HUNAGI contributions to the GSDI/IGS Newsletter

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: 

• Conference website (including Chair’s Summary: http://www.cyberbudapest2012.hu/index
• OECD Internet Economy Outlook  2012: http://www.oecd.org/newsroom/launchofoecdinterneteconomyoutlook2012atbudapestconferenceoncyberspacethursday4october2012.htm

• World Bank 2012 Strategy for Information and Communication Technology: http://web.worldbank.org 

• HUNAGI photo album:  http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagialbums/CyberspaceConferenceBudapest 

     The next Cyberspace Conference will be in Seoul, South-Korea in 2013.

ICSU 23^rd CODATA Conference, Taipei

Hosted by the Academica Sinica Campus in Taipei, the 23^rd 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

-       1^st 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 14^th 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

http://picasaweb.google.com/hunagialbums