May 8th 2009

Bas Kok was an invited speaker to the FIG Working Week 2009 that took place in Eilat, Israel from May 3rd until 8th 2009. More than 650 participants from 60 countries attended.

View GSDI President, Bas Kok, presentation and speech. (still forthcoming)

During the session on “SDI in Support of Development”, Bas Kok gave a presentation entitled: Strategic Role of NMA's in SDI Development and Implementation.

 He explained in detail four observations about the role of national mapping agencies (including cadastres and land administrations).

 1. NMA’s are responsible for registrations in the public domain that play a key role in the development of Spatial Data Infrastructures. They are the backbone to society as a whole. These registrations are vital for economic development, societal stability and legal security.

2. NMA’s are the lobbying institution for composing standards, data sharing principles and portals, as well as legal and institutional arrangements. NMAs initiate platforms in the public domain with other essential SDI stakeholders and participants to lobby for the implementation of SDI’s in national e government programs and processes. They make institutional arrangements for SDI regulations and play a leading role in decision making at the central governmental level.

3. NMA’s play and significant linking pin role between the professional community and policy makers. That explains why they are playing an important key role in the implementation process of the INSPIRE Directive in Europe.

4. NMA’s are making arrangements with private companies such as Google Earth and Virtual Earth to optimize access to public SDI data for citizens. In my opinion, SDI’s are becoming an increasingly essential element in our community.