SDIs in Hard Times: When to Reinforce and When to Question Our Values?

by Prof. David J. Coleman, President-elect

Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

During the recent SDI Executive Session at the 2011 ESRI International User Conference in San Diego, there was a discussion about various elements of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI).  Comments arose related to the human element of SDI. This is a topic that has been very poorly addressed in SDI literature. Information systems or IT infrastructures in general are meaningless without considering the human aspects, since technology is only a method for facilitating communication.

by Prof. David J. Coleman, President-elect

Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

In a conference presentation in mid-2005, I described the contributions of SDI and geospatial information to the knowledge economy and then speculated on the potential contributions of the “millennial generation” to the future of SDI.  After six years, how have some of those predictions played out?

by Mabel Álvarez and Lilia Patrica Arias

The International Geospatial Society (IGS) is the individual member arm of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI). The GSDI Association centres its work on large organizations, while IGS allows interested individual professionals and students to become members.

by Gita Urban-Mathieux

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Small Grants Programme has been contributing to international geospatial efforts since 2003. The purpose of the programme is to support GSDI member organisations in fostering partnerships, developing in-country technical capacity, improving data compatibility and access, and increasing political support for spatial data infrastructure.

by Dr. Khalid A. Rahman Al-Haidan

Director ,GIS Directorate

Central Informatics Organization (CIO), Kingdom of Bahrain

The GIS Directorate of the Central Informatics Organization (CIO) Kingdom of Bahrain, in compliance to a Government Decree, officially implemented National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) for the Kingdom in February 2005. As the manifestation of that, the Bahrain Spatial Data Infrastructure (BSDI) Portal serves the Public and Private Sectors, Academic Institutions, and of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

by Prof. David J. Coleman, President-elect
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

At the GSDI 12 Conference in Singapore last October, I enjoyed the discussions and people’s speculations over what “SDI 2.0” would look like. Their ideas about use volunteered geographic information, even better interoperability, and greater reach and range of web services were exciting.

But– Aren’t we already beyond “SDI 2.0”? I think so.

by Prof. David J. Coleman, President-elect
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association 

(An edited version of this article with graphics and/or photos was published in the February 2011 issue of GIM International.)

Use of Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is now mainstream. OpenStreetMap, TeleAtlas and Navteq all routinely use volunteer contributions to maintain their databases. In Australia, the Victoria State Government now permits (registered) individual government employees to update state-level mapping features & attributes.

To introduce users to what's new in ArcMap, ESRI will host the live training seminar Using ArcMap in ArcGIS Desktop 10. It will air at www.esri.com/lts  on Thursday, April 29, 2010, at 9:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., and 3:00 p.m. Pacific daylight time.

The seminar will introduce new features in ArcMap that will reduce time spent on common mapping tasks and improve the quality of map products. The instructor will demonstrate how to use these features to speed up workflows.

We at NuMaps are publishing the Australian Bureau Statistics Census 2006 data in the form of DemographicDrapes or thematic overlays that can be ingested into mashups and GIS products via OGC WMS/WFS web service requests. There are literally thousands of DemographicDrapes on offer and we have built a viewer so that people can view some of these for free.

See http://demos.numaps.com.au/demographicdrapes.html