A Happy New Year!

Some locations in 2007. Image sources: HUNAGI Visuals resources, 2007

UNSDI HUCO Steering Committee will review the planned amendment of the Law on Surveying and Mapping Activities in line with the INSPIRE Directive

Via HUNAGI, members of the interministerial steering board of UNSDI HUCO received the draft of the planned amendment of the Law on Surveying and Mapping Activities for review yesterday.
The action is in association with the arrangements needed for the harmonisation of the legislation taking into account the INSPIRE Directive of the European Union devoted to the European spatial data infrastructure developments and related services. The legislation procedure in this specific case is orchestrated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as part of the overall harmonisation action related to INSPIRE.
Besides the public institutions some relevant NGOs - among others HUNAGI, a spatial data interest community of one hundred institutions and organisations - were invited in the review process having a deadline in early January 2008.

Xmas Greetings

To All Visitors!

and a Happy New Year!

wishes

Gabor Remetey-Fülöpp,

Head, UNSDI HUCO

Source of the WorldMap: GreenMapAtlas

http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/

http://hunagi.blogspot.com/

http://www.ungiwg.org/

Re-use of Public Sector Information - Workshop in Budapest

Ministry of Economy and Transport hosted the event today
News will follow soon

Outcomes of the EUROGI - JRC Workshop on PPP for Spatial Data Infrastructures

Moderated by Chris Corbin, the following major items have been identified as outputs of the PPP4SDI in the eGovernment context Workshop:
1. PPP is an option (risk) - long time RoI
2. Partnership
3. SDI - data/information policy - ownership
4. Services - eGovt
5. Competition Law
6. Simplification - Efficiency - Cost reduction
7. Public tenders include PPPs
8. Professionalism - leadership
9. Education - awareness
10. Cultural issues

Photo coverage: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
at http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu

The event had the following programme (updated):
PPP4SDI – EU INDUSTRY DAY
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR
SPATIAL DATA INFRASTRUCTURES IN THE CONTEXT OF E-GOVERNMENT
December 6-7, 2007 – Rome, Italy
University Roma - La Sapienza, Piazza Borghese, 9
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2007
14:00-14:30 Registration
BLOCK I: SETTING THE SCENE (PART I)
Welcome Address by the Dean of the Host Institute
14:30-16:00 Mauro Salvemini, President of EUROGI & AM-FM Italia, Italy
Eva Pauknerova, EC-JRC
François Salgé, AFIGEO France (presented by Yves Raillant)
Angela Ionita, RIAI, Romania
Michael Nicholson, Intelligent Addressing, UK
16:00-16:30 COFFEE BREAK
BLOCK I: SETTING THE SCENE (PART II)
16:30-17:15 Jirí Hiess, CAGI, Czech Republic
Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp, HUNAGI, Hungary
Christopher Corbin, UK
BLOCK II: PRIVATE SECTOR
17:15-18:00 Gianni Campanile, ESRI
Claudio Mingrino & Carmelo Attardo, Intergraph
Lievin Quoidbach, NAVTEQ
18:00-18:30 Questions & Answers
20:00- Dinner
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2007
BLOCK III: REGIONAL & NATIONAL PERSPECTIVES
09:00-10:30 Setting up the IHLET Social Cadastre Attila Molnár, Béla Jarolics, Hungary (presented by Gábor Remetey-Fülöpp)
National Presentations by EUROGI Members
Questions & Answers
10:30-11:00 COFFEE BREAK
BLOCK IV: CASES
11:00-12:30 Pal Levai, Institute of Geodesy, Cartography & Remote Sensing (FÖMI), Hungary
Enrico Cavattoni, AGSM Verona S.p.A., Italy
Luigi Zanella, CORE Soluzioni Informatiche, Italy (presented by Prof. Mauro Salvemini)
Kornél Czimber, DigiTerra Information Services Ltd., Hungary
Pasquale Gravante, ELASIS ScPA, Italy
Alberto Perli, SINERGIS, Italy
12:30-14:00 LUNCH BREAK
BLOCK V: DISCUSSION
14:00-15:00 Roundtable (Part I)
15:00-15:30 COFFEE BREAK
15:30-16:30 Roundtable (Part II)
16:30-17:00 Wrap up and Closing
Source: Joao Geirinhas, Secretary General, EUROGI

Public Private Partnership for Spatial Data Infrastructure in the eGovernment context

The Workshop PPP4SDI will start todayhosted by the La Sapienza University in Rome, Piazza Borghese

Early Short Notes on the Cap Town GEO IV Plenary and Summit

The short note has been submitted to the Board members of GSDI, EUROGI and HUNAGI. Also UNSDI experts and HUCO Stakeholders were informed in copy.
Short Note on the GEO IV
"...First I have to report I am back from a highly successful mission taking part GEO IV Plenary and Ministerial Summit in Cape Town (supported by GSDI and HUNAGI). The CapeTown Declaration was accepted and the expression "spatial data infrastructure" is explicite mentioned in a positive context supporting the UNSDI development.
73 countries including the European Commission and over 40 acknowledged participating organisation (UNESCO, FAO, WMO, WHO, CEOSS, ICSU and many more including GSDI, OGC and EuroGeoSurveys) prepared the text of the Declaration which is now available at www.earthobservations.org
In the Plenary I made interventions on both days as head of the GSDI delegation having on the board Ivan DeLoatch (USDGS, Director of FGDC) as Alternate Head of the Delegation, Doug Neberts (FGDC) and Carmelle J. Terborgh of ESRI. For the Ministerial Summit on 30th November Ivan prepared an excellent GSDI statement, which was read by him. The electronic version has been submitted to the GEO Secretary on the spot and is available also from the HUNAGI Newsblog later today.
The merit of my two interventions were
on 28 Nov In the discussion of the draft text of the Declaration:
1a: GSDI is in favour to keep the "information systems" in the draft text of the Declaration
1b: welcome the UNSDI related draft text, seconded the UNEP delegate's comment, the UNGIWG should be named.
on 29 Nov commenting the Committee Reports:
2a: as effective tool to strengthen the connection between technology and people, the spatial data infrastructure (incl. data, services) has an enabling interface role.
2b: among the GSDI WGs especially the Legal and Economy WG can contribute to the further achievements of the GEO Committee devoted to the user interface.
3b: I emphasized the strong regional involvements in the GSDI activities. I mentioned explicitly the two forthcoming events in the Carribean in 3 months at the West Indies University and the next one in Rotterdam, which will be organised by the interdisciplinary umbrella organisation EUROGI and others in conjuction with the European Commission's Annual GI/GIS Workshop in Rotterdam. It was underlined, both GSDI events can be benefitial for the
activities of the four GEO committees on
- User Interface
- Architecture and Data
- Capacity Building as well as
- Science and Technology.
The high profile meetings were orchestrated by the four Co-Chairs of GEO from EC, US, China and the host South Africa.
Sout Africa and especially the Department of Science and Technology made a great performance to organise the event with excellent logisics, professional content, warm hospitality and also arranged fine weather...
The next GEO will be hosted by China in next November.
Important spin-off opportunities used were used in the breaks and social events which might be beneficial also for EUROGI and HUNAGI:
- Talk to Zoran Stancic, Deputy DG of DG Research, he recognised the presence of the geospatial interest communities,
- Gary J. Foley of US EPA, Co-chair of GEO UIC appreciated my notes on the valuable potential contributions of the experiences and expertizes of NGOs in user interface on global, regional and national level as GSDI, EUROGI and as an example - HUNAGI,
- Douglas Muchoney GEO Secretariat He mentioned the next actions in GEO - Hungarian relations,
- Robert Missotten on the planned HUNAGI action in the UNESCO initiated the International Year of the Planet Earth (he was seemengly well received to hear about IYPE on the spot at the GEO IV),
- Jeanne Foust strategist, Global Manager on SDI at ESRI, she was satisfied with the news she received from the ESRI User Conference held last month,
- Simonetta Cheli Head of the Coordination Office at ESA ESRIN ( since 20 years a friendly contact at ESA for the Hungarian EO experts),
- John S. Latham GLCN Coordinator at FAO, talks in good atmosphere on the UNSDI, GEO and related subjects,
- Werner Balogh, Programme Officer at UN OOSA, on the planned IYPE action of HUNAGI as the geospatial data interest community in 2008 and possible OOSA participation,
- Professor Guo Huadong, DG of the Center of EO and Digital Earth. (He invited me to be member of the Board four month ago). We exchange views on the ISDE- GEO and the Potsdam Summit of Digital Earth advertised also on the spot.
- Jiri Hradec, Director of CENIA, Czech Republic on the NSDI actions on national level and the need and usefulness of exchange of experiences.
- JohnW. Zillman, Chair of GCOS Committee was the next delegation to us. He remembered on the Hungarian link Academician Rudolf Czelnai once his colleagues at WMO, who pioneered the GEO at the Hungarian Academy of Sciencesearly last year,
- Peter T. Gilruth Director, Division of Early Warning and Assessment at UNEP in the UNSDI context,
- Prof. Markus Rotachter of GFZ, Potsdam Delegate of the IAG at GEO (N.B. the next Digital Earth Summit will be hosted by GFZ)
- The African links: EIS Africa Executive Director Sives Govender (short talks in the EUROGI context: AESI_Align project and the Brussels meeting on October 11), Olajide Kufoniyi, Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Training in Aerospace Surveys in Nigeria as well as Terry Newby Programme Manager of Natural Resources Monitoring, Auditing and Impact Assessment ( building links with the FÖMI RSC),
- Gisbert Glaser of ICSU talking on the ICSU-ISPRS links during the 1996-2000 period
- Short daily exchange of views with Alessandro Annoni of DG JRC, Dietmar Grünreich (BKG) and Martin Molenaar of ITC were usual,
- Greg Buehler, Director of the Outreach & Communication Services at OGC how HUNAGI could be partner in the outreach activities.
These are only a part of my report I will submit to the GSDI Board and HUNAGI Presidential Board later this year.
The Event was successfull, the GSDI and HUNAGI was well represented, some opportunities we missed in the past ( e.g. contribution to the printed GEO publications) but the need for the involvement of the geospatial community is steadily growing.
Gabor Remetey..."

CapeTownDeclaration can be find here:
http://www.earthobservations.org/05_Draft%20Cape%20Town%20Declaration%2030%20Nov%20Final%20Draft.pdf

GEO supports UNSDI

The Cape Town Declaration was approved by the Ministers today. Please visit www.earthobservations.org for the official document already released.

Final draft of the Cape Town Declaration ready for the Ministerial Summit scheduled for tomorrow

The partly cloudly Table Mountain as seen from the Cape Town International Convention Center. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
In the declaration there is a paragraph on the recognition that GEOSS can contribute to the development of the UNSDI

500 participants at the GEO IV Plenary and Ministerial Summit

GSDI Delegation at the plenary the SG of HUNAGI and USGS representatives Ivan DeLoatch, Director of FGDC. HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
News in short will follow soon including:
Hungary represented by the former President of the Met Service Zoltán Dunkel
Exchange of views with Alessandro Annoni
Talks with R.Navalgund of SAC, India and Stephen Ungar NASA/CEOS WGCalVal
GSDI seconded UNEP on comment the drafted Ministerial Declaration in the context UNSDI.
Digital Earth and HUNAGI talks in the break
Talks with OGC on possible partnership of HUNAGI
Talks with former CEOS WGISS Chair Ivan Petiteville and UNEP representative
GSDI Delegation at the first Plenary Day
Talks with John Latham of FAO on UNSDI and GeoNetwork

GEO Ministerial Summit and Exhibition will open tomorrow

The Cape Town International Convention Center with Africa's tallest building, venue of the Summit as seen from the highway. Picture was taken from the taxicab just coming from the airport. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Report on the highlights will be given with references and sources asap.

GEOSS User Interface Committee Meeting started

Cape Town International Conference Center. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Chaired by Gary J. Foley, Science Advisor of the US Environmental Protection Agency the meeting of the GEOSS User interface Committe opened the GEO week in Cape Town.

UNSDI Governance Report received for internal comments

In the next minutes, the UNSDI related draft documents will be circulated by UNSDI HUCO for the 16 Hungarian stakeholders for quick internal comments and feedbacks. The UNSDI Governance Report will be presented and discussed at the UNGIWG Plenary in Bangkok next week. It is anticipated, the document has vital impact on the National Coordination Offices, also for the UNSDI HUCO point of view. NCO contribution was provided by the coordinator of the UNSDI NLCO Mr. Jan Cees Venema. The submitted Hungarian model was also taken into account. More news in early December.

HUNAGI representative at the GEO IV Plenary in Cape Town

GEO Sec hosted by the WMO in Geneva. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

GEO IV Plenary now in Africa

Report on the UIC meetings and the Plenary will follow soon.


Tentatively, also a visit at the Division Geomatics of the Department of Architecture, Planning and Geomatics is scheduled for 30th November.


At the Plenary, the Hungarian participant will represent the GSDI Association in a high profile Delagation including leading experts and decision makers of USGS, FGDC, ESRI, CIESIN/Columbia University and OGC.


GEO has 73 countries as members including the European Commission. Pakistan was the 73th entry some days ago. Hungary join the organisation in 2005 as 67th country. GEO Secretariat is hosted by the WMO in Geneva, Switzerland.

UNSDI in the IYPE 2008

The Head of our partner National Coordination Office in the Netherlands Mr. Jan Cees Venema just informed te NCO NL's stakeholders on the actions related to UNSDI and the International Year of Planet Earth in 2008.
"Geachte collega's,
Eind deze maand wordt op de achtste plenaire vergadering van de UN Geographic Information Working Group (UNGIWG) een besluit genomen over de implementatie van UNSDI. De vergadering staat in zijn geheel in het teken van UNSDI: "UNSDI in the Year of Planet Earth". Informatie over de vergadering is hier te vinden...."
In the case of UNSDI HUCO, IYPE is an issue which will be addressed also by HUNAGI in its action plan foreseen for the next year. It was discussed already at the 2nd Meeting of the Hungarian National IYPE Committee on October 30 and will be revisited at the next meeting hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences scheduled for December 5. That time the UNSDI follow-on plan will be known according to the decisions made by the 8th UNGIWG Meeting.

8th UNGIWG Plenary Meeting

Image source: Dusit Thani Bangkok, 2007
UNGIWG will make decision on UNSDI Worldwide Network later this month

From our daily mail today:
"The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UN-OCHA) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as Co-chairs of the UNGIWG will organise the Eighth UNGIWG Plenary Meeting at the Dusit Hotel in Bangkok between 28-30, 2007. UNGIWG-8 deliberations will focus on the adoption of an institutional and technical governance framework for UNSDI while addressing the many-faceted theme of "UNSDI in the Year of Planet Earth." The participants will hear from the UNGIWG Secretariat and Task Group Managers who will report on past year's activities and share their 2008 plans. Innovative and challenging projects related to Geospatial Information Management and SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) in Asia will be presented in a number of modalities including a poster session. More then 30 UN agencies, departments, funds and many local, national or regional partners are expected to attend UNGIWG-8."

Telecon succesfully completed

The telecon focused on the preparation of the UNGIWG-8 Meeting will be held in Bangkok by the end of this month. Invited telecon participants included Jan Cees Venema, Head of NLCO, Prof.Dr. Michael Gould, Head of the ESCO and the Head of the UNSDI Hungarian Coordination Office (HUCO).

The concept of the institutional strengthening of the worldwide network was introduced by the Co-Chair of UNGIWG while the technological details represented by Mr. Suha Ulgen, Coordinator of the Geneva-based Coordination Office were not discussed here. The National Coordination Offices will have the chance to submit additional comments during the next 10 days to be taken into account in the prepared Bangkok document.

UNGIWG telecon scheduled for 6th November 2007

UNSDI Global Partner Meeting speaker Alessandro Annoni in Frascati. Illustration: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Aspects related to the UNSDI on the Agenda
By invitation, the teleconference will be also participated by all national coordination office representatives including The Netherlands, Czech Republic, Spain and Hungary.

Danny Vanderbroucke (Catholic University of Leuven), Jack Delincé (IES DG JRC) and Suha Ulgen (UNGIWG) at the GSDI-9 in Santiago. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006
The invitation cames from Mr. Suha Ulgen, Coordinator of the UN Geographic Information Working Group Secretariat (UNGIWG), Field Information Services Unit (FIS) of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Geneva, Switzerland. The date and time was decided today. The call for the telecon will be kindly arranged by UNGIWG. The information on this action will be shared by the stakeholders of the UNSDI HUCO by direct e-mail and using the http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/ the newsblog of HUNAGI in Hungarian language.

UNSDI HUCO Newsblog Statistics in October 2007

This newsblog was visited between October 1-31, 2007 from 56 countries. Breakdown: Hungary 16,8% USA 15,9% Germany 9,3% Italy 6,7% The Netherland 4,0%

During the last 12 months www.unsdi.hu was visited by 4533 people. The illustration shows the global geographical distribution.

2nd Meeting of the National Commitee on the International Year of Planet Earth

Preparation of the Hungarian Opening of the International Year of Planet Earth

The meeting Chaired by Dr. Károly Brezsnyánszky was hosted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

HUNAGI and five of its member institutes were represented including MTA TAKI, MÁFI, GGKI, MTA FTI and BME.

Earth Observation on the former space flights and ISS

Images: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

Prof. Dr. Ernst Messerschmidt of the University of Stuttgart, former Astronaut. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

German Astronaut in Budapest 29 - 30 October.

ELTE Chair of Cartography and Geoinformatics (Member of HUNAGI) hosted the meeting devoted to the presentation of Prof. Messerschmidt. Hungarian Astronaut Bertalan Farkas also introduced a movie on the ISS. HUNAGI SG was invited by Prof. Dr. László Zentai of ELTE. Former Rector of the ELTE Prof. Dr. István Klinghammer and Dr. Gábor Gercsák were also present.

Schocking imageries were shown on the Aral-Sea. Due to the intensive irrigation of new plantations along the Sir-Darja, the Aral Sea experienced dramatic changes in size of its water surface.

Aral Sea as seen from the orbit by the Astronaut Messerschmidt in 1985. Photos taken on the projected images of Prof. Dr. Messerschmidt

UNSDI HUCO activities reported by the EUROGI EMM in Lisbon

Bruce McCormack, Convener of the Internatinal Affairs WAG, manager of the networking programmes focusing on Africa and Eastern Europe in action. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Report with references will come soon. Photographic coverage is downloadable at http://hunagi.blogspot.com

ESRI Hungary Annual User Conference addressed also UNSDI in the keynote speech

Text will come soon.
Visit also http://hunagi.blogspot.com for further details.

UN/China Regional UN-SPIDER Workshop in Shenzen, China

From our daily mail. David Stevens wote from the UN-SPIDER of UN OOSA, Vienna:
Dear Colleagues, This is the last announcement for the "United Nations/China RegionalUN-SPIDER Workshop: Building Upon Regional Space-based Solutions forDisaster Management and Emergency Response" in Shenzhen, China, 03 to 05December 2007. Deadline for receiving your application has been extended to 31 October 2007. Please find attached the Information Note. Additional information can be found on our website: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/unspider/workshops.html
The venue of the workshop will be at the superb MING WAH International Convention Center, Shenzhen, China. For self-funded participants the room rates are: Standard Room (single/double): RMB380/room/night (breakfast included). Deluxe rooms and Deluxe Suites are a bit more expensive. Check out: http://www.mhctr.com
The general objective of this workshop is to present the current status ofspace technology for disaster management and emergency response within the region;
Discuss the UN-SPIDER awareness raising strategy proposal buildingupon examples of similar successful strategies carried out by other organisations within the region;
Discuss the development of country profiles, user input for the establishment of a UN-SPIDER Knowledge Portaland capacity building needs in the region;
Define ways and means ofefficiently coordinating and interacting with National Focal Points and theNetwork of Regional Support Offices;
Reflect on the best concepts for delivering support to both national activities and to national planning andpolicies, that consider the use of space-based technologies, and;
Review and discuss activities to be carried out by National Focal Points with the support from UN-SPIDER and the Network of Regional Support Offices.
Participation is limited to 40 decision-makers and senior experts representing the following group: UN-SPIDER National Focal Points and experts from the Network of Regional Support Offices in East and Southeast Asia; Other national and regional institutions responsible for providing disaster management support; National and regional institutions responsiblefor building capacity and promoting the use of space-based technologies; UN agencies and NGOs involved in disaster mitigation and relief; Space agencies, and ; Academic institutions; Within the limited financial resources available, a number of selected international participants, representing institutions from East and Southeast Asia, will be offered financial support to attend this International UN-SPIDER Workshop.
If you have any additional questionsplease contact Mr. Georg Magerl (e-mail: georg.magerl@unvienna.org). Within its plan of work, UN-SPIDER is organizing a series of workshops and expert meeting bringing together experts and relevant professionals fromaround the world with the aim of discussing and shaping the future activities of this new programme. The latest information and materials related to these activities are available online at http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/unspider/workshops.html (Notice of the blogger: the file is downloadable at : http://www.fomi.hu/HUNAGI/pdf/2004/Shenzhen.pdf )
Best regards, David Stevens Programme Coordinator UN-SPIDER United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs Vienna - AustriaTel. ++43-(1)-26060-5631 - Skype: tazarkountFAX ++43-(1)-260607-5631 - E-Mail david.stevens@unvienna.org

Presentations of the HUNAGI Forum on GIS/GI and eGovernance are available here soon

At the HUNAGI Forum 2007 14 presentations have been delivered. The majority of them are available in digital form for the public here soon.

Spatial data infrastructure emphasized at WGISS-24

Introducing the Global Landcover change monitoring programme of NASA. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

After the session devoted to the German achievements in Earth Observation, the WGISS-24 was discussed the contributions to GEOSS. Among the Liasions' reports to WGISS an update also on GSDI Association was given mentioning the regional and local level activities too as example. UN SDI strategy and HUCO was mentioned in this context raising awareness on the UNGIWG Meeting decision scheduled to be made in Bangkok in November on the road map.
The presentation is downloadable here:
www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/GSDIliasionReport.pdf

CEOS WGISS-24 Meeting started yesterday

Ivan Petteville, Chair of the CEOS WG on Information Systems and Services opened the Meeting yesterday morning. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
Actually, Ian Petiteville is also Co-chair of the GEOSS Task Group on Architecture together with Alessandro Annoni, Head of the SDI Unit at IES of DG JRC.
For more news on the event please visit http://hunagi.blogspot.com
Photographic coverage of the meeting

Albert A. Gore and the UN IPCC share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize

This highest acknowledgement for the researchers of Global Change gives also impetus for the communities working on enabling technologies and information services
The interdiscliplinary communities of this latter on global (GSDI), regional (EUROGI) and national level (eg. HUNAGI) play important role
For more news in the subject and its HUNAGI UNSDI HUCO relevance please visit our newsblog at http://hunagi.blogspot.com
Just travelling to the site of the 24th CEOS Meeting of the Working Group Information Systems and Services held in Oberpfafenhofen on the premises of the German Aerospace Center a stopover was made in Seewalchen am Attersee to make this spot on the blog.

More news on the Earth Observation community latest achievement in line with the GEO Action Plan and their relevance with the global, regional and local spatial data infrastructure will be published here asap

Interesting addendum was just received from Debbie Gelbard from Jerusalem referring to the following link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=email_en&refer=home&sid=addY34LZbj6M

12th GIS Workshop in Cluj-Napoca with Hungarian guest speakers

Prof. Dr. Márton Gyárfás, Scientific Director of Geotop SRL and Dr. Rezső Berencei, Managing Director of HUNGIS Foundation in the break. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

GIS Workshop achieved international acknowled-gement

74 participants attend the Opening Session of the 3-day Workshop devoted to GIS applications and related enabling services.

The invited presentation given by HUNAGI representative gave a three level roundview on the SDI-related networking and best practices. GSDI, EUROGI and the project managements of Humboldt and eSDI-Net+ provided customized information for the speaker and exact references enabled for the audience to encourage further readings. Also UNSDI was mentioned with the notice, in November 2007 the UNGIWG will make important decisions influencing the follow-on activities of the National Coordination Offices already formed in 4 European countries. The speech was consecutively translated to Romanian by Prof. Dr. Sándor Selinger, Director of the Dennis Gabor Foundation.

The event is hosted by the fine building of the Municipality building of the County Kolozs. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

Photographic portfolio of the event will be available soon at

http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/Cluj-Napoca

as well as

http://picasaweb.google.com/gabor.remetey/Cluj

Visual Public Services - GIS and the E-Government

Cover page of the university textbook. Courtesy by Dr. István Tózsa, HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

Visual Public Services
GIS and E-Government
all colour university textbook
270 pages

Contents:

Information Society and E-Government
Types of GIS and Fileds of Their Application in Administration
GIS in Public Services
GIS and CAD in Property Management and Building Administration
Communal Services and GIS (Education, Health and Social Care)
Public Utilities with GIS and CAD (Water, Electricity, Gas, Sewage, Communication)
Commercial and Personal Services (Bank, Insurance Company, Enterprise, Consumers)
Urban Environmental Services and GIS (Waste, Green Management, Cemetaries, etc.)
Public Transportation (GIS and GPS Application)
GIS in Recreation, Tourism, Emergency Mangement, Wild Life, Environmental Protection
GIS in Urban Management (Satistics, Politics, Police, Town planning, Decision Making GIS)
GIS with Satellite Images, Internet and Mobilephones
GIS in the Everyday Best Practices of Local Governments
Urban zoning
ESRI Solutions
GIS in Micro Regions
GeoView Solutions
Kolibri Forte Solutions
Legal Regulation of GIS Application in Urban Management
GIS and the Information Warfare
Future of the Urban GIS

The textbook entitled "Visual Public Services - GIS and E-Government" will be published in November 2007. The Author is Head of the Department for Public Management and Urban Studies at the Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Public Administration, a member of HUNAGI.
More information:

http://hunagi8.blogspot.com

or please contact directly

Prof. Istvan Tózsa
Corvinus University of Budapest, Faculty of Public Administration
Head of Department for Public Management and Urban Studies
istvan.tozsa@uni-corvinus.hu
www.e-government.hu
www.mgsg.org

HUNAGI Forum 2007 - Meeting of the Government and Spatial Data Community

GIS support for the Government from local to central.
The most important EU legislation frameworks (including INSPIRE, WFD, PSI) and the associated governmental tasks will be introduced and discussed at the Forum, a joint event of HUNAGI and the Methodological Center of e-Government in Budapest. Also best practices will be referred to ensure awareness raising of the top governmental officials of the relevant, leading ministries. ICT experts of the major cities and the members of HUNAGI will be also invited. Many of them will contribute to the event actively delivering presentations or referates.
The HUNAGI Forum is scheduled for 11 October 2007. The discussion will be moderated by HUNAGI President Zsolt Barkóczi. The Program is available in Hungarian at the http://hunagi8.blogspot.com/ and the English version will be highlighted here asap.

40 year of the Hungarian Land Administration under the MoARD roof

The building of MoARD which hosts the Department of Land Administration and Geoinformation. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

HUNAGI Forum Program Enhanced

The Forum is scheduled for 11 October and will be hosted by the Methodological Center for eGovernment in Budapest.
Programme with Invitation will be sent out on 26th September for the HUNAGI Members and for special invitees.

European Networking and Best Practices in SDI

HUNAGI in the eSDINetplus consortium
Kick-off Meeting was hosted by INI-Graphics Foundation of the Fraunhofer Institute in Darmstadt, Germany.
More details in http://hunagi.blogspot.com
Photo coverage at
http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/eSDINetKickOff

HUNAGI invited to the Summit of the Hungarian Land Administration

Windy scene at the Lake Balaton as seen from Siófok, venue of the Meeting of the Heads of Hungarian Land Administration's County Land Offices. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

More news on the

http://hunagi8.blogspot.com

Intelligent Transportation Systems - growing market in Central and Eastern Europe.

One of the case study presented by Tamás Prajczer of GeoX. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

TeleAtlas Business Workshop in Budapest

The services provided by Intelligent Transportation Systems related companies needs typically seemless data especially in cross-border environment. Now the TeleAtlas Info Day arranged for the ITS developer and user community at the Makadam Klub in Budapest highlighted not only the features and products of TeleAtlas but also some interesting case studies dealing with crime, launching TMC service etc. On 27th September a full day conference will be devoted to the subject ITS organised by ITS-Hungary and HUNGIS Foundation. HUNAGI was actually one of the founder of ITS-Hungary.

Both UNSDI CZCO and HUCO officers at the Humboldt Meeting

Both Karel Charvat of UNSDI Czech Coordination Office and the UNSDI HUCO chair were attended the Meeting of the FP6 project called Humboldt hosted by the Hellenic Marine Research Institute in Heraklion

Photo portfolio of the Humboldt Meetings in Crete

Hotel Atlantis, venue of the Humboldt Meetings
The photo collection on the event and people:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/Humboldt2ndARBMeeting

The photo collection on the environment (Heraklion, Crete)
http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagi.hu/Crete

Humboldt project meetings in Heraklion, Crete

The Humboldt Advisory and Review Board at work. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
A series of Humboldt project meetings have been started today with active participation of FÖMI as member of the consortium.
Tomorrow, the meeting with the members of the Humboldt project's Advisory and Reviewers' Board will enhance the programme. Friday the Working Package leaders will have discussions with ptional participation of the ARB members.
For more information on the Humboldt project please visit http://www.esdi-humboldt.eu

HUNAGI FORUM 2007

Participating members of the HUNAGI Presidential Board made proactive decision today. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

Theme selected for the HUNAGI FORUM 2007:
GI/GIS support of the eGovernment

The Presidential Board of HUNAGI has decided the arrangement of a dedicated Forum for the representatives of Central, Regional and Local Governments in the theme "GI/GIS support of Governmental Activities". Topics will include the explanation of some recent European directives such as WFD, PSI, INSPIRE and their inpacts in the daily works of the authorities, best practices from the international arena. Also a discussion forum generating active participation of the attendees is foreseen. The HUNAGI Forum will take place in the 3rd Quarter of 2007 under the auspice of the Methodological Center for eGovernance (EKMK).

Sunrise for the re-use of ePSI ?

Sunrise over Copenhagen, Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007
The day of the ePSIplus Thematic Workshop in Copenhagen
After the presentation of the invited experts representing Pan-European and National Associations, National Projects the following debate issues have been discussed: ·
What are the top issues that have arisen from the Association presentations and how best should these be addressed?
· What is the best approach to encourage and then support PSI re-use entrepreneurs?
· What is the best way to maximize the impact of the Associations efforts at the pan European level?
· What is the best approach to reconcile differing views on PSI Re-use within and across Associations?
· Who are the Champions within Europe with respect to PSI Re-use?
All the presentations will be available on the official website http://www.epsiplus.net/ on tomorrow!
Please visit it and register for the free of charge Newsletter issued in every 3-4 months.
A news item has also been posted to ePSIplus that enables one to link to the event page. The News URL is:
http://www.epsiplus.net/epsiplus/news/copenhagen_hosts_associations
Conclusions of another ePSIplus meetings are available at
http://www.epsiplus.net/epsiplus/news/pricing_meeting_report_published
"Please keep an eye on the Copenhagen meeting event page as further material will be added related to the meeting itself" was written in a follow-on letter by the organisers Chris Corbin, Gerhard Wagner and Olga McHenry, all Analysts for ePSIplus.

GSDI's thematic and regional discussion lists

From our daily mail: Ms.Kate Lance of ITC wrote this afternoon:
" Hello Gabor,
Perhaps you could mention GSDI's various thematic and regional discussion lists at the UNSDI HUCO blog
http://www.gsdi.org/discussionlists.asp
These discussion lists, which provide news and announcements of opportunities intermittently, are open to anyone to read on the web. To submit comments to a list or to receive submitted comments by e-mail, one must register.
Technical Working Group Discussion List
Legal and Economic Working Group Discussion List
SDI Africa Discussion List
SDI Asia and Pacific Discussion List
SDI Europe Discussion List
SDI North America Discussion List
SDI South and Central America and the Caribbean Discussion List"

SDI in Latin America

Santiago de Chile, venue of the forthcoming ICA Conference. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

Newsletter IDE Iberoamérica V3 Nr 8

From our daily mail: Ms. Lic.Prof.Agrim. Mabel Alvarez wrote:
"Envío adjunto archivo conteniendo el Newsletter IDE Iberoamérica V3 Nro.8
Cordiales Saludos, Mabel Alvarez"
The Newsletter can be found here: www.fomi.hu/hunagi/pdf/2004/Iberoamerica8.pdf

UNSDI Secretariat in Geneva

UN Headquarters in Geneva. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

UNSDI Secretariat is expected to be operational in September

Our international SDI expert partner Jelle U. Hielkema wrote in his recent e-mail:

"... a few UNGIWG and UNSDI developments since the Co-Chair changeoever to UN-OCHA and UNHCR in April. As most of you know, in June and following a visit of the OCHA Co-Chair to FAO in May, two days of intensive teleconferencing between the outgoing Co-Chair, David Kaatrud, the new Co-Chairs, Alta Haggarty (OCHA) and Karl Steinacker (UNHCR), the Task Group Leaders and Secretariat staff took place on 7 and 8 June. The reports of these hand-over and priorities formulation discussion can be found on www.ungiwg.org under 'documents and meetings'. If these are still draft documents, the final versions should be there imminently as the deadline for comments was 24 August. The reports will give you a good flavour for where the UNSDI development process currently stands and what the priorities are between now and UNGIWG-8 in Bangkok in late November, governance options formulation and communication aspects being key elements. The other key development is that a UNSDI Secretariat is being set up in Geneva and expected to become fully operational in September. This office will be headed by Suha Ulgen of OCHA and he is assisted by Franck Albinet of UNHCR, who is already in Geneva since early June..."

For the official releases please visit the website http://www.ungiwg.org/

KNSDI Developments in East Africa

Screenprint of the blog of "the interoperability guy" Mr. Mick Wilson.

Newsblog on the SDI Developments in Nairobi, Kenya.

Jelle U. Hielkema wrote in his mail today: "... I don't know whether you have been following Mick Wilson & Co's praiseworthy no-budget, truly bottom -up SDI development efforts in Nairobi since March but a lot what he reports in his blog http://sdi-ea.blogspot.com/ is highly worthwhile reading and his most recent statement hit a few nails right on the head! "

Special: Birthday of Hungary celebrated today

Crowded riverbank in front of the Parliament. Hunagi Visuals resources, 2007


One of the highlights was the spectacular Air Race over the Danube in Budapest. The flights of the four bests Mike Mangold, Kirby Chambliss, Paul Bonhomme and Péter Bessenyei were visualized and the measurements over the water surface and below the Chain Bridge were shown in cm accuracy. A collection of snapshots were taken for HUNAGI Visuals resource to be found at http://hunagi18.blogspot.com

Please note, during the past several hours www.unsdi.hu website was visited from Argentina, Australia, USA, Italy, Portugal including FAO, University of Georgia and USAID. Anyone can subscribe for the HUNAGI e-Newsletter. Simply write a request to hunagi@hunagi.hu giving your name, affiliation and e-mail.

Information Systems and Services in Earth Observation

WGISS-21 Meeting in the Hotel Gellért, Budapest. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

CEOS WGISS-24 hosted by DLR in Oberpfaffen-hofen, 15-19 October 2007

The program will be available soon. GSDI Association will be represented by the Hungarian member of the Board, liason between GSDI and the WGISS of CEOS, the Committee on Earth Observation Systems.

October 17 will be devoted to the presentations of the host institution, the German Aerospace Agency (DLR).
This half-day WGISS-24 Host Workshop will introduce the new and upcoming German Earth Observation missions which have been developed as Public Private Partnership where industry supplies the mission hardware and commercial user services, and DLR provides ground segment and user services for science users.
Preliminary Agenda of the DLR German Remote Sensing Data Center includes the highlights of the New German EO Missions - Industry and Science Supporting GMES
The TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X Missions (Infoterra Germany), The EnMap Mission (Kayser-Threde GmbH)
The RapidEye Mission (RapidEye AG), The DLR Multi-Mission Groundsegment (DLR) and GMES Applications Exploiting the New Missions (DLR).

You might know, the CEOS WGISS -21 and WGCV Meetings were held in Budapest arranged by EOGEO Hungary Foundation and hosted by HUNAGI in Spring, 2006. That WGISS Meeting had a Host Workshop too with active participation of many important Hungarian stakeholders (Hungarian Space Research Office, MoAgriculture and Rural Development, MoEnvironment and Water, FÖMI Institute of Geodesy, Cartography and Remote Sensing, Geological Institute of Hungary, National Meteorological Service, National Park Kiskunság, and NGOs such as Hungarian Society of Astronautics), most of them founder of the UNSDI HUCO in 2006.

Among the last 15 blog visitors today the following entities were identifyable: Macmillan Publisher, Linkoping University and the web map server provider AED Sicad of Siemens.

8th UNGIWG Meeting coupled with Meeting on the use of space technologies for emergency response

Illustration: UN Conference Centre in Bangkok. Source: www.cms.int

8th UNGIWG Meeting
28-30 November 2007
Bangkok, Thailand
4th UN-wide Meeting on the Use of Space Technologies for Emergency Response and Humanitarian Assistance (27 November 2007, Bangkok, Thailand -back-to-back with the 8th UNGIWG meeting 28 – 30 November 2007, Bangkok,Thailand).
Participation is limited to representatives from United Nations agencies and from organisations and institutions interested in contributing to the work of the United Nations in the area of space-based information for disaster management, emergency response and humanitarian assistance. This meeting is being organised together with UNESCAP.
Source of the news: David Stevens Programme Coordinator UN-SPIDER United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, Vienna - Austria. For details of the latest circular in English please visit: http://hunagi.blogspot.com/2007/08/un-spider-outreach-activities.html#links

Hungarian Consortium prepares participation of eSDI-Net+p Meeting

Meeting venue, the Fraunhofer Institute. Image source: Darmstadt, Cityreview from Internet


Kick-off Meeting of eSDI-Net+
with a Hungarian Consortium represented by HUNAGI
Darmstadt, 20-21 September 2007

Chaired by HUNAGI President Zsolt Barkóczi a meeting was held in Budapest yesterday to prepare the set up the consortium which takes part in the international eContentplus project called SDI-Net+.
The Hungarian participation will be coordinated by HUNAGI, which will serve as liason with Inigraphics, the overall project coordinator. The content will be provided by VÁTI and Ihlet Public Benefit Companies, HUNAGI and Bonaventura Ltd. The Kick-off meeting will be hosted by the Fraunhofer Institut's Inigraphics in Darmstadt, Germany on 20-21 September 2007.

UNSDI as reflected by the international press

Roger Longhorn, Editor of GEOconnexion at the 13th EC GIS/GI Workshop with the Winner of the Poster Contest. Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2007

GEOconnexion published article on UNSDI in its July/August Issue

From our mail. Roger Longhorn, Editor of the GeoConnexion Journal wrote:
"Gentlemen, The UNSDI article is in the July-August issue that begins shipping today and on-line at the magazine web site www.geoconnexion.com"
The article is a contribution of Jelle Hielkema, SDI expert of the UNGIWG Secretariat.
Please note, the future of the UNSDI strategy implementation will be on the agenda of the UN UNGIWG Meeting will be held in Bangkok in November this year. Our Newsblog will inform you on any development.

Our blog was visited today among others by NASA, Massachussetts Institute of Technology, ITC, Russian Space Science, John Wiley & Sons and National University of Rwanda.

Facilitating the Re-use of Public Sector Information in Europe

Meeting room of the Falconer Radisson SAS Hotel, venue of the meeting. Image source: Radisson Hotels website, 2007

.

1st Thematic Meeting : PSI re-use business with the European Associations will be held in Copenhagen on 31 August 2007

President of EUROGI and SG of HUNAGI have been invited.

For details please visit http://www.epsiplus.net/

More information: ePSIplus Meetings Coordinator Olga.McHenry@epsiplus.net

UNSDI.HU website attacted 420 visitors from 49 countries in July

Last 15 visitors as displayed by ShinyStat. Image Visuals resource, 2007

United Nations, Japanese Ministry of Education, University of Jena, European Commission among the visitors of the last several hours

Breakdown by countries: Hungary 23%, USA 22%, The Netherlands 9%, Germany 5%, United Kingdom 4%, India, Canada, Italy,Austria, Japan, European Institutions etc.

The GeoVisitor sketch of the geographical distribution of the http://www.unsdi.hu/ site visitors of the past 24 hours.

Contribution SDIC HUNAGI to the panel discussion at the 13th EC GI&GIS Workshop

Even this commercial wristwatch of today is using process control, based on the time service of an ultra-precise clock and a regular radio communication from thousand km distance. Guess if the Internet, PC and GNSS capabilities will be added within a decade... Image: HUNAGI Visuals resource, 2006

The 4th dimension - the temporality in GI/GIS -

the potentials are unlimited
The importance of the time aspect, the temporal dimension was underlined. The slightly enhanced version of the merit of the HUNAGI comment is as follows:
While the excellent presentation on the Healtcare GIS in the Environment II Session was focusing on GIS based monitoring and reporting having an impact on the policy planning and legislation amendments in month and years on the time scale, many GI/GIS application environments needs feedbacks with a turnaround time in days and weeks. But the indoor and outdoor sensors, measurement devices and wireless intercommucation technologies today allow also near-real time feedbacks and control with decisions on reactions in minutes and hours. The timescale and temporal resolutions are extremely important aspects in many applications from disaster mitigation to healthcare and from history-GIS to geoscience and life science related investigations. Meteorology is the best example, how their operational services can facilitate the daily life and human activities based on full 4 dimension modelling, simulation and forecasting.
It is encouraged to improve the INSPIRE legislation framework on a longer run taken into account the potentials of the 4th dimension, which is not only a subject of research but also innovation and daily practice.
Based on the exchange of views with the acknowledged expert Professor Michael K.Buckland at the 5th Digital Earth Symposium held at UC Berkeley recently, by invitation HUNAGI is now looking for committed experts who can join the team dealing with the temporal changes of objects and phenomena of the real world, which are usually represented by maps and databases having validity only for a given time or timeframe.

AfricaGIS 2007 - A UN SPIDER Announcement

Africa GIS 2007
will be held in Burkina Faso

From our daily mail: SPIDER Programme Coordinator Mr. David Stevens of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
Please find attached the announcement/information of the next IEEE GEOSS Workshop - The User and the GEOSS Architecture which will be held inBurkina Faso just before the planned AfricaGIS 2007. This is the 17thworkshop in this series of workshops. These workshops have beencontributing in a significant way to bringing the user community to GEO andUNOOSA has been promoting and participating in several of these meetings.
If you are planning to attend AfricaGIS 2007 (http://www.africagis2007.gov.bf/) then you should definitely plan toattend this workshop as well.If you would like to receive further info please contact (please do notcontact me as I will just be forwarding your e-mail directly to him): Mr. Jay PearlmanTelephone ++1 (253) 773 5419, Fax ++1 (253) 773 2772email: jay.pearlman@boeing.com RegardsDavid (See attached file: AfricaGIS 2007 GEOSS Workshop.pdf)
David Stevens Programme Coordinator UN-SPIDER United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs Vienna - AustriaTel. ++43-(1)-26060-5631 - Skype: tazarkountFAX ++43-(1)-260607-5631 - E-Mail david.stevens@unvienna.org