April 29, 2005, Boston, MA – ''Spatial Data in an Information Societ'' was a primary theme of the 8th Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Conference held 16-21 April 2005 in Cairo, Egypt. The conference attracted over 1000 registrants from 80 different countries. Scientists, engineers, GIS and GPS specialists, land administrators and surveying practitioners participated in 51 technical sessions, several workshops, and five plenary sessions with over 400 papers presented. Joint collaborators with the GSDI Association in hosting the combined conference included the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the Egyptian Survey Authority.The GSDI Association fosters the development of spatial data infrastructures that support sustainable social, economic, and environmental systems integrated from local to global scales and promotes the informed and responsible use of geographic information and spatial technologies for the benefit of society. GSDI programs facilitate exchange of information on infrastructure issues, standards-based data access and discovery, applications development, capacity building, and SDI development and research.The GSDI Association elected Professor Harlan Onsrud of the University of Maine, USA as President and Jarmo Ratia, Director General, National Land Survey of Finland, as Vice-President. Dr. Mukund Rao, Deputy Director, Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, India, is the immediate past-president. These three along with fifteen other elected representatives from organizations spread across the globe make up the Board of Directors.The GSDI Association also took time to honor and thank the US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), the ESRI Corporation, and Intergraph Corporation for providing critical core support to the GSDI Association in its formative stages. On hand to receive the honors were Ivan DeLoatch, Staff Director, FGDC; Jack Dangermond, President, ESRI; and Preetha Pulusani, President, Intergraph Mapping and Geospatial Solutions.The Association's next global conference will be held in Santiago, Chile on 6-10 November 2006 and will focus on experiences in the use of spatial and related information technologies in reducing poverty.The GSDI Association invites government, industry and academic organizations, as well as individuals, to take part in GSDI programs. For more details on GSDI and Membership information please visit www.gsdi.org.”
Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Conference held in Cairo
April 29, 2005, Boston, MA – Spatial Data in an Information Societ was a primary theme of the 8th Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Conference held 16-21 April 2005 in Cairo, Egypt.Joint collaborators with the GSDI Association in hosting the combined conference included the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) and the Egyptian Survey Authority.The GSDI Association also took time to honor and thank the US Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), the ESRI Corporation, and Intergraph Corporation for providing critical core support to the GSDI Association in its formative stages.The Associations next global conference will be held in Santiago, Chile on 6-10 November 2006 and will focus on experiences in the use of spatial and related information technologies in reducing poverty.The GSDI Association invites government, industry and academic organizations, as well as individuals, to take part in GSDI programs.
