FIG President Stig Enemark attends the GSDI-11 World ConferenceRotterdam, The Netherlands, 15-19 June 2009
President Stig Enemark attended the GSDI-11 World Conference entitled “Spatial Data Convergence: Building SDI Bridges to address Global Challenges”, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 15-29 June 2009. GSDI is the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association that is an inclusive organization of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world. The purpose of the organization is to promote international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues of pressing importance, see: http://www.gsdi.org/. The GSDI-11 conference was very well attended by about 600 participants from all regions of the world. It included about 30 workshops, 9 plenary sessions and 70 technical sessions with about 350 presentations. Proceedings are available at http://www.gsdi.org/gsdi11/
The opening session was focused on the conference theme. An inspiring keynote presentation was given by Mr. Gary Nairn, Property Consultant and former Australian Special Minister of State and e-Government Minister explaining about the need for interaction between the professionals and the political level of government. Another inspiring plenary session included a panel discussion lead by Prof. John McLaughlin addressing the regional efforts of establishing SDI convergence. The panel members included Santiago Borrero, Secretary General of PAIGH (the Pan American Institute of geography and History), Ivan DeLoatch, Director of the Federal Geographic Data Committee in USA; Dozie Egzigbalike, Chief of Geo-information Systems Section, UN Economic Commission for Africa; Alessandro Annoni, Joint Research Council, European Union; and Greg Scott, President of the UN Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructures for Asia and Pacific. President Enemark chaired a joint GSDI/FIG session on land administration (session 1.3) and presented a paper on Managing Rights, Restrictions and Responsibilities in Land. The GSDI-11 World Conference provided an excellent opportunity of networking and strengthening the cooperation between GSDI and FIG. This should lead to joint efforts and strategic cooperation towards a spatial enabled society. FIG and GSDI intends to develop a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) in this area to be discussed and agreed during the FIG Congress in Sydney, April 2009.
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3 July 2009 |
