GIS Planet98 ­ Brief Overview
Lisbon: 7-11 September 1998

Updated: 28.10.1998 - see "European Day"

Introduction.

The GIS Planet98 conference (Lisbon, 7-11 September 1998), organised by USIG, the Portuguese association for Geographical Information, was a satellite event of EXPO '98. About 1000 GI/GIS researchers and practitioners participated in the conference, including a large contingent from the USA, reflecting strong ties between Portugal and USA in the GI/GIS research area.

DG XIII/E and EUROGI planned and hosted a "European Day" on 10 September, where representatives from various EC Directorates which use GI presented their role in relation to GI and GIS. On 8 September, DG XIII/E presented developments regarding the European Geographic Information Infrastructure (EGII) initiatives, focus of both a draft EC Communication "GI2000: Towards a European Policy Framework for GI" and a proposed cross-programme action in the developing 5th RTD Framework Programme.

7 September - AL INVEST Day

AL INVEST is a DG I (International Relations) programme to help European SMEs develop business abroad by promoting economic co-operation. The AL INVEST session was jointly organised between a Brazilian association: CITPAR (Centro de Integração de Tecnologia do Paraná) and USIG. Three presentations were of special interest for the GI market:

- the Portuguese market, presented by S. Costa (ARTOP),
- the Spanish market, presented by J. Guimet, President of AESIG, Spanish association for GI,
- GIS and Remote Sensing The Brazilian experience towards an integrated approach.

For more details, see our GI Market pages.

8 September ­ the SNIG Event

Portugal's SNIG (National System of Geographical Information) team hosted an event including three presentations relating to aspects of the GI market:

  • The EGII initiatives at the EC (by Y Reginster, Expert in GI to DG XIII/E),
  • The importance of Metadata within the GI infrastructures,
  • Adoption of the Metadata standards within the SNIG.

CNIG (the National Centre for Geographical Information) designed its own metadata standard some time ago, in order to launch SNIG. As participants in the INFO2000 project ESMI, they decided to adopt the CEN/TC287 metadata standard. Their experience so far indicates that:

  • TC 287 standards do not satisfy all their needs,
  • there is no product available on the market,
  • they had to interpret the standard and adapt it to their needs and define new attributes (e.g. for EO data),
  • some technical problems are difficult to manage with the standard,
  • the important problem of language is not covered by TC 287 work.

9 September ­ Plenary session

Michael Goodchild (NCGIA, USA) started the session with his view on the future - "Rediscovering the world through GIS: Prospects for a second age of Geographical discovery" containing key points:

- The is a need for "field" GIS, with new data models, communication needs and social issues to be considered.
- We need to create new knowledge about existing data, integrating the computer, human intelligence and geographic reality.
- Rediscovering = sharing of information, highlighting the importance of accessibility to information.

Rui Gonçalves Henriques (CNIG, Portugal) presented an alternative way of organising GI, suggesting that all available GI for a location should be known, rather than only individual themes for all locations (which is the more common practice today). Key data issues include standards, metadata, privacy, copyright, updating and price

Session 3: GI technology Infrastructures

S. Guptill (USGS, USA) presented the vision of the GI framework for the USA, which includes:

  • A common vision: to achieve availability of geospatial data that solves real world problems, to maintain and enhance data.
  • A common data framework: base data that enables current applications to be more effectively implemented and that facilitates new applications.
  • Equitable access: the concept of "free data" needs reviewing and revising.
  • Applications of leading edge technology.

The US Government is today building a version of the "Digital Earth", merging their NSDI with the GSDI. "Digital Earth" is their new name for GSDI, which will only occur under Information Society rules. US initiatives have strong, high-level political support (President, Vice-President, Cabinet level and in US Congress).

During the following debate, Nancy Tosta, who was involved in the early stages of formulating US NSDI policy and is now working in a local authority administration (city of Seattle, WA), related problems of co-ordination between various levels of administration. Regarding GI, the facts are that:

- No one is "in charge" of GI related infrastructure.
- Governments and business have different motives and agenda.
- There are thousand of "leaders".
- "Simple" works better.
- Diversity is important.

The conclusion was that infrastructure is created "... piece by piece, edge by edge. Don't expect to co-ordinate everything".

10 September: European Day

At the European Day event, various EC representatives presented their GI/GIS activities, demonstrating how numerous, varied actions fit together as a whole and that internal co-ordination was important. The DGs represented were III (Industry), VI (Agriculture), XII (Science, Research & Development), JRC (Joint Research Centre), XIII/E (Information Market), XVI (Regional Policy) plus the EEA (Environment Agency). DG VII (Transport) and OSCE (Eurostat) contributed during planning and submitted papers.
There were four sessions:

  1. The political role of the Commission: Research agenda, space policy, GI2000 (JRC, XIII)
  2. The Commission as a stimulator: FP5-IST (III, XII, XIII)
  3. EUROGI "Geodata for All" workshop: What are the specific European needs for global interoperability? (a separate Proceedings of this session is being prepared by EUROGI)
  4. The Commission as a user of GI (OSCE, VI, EEA, XVI, XII)

These sessions are reviewed in the report "GIS Planet98 - European Day - Proceedings" (EN only). (Added 28.10.1998)

The common message throughout the day was articulation of the need for a European Geographic Information Infrastructure (EGII), as both the EU market and the Commission need it. This was reinforced by the same need being expressed in the national Portuguese event on 8 September.

A topic of great interest was the IST (Information Society Technologies) programme in 5FP. The opportunities for GI/GIS projects throughout the whole IST programme (and in the other programmes as well), and the proposed cross-programme action for EGII, were welcomed by most participants. The president of MEGRIN, the European marketing group of 19 CERCO NMAs, expressed a preference for a big action for European mapping in its own right. The role that MEGRIN plays as an early initiative in marketing national and pan-European (SABE) GI across Europe is an important one that needs further investigation (for lessons learned) and clarification (regarding access to public sector information).

An important result of the event was affirmation of the desire of the main EC GI users to meet more often and to improve their co-ordination. They all agree on the need to have a common GI infrastructure to support EU policies. GISCO (GIS at the Commission, Eurostat) is the appropriate technical agency to coordinate this. Problems of data availability, data dissemination policies and data procurement policies need further co-ordination inside the Commission (and across other EU Institutions, e.g. EEA).

More detailed reports are being produced regarding the European Day and Proceedings can be requested from the Commission, DG XIII/E.3, Martin Littlejohn, e-mail: martin.littlejohn@lux.dg13.cec.be or fax +352 4301 32847.

Return to GI2000 Meetings index

Date Updated: 28.10.1998