GSDI 12 World Conference

Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) advocates around the world seek to make optimum use of geospatial technologies to serve societal goals. The industry focal point for many of these activities is the Global SDI (GSDI) Association: an inclusive organisation of international organisations, agencies, firms and individuals promoting international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international SDI developments.

Two key contributions of the GSDI involve knowledge transfer. The first is the Geographic Information Knowledge Network or GIKNetwork, open to everyone in the geospatial industry. This resource means that anyone working on an SDI at any level, anywhere in the world can access information and subject-matter experts on topics such as metadata, policy and standards. Industry professionals can join the GIKNetwork to seek such assistance or register themselves as SDI experts. The second activity of the Association is the biannual world conference.

GSDI 12 World Conference
The GSDI 12 World Conference took place in Singapore from 19th to 22nd October 2010 focusing on the theme ‘Realising Spatially Enabled Societies'. The event was organised among others by the GSDI Association, the Permanent Committee on GIS Infrastructure for Asia & the Pacific (PCGIAP) and the Singapore Land Authority. Key conclusions reached at GSDI 12 were:
- spatial enablement is now happening and has to be relevant to society; priorities are location, innovation and collaboration
- SDIs are critical infrastructure and global perspectives on SDI good practice are evolving through local approaches to implementation
- public demand is growing for access to spatial information
- innovation is manifesting itself in applications, licensing, governance, economic models, metadata and web-based services; and all sectors, government, public and private, have a role in innovation
- there are important advances in user-generated content such as crowd sourcing for emergency and disaster management.

Today's SDI balancing act involves leveraging past investments in proven SDI architectures while incorporating new capabilities such as crowd sourcing, open-source and cloud computing. Technical interoperability continues to improve. Education continues to be a high priority, and cultural, legal, political and policy issues are still gating factors.
The GSDI World Conferences provide a unique forum for representatives of all sectors to network and learn about these issues. More than a hundred countries are actively developing SDI, and with over 650 attendees from 65 countries GSDI 12 proved a very successful event.
The International Geospatial Society, the new arm of the GSDI Association for individual members, also held its inaugural meeting.

Global Citizen Award
Esri president and founder Jack Dangermond gave the opening keynote address at the event and was later presented by GSDI Association president Abbas Rajabifard with its first Global Citizen Award.