Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
RECONCILING THE VIEWS OF THE STAKEHOLDERS 79 funding for developing the product is obtained through the scientific proposal process and is evaluated against other research activities. Conclusion. If a value-added product is justified scientifically but is too expensive to purchase from a commercial vendor, then scientists are justified in creating the product, as long as all costs are paid from peer-reviewed research budgets. GUIDELINES FOR INTERACTIONS BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AGENCIES AND PRIVATE-SECTOR ORGANIZATIONS At the instigation of Congress, government agencies are promoting the development of a commercial remote-sensing industry. In the initial stages agencies are purchasing data and services from commercial vendors, either by contracting with private-sector organizations or by forming public-private partnerships. Eventually some of these products and services will be privatized entirely. As noted in Chapter 4, private firms and market mechanisms should be considered when they advance the interests of society. Guidelines for determining the respective roles of the government and private sector have been proposed elsewhere. For example, an industry study divided activities into three categories: those that are clearly public and should be undertaken by the government; those that are in the domain of the private sector; and those that have both public and private benefits, which the government should undertake only after careful consideration.3 Environmental information systems generally fall into the latter category. This section provides criteria for government and private-sector interactions concerning the roots and branches of public-purpose information systems. The criteria are meant to ensure that public-sector needs continue to be met when the private sector provides the data or 3J.E.Stiglitz, P.R.Orszag, and J.M.Orszag, 2000, The role of government in a digital age, A report commissioned by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, 154 pp. The goals of these criteria, which are meant to maximize opportunities for the private sector, are somewhat different from those discussed in this report, which aim at maximizing the public good. Of course, these views are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
