Geographic information (GI) is being used as the primary area to show the challenges to be faced in developing a wider European information market. As GI is mainly created and managed by public services, there is limited data availability because public agencies have often no mandate to facilitate the re-use of data collected for their institutional roles, they lack the infrastructure to do so even if they wanted to and they often lack political support and a strategy. While considerable coordination exists in topographic mapping among the European national mapping organisations (NMOs) there is much less coordination in the area of wider geographic information, which encompasses areas such as official statistics.

The experience of MADAME partners in their own data marketing activities indicates that there is a clear need for synergies between the public and private sectors to access, add value to, and disseminate GI. Importantly, what is required is an increased understanding and harmonization in IPR, copyright, liability, privacy, standards for geographic referencing and dissemination policies across the EU. Moreover, there is an urgent need for research which not only identifies legal strategies but also shows pragmatic uses of technology that help data disseminators to cope with the policies.

According to the above considerations the objectives of MADAME are the following :

to evaluate the current strengths and limitations in the provision of metadata services by the partners of the project at the European, national, and local level with respect to copyright and protection of the IPR of third parties, data documentation, data access and pricing, data security and confidentiality and liability.
to compare in a systematic way the institutional and legal frameworks of each participating country with respect to public sector data policies and
data infrastructures so as to contextualise the experiences of the service providers.
to identify and evaluate the data needs of key users in the private, public, and academic sectors in relation to data availability, documentation, usability and value.
to develop a compendium of best business practice.
to increase the quality of support services based on the documented best practice.
to raise awareness of the results achieved and practical steps needed for further development.