ISPRS Workshop on Service and Application of Spatial Data Infrastructure, XXXVI (4/W6), Oct. 14-16, Hangzhou, China 
• The international Committee on EO Systems (CEOS) 
has a Working Group on Information System and 
Services (WGISS) dealing principally with satellite 
images and services. Past President, Mukund Rao, 
has personally been associated with WGISS and there 
is a lot both GSDI and WGISS can benefit by 
collaboration. The WGISS has set up a EO Portal, 
EO global datasets archive, International Data 
Network, and a WGISS search capability. 
9. WHERE TO FROM HERE? 
As stated earlier, the vision of the GSDI is to be seen as the 
focal point for global spatial data infrastructure information 
and help. As a fledgling formal organization the Association 
needs to pay attention to the things the membership sees as 
essential programs for the immediate and long-term future and 
carefully balance that with the need for financial sustainability 
and growth. With this in mind the Association considers the 
following as critical next steps: 
The first order of business is to keep the original members and 
stimulate new members. Toward this the Association has hired 
Allan Doyle as a part time Business Director with a strong 
background the GI industry and business management. His role 
will be to focus on membership issues and in promoting 
partnerships with others who share similar goals to leverage 
scarce resources. 
The Newsletter program needs to be sustained and grown with 
other contributing to its sustainability. Similarly the small grant 
program should be owned and operated by the GSDI 
Association, and other partners sought to enlarge both the 
financial base and the players in defining and promoting the 
program as well as selecting worthy grant winners. 
The GSDI Cookbook is a living document and should be both 
updated regularly, and the Working Group should be seeking 
other contributions such as successful business case examples 
particularly in emerging nations with fledgling SDIs. The key 
to the selling the development of any NSDI is being able to 
convince Ministers and other policy level people that there is a 
good business rationale for such an investment and that it will 
lead to better governance (and reflect positively on them.) 
It is also necessary to provide services like portal and web 
applications. Financing the existing and broadening the portal 
and related capabilities is critical to show members and others 
that the Association has unique opportunities to membership. 
Provide and assist with SDI capacity building is another key 
component of the GSDI. There is s significant difference 
between training and building capacity. The critical element 
here is to ensure that the capacity for which we are training is 
sustainable, ie, that it stays in place even after the training. 
Suggested approaches include following up after the initial 
training with visits inquiring as to progress, successes, problems, 
and the like. Providing assistance with troubling issues, 
interfacing with managers and ministry level officials as to 
progress, recording success stories examples for others who 
may be building SDIs, are all a part of the follow up. Where 
possible, providing seed monies to help fund small grants 
encouraging organizations within the nation to build SDI 
components such as metadata, or a clearinghouses is also a 
mechanism to help sustainability. Additionally, providing 
funding to support some fraction of the salary for a national SDI 
advocate to be share with a Ministry or Ministries for one, two, 
or three years is another factor to help with sustainability. 
10. CLOSURE 
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have greatly expanded 
opportunities for data integration and analysis, modeling, and 
map production. As populations grow, as countries boost their 
economies, as landscapes change, governments have 
increasingly relied on geographic information for applications 
such as environmental planning, land registration, disaster 
response, public health programs, agricultural marketing, and 
biodiversity conservation. Ready access to digital geospatial 
data is a clear prerequisite to progressive development. 
Government agencies in many developing countries are at a 
critical transition from producing paper maps to digital maps. 
Often, the work is being done in an uncoordinated way, without 
documentation, and without consistent standards. There is 
considerable duplication of effort, and different standards limit 
the possibilities for integrating and using the data properly. 
Data producers are also in a transition from ‘guarding’ their 
information to exploring mechanisms for disseminating it on 
line 
A number of noteworthy national initiatives are already 
underway in developing regions, but generally, most countries 
still lack a national framework to ensure that geographic 
information is consistent, available, and affordable. Capacity 
building will further the development of such frameworks. 
With these frameworks in place, people who need access to data 
will know where to go for it, what format it is in, its scale, how 
reliable it is, how much it will cost, and whether they can 
duplicate it. 
The GSDI Association was instituted to encourage many of 
these fledgling SDI as well as those that have not started 
anything in this area to focus on common standards, 
interoperable systems and processes. It breeds better, more 
efficient and effective governance and better business practices. 
The GSDI is bringing awareness and in many cases pressure t 
bear on some of these issues, but it too is evolving. With the 
right people, the right partners, a bigger membership base, and 
improved financial underpinning, it can become a major 
influence on the SDI Development locally to globally.