Geographic information: a resource, a commodity, an asset or an infrastructure?

The nature of geographic information is considered from four different standpoints: as a resource, a commodity, an asset and an infrastructure, with reference to the literature from the general information debate as well as that relating to geographic information. The findings of the analysis show that geographic information has some of the characteristics of all four standpoints, but that the main focus of discussion hitherto has been on the resource and commodity standpoints. As a result, relatively little attention has been given to the implications of the asset and infrastructure standpoints. This is particularly important with respect to geographic information because of its public interest dimension.