By request of Roger Longhorn, Editor of SDI Mag and the GSDI/IGS Newsletter, HUNAGI compiled short reports on some recent global events participated including Cyberspace Conference 2012, ICSU 23rd CODATA Conference and GEO-IX Plenary Meeting. Here you are the unedited row draft text submitted to Roger Longhorn, Chair, Communication and Outreach Committee, GSDI Association:
'Cyberspace Conference, Budapest
The Cyberspace Conference
started in London in 2011 was hosted by the Hungarian Government between 3-5
October this year with the slogan “With trust and security for freedom and
prosperity”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with VIPs just before the Opening session
The high profile event with 600
participants from 60 countries was opened by the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orbán and attended by the high representative of the European Union for Foreign
Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, Vice President of the European
Commission and many ministers from all over the world. The Budapest Conference was welcomed in a
videobroadcasted message by US State Secretary
Hillary Clinton as well. Among
the invited participants representative
of the Hungarian GI Association HUNAGI was present. Gabor Remetey, member of
GSDI Legal and Socioecon Committee made intervention in the discussion Social
Benefits and Human Rights with the subject how the privacy will be ensured in an
era, where the development and applications of new technologies in data and
information gathering growths with unprecedented speed as it is anticipated 50
bn wireless mobile devices will be connected to the Internet in 2020.
Acknowledged IoT (Internet of Things) experts of the panel including Prof.
Wolfgang Kleinwaechter discussed the issue addressed.
According to the talks, concensus
was found
- -
Internet especially mobile Internet is a major
driver
- -
everybody is stakeholder in the Cyberspace
- -
broadband is a key for the society and economy
- -
there is a need for confidence and trust
- -
openess, transparency, responsibility and
accountability are essential
- -
international cooperation and use of standards
is vital
- -
dialogs should be continued
- -
call the next generation to be involved
- -
connectivity, innovation and communication are crutial
- -
ability to transform and flexibility is needed
- -
sharing skill and knowledge, best practices and
lessons learned is important
- -
sharing digital content, open access and use of
data
- -
crutial role of the government, industry,
academia and NGOs
- -
balancing between security and freedom is a
delicate task – they are not incompatible.
Further readings:
The next Cyberspace Conference
will be in Seoul, South-Korea in 2013.
ICSU 23rd CODATA Conference,
Taipei
Hosted by the Academica Sinica
Campus in Taipei, the 23rd CODATA
Conference of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) was opened by Prof. Yuan-Tsai
Lee, President of ICSU and Academician Guo Huadong, President of CODATA (CEODE,
Beijing China). CODATA was established
in 1966 by ICSU.
GSDI SocioEcon Impact Com Co-chair Jeremy Shen
(Taipei, Taiwan) and several Legal & SocioEcon Com (LSE) members took
actively part on the international event. Prof. Anne Fitzgerald (QUT Law
School, Brisbane, Australia) delivered a lecture on the use of social media to
collect and disseminate emergency information highlighting the case study of the Queensland Police Service in the theme
disaster management and social media.
In a parallel session organised
by the International Society of Digital Earth (ISDE) under the theme “ Digital
Earth in Data Intensive Era” Gabor Remetey (HUNAGI, Budapest, Hungary) had a presentation
entitled “Shared and open data –
European efforts and practice from an NGO perspective “. With Co-authors
Katleen Janssen (KU Leuven, Belgium, Co Chair of GSDI LSE) and Catherina Bamps
(EUROGI) the talk gave an overview from European data policies (INSPIRE, PSI,
ODP) to projects such as LAPSI and LAPSI 2.0 making emphasis on relevant
activities of GSDI as well. This ISDE Session had further speakers from
University of Osnabrück, USGCRP, NASA HQ, NASA ARC, NSF-George Mason University
in the subjects beyond the next generation Digital Earth, open data, Big Data,
NEX, cloud computing. The Annual ICSU CODATA Award was given to Prof. Mike Goodchild
this year.
GEO-IX Plenary Meeting, Foz Do Iguacu
Established in 2005, the Geneva–based
Group on Earth Observation (hosted by WMO) held its 9th Plenary Meeting first time in
South America. Supported by INPE, the
Brazil Space Research Institution, The World Bank and the Brazil Ministry of
Science and Technology, the event was chaired by Manuela Suarez of the European
Commission. Other ExCom members from South Africa, China and the USA as well as
the new Director-general of INPE Leonel Perondi gave welcome addresses. Under
the Secretary leadership of Ms. Barbara J. Ryan and with the new membership
applications recognised by the plenary (Ivory Coast, ICA, The UN Convention to Combat Desertification
UNCCD and the World Data System) GEO has 88 member countries + the European
Commission and 67 participating organisations. Highlights of the presentations
include
-
1st Assessment of Progress against
the GEOSS 2015 Strategic Targets with special emphasis on the nine societal
benefit areas
-
Thematic evaluation and providing conclusions,
findings and recommendations in the context
o large
cooperative initiatives, which are major accomplishments for GEOrecognized by
G20 and UN,
o gaps
and gap analysis,
o ecosystems,
o user
engagement,
o challenges:resources
and participation
GEOSS Common Infrastructure (EC, Italy, Japan,
USA, ESA, IEEE, OGC)
-
Access to GEOSS Resources (430 components:
datasets, systems and portals registered)
-
GEOSS Data CORE (Data Sharing Working Group) So
far over 14700 Data-CORE resources are visible and accessible via GEO Portal
-
Rapid and Open Disasters Information (Germany,
Italy, Japan, Turkey, USA, CEOS, EPOS, ESA)
-
Global and Local Urban Footprints (China, EC,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Pakistan, USA) 35 year evolution of 26 mega-cities,
global night-time lights for 2012, urban hat island patterns, over 3700 cities
mapped using ASTER with 15 m resolution
-
New Energy Tools and Services (Austria, EC,
France, Germny, Italy, Netherlands, Pakistan, USA, CEOS, IRENA)
-
Tools for Health Decision-Making (Brazil, EC,
France, India, Germany, USA, ACMAD, WHO, WMO) mobile phone Apps, high-risk
zones, etc.
Additional topics covered include
Bridging Ocean Communities, More Water
Information, Cold Region Monitoring,
Extreme Wether Early Warning,
Climate Change Detection and Adaptation, Carbon Assessments and
Budgets, Global Forest Information
System, Advanced Land-cover
Products, Crop Information for Decision-Making,
GEO Biodiversity Observation Network, More Capacity to Use GEOSS, GEONETCast Expanded, Meeting User Needs,
Engaging Users
-
Universal Access to the international Charter
“space and major disasters”
-
Oceans and Society: the Blue Planet (an
integrating Oceans Task of GEO)
-
AfriGEOSS: stablishing Africa’s Participation
and Contribution to the Global Vision
Discussion points addressed include wether GEO should
continue post 2015 and why. Strategic Direction options, Societal Benefit Area
options, Governance options.
-
GEOGLAM Initiative taking into account the G20
Agriculture priorities
-
The GEO-wiki Project presented by IIASA
-
GEO Post-2015 Working Group findings (interim
report)
The exhibition was dominated by the booths of CEOS, China,
USA: GEOSS in the Americas, Japan (JAMSTEC), South Africa (SAGEO), IEEE, and by
Russian, Austrian, German institutions, international and EU projects such as GEONETCast, COBWEB
and others. The European Commission organised intensive side Events with
introductions of GEOSS-related actions, projects and international achievements
GSDI Association made
intervention in the plenary discusion of the AfriGEOSS initiative, announcing
the venue, date, co-organisers and objectives of the 14th GSDI World
Conference held in Addis Abbaba next November.
On the second day among 12 other participating organisations such as
WMO, IEEE, CEOS, GSDI delegate Gabor Remetey presented a GSDI statement
highlighting the mutual benefits for the Earth Observation and the geospatial
data infratructure communities. IGS, GIKNet, involvement in GEOSS task force,
GEO participating organisations’ actions in case of CEOS WGISS, ICSU CODATA and
ISDE activities only a few to mention.
The GEO X will be hosted by the
Swiss Government.
Further photos will be uploaded
to
