Because the Open GIS Consortium's headquarters is in the United States, and because I live in the United States, it's easy to imagine this corner of the world has a "lead" on geospatial interoperability. Of course, in today's world of real-time collaboration and a new Europe, that idea would be hard to defend.

So, it's with some pleasure that I introduce the first issue of OGC User of 2004 which takes a look at the role of standards within the spatial data infrastructure work of INSPIRE and a European prototype for coastal zone management.

We are interested in the use of OpenGIS Specifications in all corners of the world (and beyond). We encourage you to share what's going on where you are.

Spatial Data Infrastructure and Return on Investment

Almost anyone involved in geospatial pursuits could make an argument for data sharing and data and services interoperability. But how do you explore the impact of creating this piece of the information infrastructure? How do you quantify costs and benefits, the return on investment (ROI)? That's the task that fell to the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE) Framework Definition Support (FDS) Working Group. The group of 35 contributors and several dozen stakeholder reviewers with the aid of contractor Max Craglia of Sheffield University (UK) put together a report answering those very questions in the context of a spatial data infrastructure for the European Union. The document, available online, presents an interesting process for examining these questions, along with some insightful conclusions.

by Éamonn Ó Tuama (1), Clive Best(2), Torill Hamre(3) (1) Coastal & Marine Resources Centre (Ionad Acmhainní Cósta is Mara) - ERI, University College Cork (IE)
(2) Joint Research Centre (JRC) - Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen (IPSC), Ispra (IT)
(3) Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center (NERSC), Bergen (NO)

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt of a paper presented at CoastGIS 2003 in Genoa, Italy in October 2003. Used by permission of the authors. The complete paper is online.