Rola INSPIRE w rozwoju społeczeństwa informacyjnego

Development of information society is not the direct aim of the INPIRE, but creation of spatial informa- tion infrastructure is an important condition for such a society to function. The information society must have general access of the spatial information created by public administration. In the paper, an analysis of Polish public registers, in particular those containing reference spatial data, is presented from the point of view of the expectations and needs of the information society. Relatively weak social reception of the Public Information Bulletin (BIP) is indicated. The practice shows that the Internet community, which is the nucleus of the information society, requires dynamic and expressive information provided in a language understandable for an average citizen. It is necessary to improve comprehensibility of public registers and spatial information should be helpful to achieve it. A positive example is the Polish spatial services website - Geoportal.gov.pl, enjoying growing interest of Internet users. In comparison to commercial websites, it is distinguished by a wide scope of information, including e.g. geometric data of registered plots. Further on, attention is drawn to the need of promotional actions of the INSPIRE idea, particularly among young people, including the fundamental role of metadata in spatial information infrastructure. Without metadata integration of data originating from different sources is not possible. Another element necessary for positive impact of INSPIRE on the development of information society is general broadband access to Internet. Summing up, the authors expressed their hope that public access to reliable spatial information will facilitate holding public discussions in search of optimal solutions in the area of spatial planning. This would be the INSPIRE contribution to the development of civic information society.