of patterns that reflect contingencies and exigencies in a particular local government. Whether as a means of data dissemination or acquisition, data sharing has become an essential element of local government GIS activities. Despite the prominence of this activity and its centrality to the day-to-day function of many local government systems, decisions about these activities are rarely made following a thorough consideration of the organizational and political complexity. This paper examines the techniques used in a variety of communities and extracts from those a summary of best practices for data sharing in local government. These best practices are offered as guidelines borne out by the outcomes experienced under a variety of circumstances, but as any best practices they remain admittedly suggestive more than absolute. The importance of existing political, institutional, professional, and legislative relationships is emphasized in this paper. These relationships largely determine the geographic information activities at local government agencies. Sharing and coordination are to a large extent informal activities that correspond to these relationships. Formal arrangements are made only at the final stages of establishing sharing or cooperation agreements; basically, they manifest themselves at the conclusion to satisfy internal procedures and/or legal requirements. This understanding poses an interesting conundrum for developing local government participation in the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Given the importance of informal agreements, the primary best practices question arises: How do local governments successfully share geospatial data and coordinate geographic information activities? Improved understanding of the issues, potentials, and problems that local governments face is key to establishing programs and policy support to address local government needs and to develop better opportunities for them to participate in geographic information infrastructures connected to any spatial data infrastructure (SDI). Background Data sharing is much more than a simple technique for accessing geographic informaton (GI); it is a unique form of institutional interrelationship that is necessary for promoting many of the most important benefits of public GIS applications (Tulloch and Epstein 2002, General Accounting Office 2003). Perhaps the grandest potential public GIS application would be an SDI, which can only be accomplished with significant advances in data-sharing practices and a fundamental improvement in the understanding of the ways in which these practices are employed. Many of the larger GIS initiatives (both formal and informal) are based on the concept of many data producers working collectively to develop large volumes of data combined to describe relatively large areas with an expectation that those data will be widely available to potential users. Included among these initiatives are a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), a Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI), INSPIRE, and the Digital Earth initiative. Each of these would require a large volume of existing data and substantial accessibility to the data. The nature of data access in the United States can be quite complex, with a variety of state and federal laws governing public organizations, and constantly changing markets governing commercial distribution (Azad and Wiggins 1995). …
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