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Amicalement

Francois Salge
------------------
Secretaire General
Conseil National de l'Information Geographique
adresse: CNIG, 136 bis rue de Grenelle, 75700 Paris 07SP, France
telephone:  33 1 43 98 83 07
telecopie/fax:  33 1 43 98 85 66
mobile:  33 6 85 83 61 95
mel: francois.salge@texte-a-enlever.cnig.gouv.fr
http://www.cnig.gouv.fr

De:Fred Toppen [SMTP:F.Toppen@texte-a-enlever.geog.uu.nl]
Date:vendredi 8 fevrier 2002 10:09
À:egip@texte-a-enlever.jrc.it
Objet:ETeMII final seminar

Dear egip list,

Several European partners have been involved for two years in a European
IST project, ETeMII. Key activities during the project related to issues
like reference data, metadata and interoperability. An important part of
the project being the communication of the findings of the project to
policy makers, data providers and data users, the project will end with
a dissemination seminar on March 7/8 in Antwerp. The seminar starts at
13.00 hours on Thursday and will last until Friday 13.00 hours.

The ETeMII consortium would like to inform you about this final seminar
in March. Please find attached a document with some more information on
the seminar as well as a registration form.

Yours sincerely,

on behalf of the ETeMII consortium,
Fred Toppen, AGILE

--

F.J. Toppen
Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht
email: f.toppen@texte-a-enlever.geog.uu.nl
tel: 00-31-(0)30-2533887, fax : 00-31-(0)30-2540604

[Francois Salge]

High level briefing
Organized through the European Territorial Management Information Infrastructure (ETeMII) Project
Holiday Inn Hotel Antwerp Borgerhout
Antwerp, Belgium
Thursday March 7th, 13.00 hours to Friday March 8th 13.00 hours

February 4th, 2002
Dear Sir, Madam

On behalf of the ETeMII consortium, I have the pleasure to inform you about the project's final information seminar. This seminar gives you the opportunity to participate in the discussion about ensuring better access to geographic information (GI).

ETeMII is a two-year project in the EU FP5 IST 1999 programme, Key Action 3, that runs from January 2000 to December 2001. Its main goal is to enable better access to geographic information (GI). During the last two years, several studies, seminars, discussion sessions and product developments took place as part of this project.

Since the beginning, it has been clear that the goal of the project could only be achieved if the results are disseminated to policy makers, providers and users of GI data and those involved in GI research and education. This way, the results of the project could be placed in the context of the development of the Information Society in Europe. The ETeMII consortium partners have decided to organize a final information seminar in order to serve the purpose of presenting key results and to allow for discussion with high-level representatives. The consortium extends this invitation to the major stakeholders involved in GI policy, GI data production, GI data use, and GI research. The primary target of the discussions will be how to implement proposed action plans that resulted from the project.

The consortium will inform you about the major findings and solicit your feedback.
Please find attached to this invitation more information about the structure of the briefing, a registration form and a project summary. A web site () gives access to some results that have been made public.
There is no registration fee for the seminar and you are kindly invited to attend the evening dinner.

On behalf of the consortium I hope that you will accept the invitation.

Yours sincerely,

Fred Toppen
AGILE / University of Utrecht

ETeMII SEMINAR REGISTRATION FORM

Please fax or mail this form to:
AGILE, p/a Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Utrecht
P.O. Box 80.115, 3508 TC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Fax. INT-31-30-2540604
The form can also be sent by email to: r.vanderlinden@texte-a-enlever.geog.uu.nl

Please fill in:

Name:
Position:
Organization:
Address:
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail:

Hotel accommodation
The seminar will take place in the Holiday Inn Antwerp-Borgerhout. If necessary, we can arrange accommodation for you at this hotel. Costs per night are ? 122.50, incl.breakfast. In case you would like us to make a reservation, please let us know before February 22nd. After this date we cannot guarantee that accommodation will be available. After we have received your request for assistance, we will contact you about the payment procedure. Please indicate if you want us to make a hotel reservation for you:
Oyes, I need hotel accommodation for Thursday night, March 7th.
Ono, I do not need hotel accommodation
OI do need accommodation for other nights as well, please specify ?????????...

Place: ????????? Date: ?????????? Signature: ??????????
------------------------------------------------
Accessibility
The Holiday Inn hotel is situated about 3 km from the heart of the city and is easily reached by car (close to the Antwerp Ring) or public transportation. Antwerp airport is only 10 minutes away by car and Brussel's airport Zaventem is only 30 minutes away. Travel expenses will be reimbursed according to the EU-rules.

Information
For more information, please contact Fred Toppen, tel. INT-31 30 2533887, email f.toppen@texte-a-enlever.geog.uu.nl .

STRUCTURE OF THE SEMINAR

The general structure of the meeting is as follows. On Thursday afternoon information on the project will be provided followed by a response from the policy, industry and academic perspective. Friday morning will start with three parallel workshops that will result in short plenary statements, followed by a panel discussion.

Thursday, March 7th 2002
11.00 - 13.00Registration of participants
13.00 - 13.10Introduction to the seminar (Mauro Salvemini, AGILE)
13.10 - 13.30General introduction to the ETeMII project (Fred Toppen, AGILE)
13.30 - 13.50Results from the Reference Data work package (Claude Luzet, EuroGeographics)
13.50 - 14.10Results from the Metadata work package (Max Craglia, Univ. of Sheffield)
14.10 - 14.30Results from the Interoperability work package (Martin Ford, Geobase)
14.30 - 14.45The user perspective
14.45 - 15.15Break
15.15 - 15.45The policy perspective
15.45 - 16.15The business perspective
16.15 - 16.45The academic perspective (by Marinos Kavouras, National Technical University of Athens)
16.45 - 17.15Discussion round
17.15 - 17.30Closing of the first session, introduction to the Friday programme
17.30 - 18.30Reception
20.00 - Dinner

Friday, March 8th 2002
09.00 - 09.10Introduction to the parallel sessions
09.10 - 10.30Session A Actions to be taken at the policy levelSession B Actions to be taken by industry Session C Actions to be taken by academics
10.30 - 11.00Break
11.00 - 11.45Presentation by session chairs / answering questions
11.45 - 12.30Panel discussion
12.30 - 13.00Final remarks

PROJECT SUMMARY

The project
The overall goal of the ETeMII project is to enable better access to geographic information (GI). The project has been sub divided in several work packages: user requirements, reference data, metadata, and interoperability and standards implementation. A consortium of 11 partners has been set up early 2000 to conduct the two-year project. Members of the consortium represent different players in the GI-arena: the public sector (national bodies, European bodies), research institutes and partners from industry. By incorporating the major stakeholders in the GI-field, either directly as partners and via contacts and workshops, the consortium hopes to have achieved a wide support for the activities that should help to reach the goal.

Results
>From the start the intention of the ETeMII team was to define a minimum set of geographic reference data at the European level and to achieve consensus about how to go about making these components available in a European context. An intensive consultation process was necessary in order to reach a broad consensus on the definition of reference data, on the need for such data, and on the components that make up reference data. When promoting the creation of reference data, consistency and co-ordination are required to allow for standardization and harmonization of issues such as content, structure and quality of the data sets.
The main aim for the metadata work package is to reach consensus on the way to meet the user's needs for metadata and to start the process of implementation. Metadata are crucial for better access to data. The ETeMII project team has been able to further stimulate the process of consensus building that took place as a result of a number of related initiatives in Europe. In this way it contributed to the wider acceptance of the international standard (ISO 19115) and supported the initiative to cross-reference ISO 19115 to the Dublin Core, an international initiative that describes how to document information resources. Implementation of metadata is not only a technical issue, but relates strongly to agreements, semantics and organisational cultures. The role of organizations in developing a strategy for dissemination of information is crucial. The problems of semantics in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment such as Europe stresses the need for further research.
The standards and interoperability work package aims to raise awareness on standards. One important outcome was the identification of the lack of awareness about existing standards. For this reason, the ETeMII project team decided to create an on-line database of metadata on GI-standards that demonstrates the use of metadata. To support the development of strategies for implementing standards, a database has been prepared. This database will be made available and will give access to a list of references as well providing information on available software products that support the interoperability standards and on the demand and supply of knowledge and skills related to interoperability.

The way forward
An overall plan has been proposed to guide the creation of reference data in Europe. This plan defines a number of activities that must be undertaken, starting with an agreement on reference data components and their specifications via identification of organizations that are responsible for specific activities such as providing, distributing and certifying reference data. The plan also takes into account the need to address issues such as skills and knowledge, accessibility and funding. The ETeMII team proposes a short term and a longer term set of activities. The short term relates to activities such as the establishment of a European geodetic reference framework, and the development of a pilot using a small number of reference data components to demonstrate what is required in such a process. An important element is the need to engage the EC as well as national and other European bodies to take a role in the development of reference data. In the longer term the technical specifications for reference data sets should be developed and resources should be provided to one organization to take the lead in the process of the creation of reference data.
Metadata is a key element in the process of giving the European citizens access to public sector information. Metadata is a matter of people and organisations, not just a matter of standards and technical definitions. It is important to use the momentum and to implement the international standard ISO 19115. The ETeMII team has identified some actions that should take place on the short, medium and longer term. Awareness and educating people how to implement metadata (standards) are recognised as key issues.
The need to raise awareness about interoperability and the implementation of standards is also viewed as an important issue. This includes how to use standards, where to find learning resources, where to find skilled personnel and how to teach skills relating to standards and interoperability. Action should be taken to launch small, tailored dissemination projects that should target individual groups, such as policy makers, data providers, data users and teachers. Each target group should get access to information and tools that will directly assist them with this dissemination.

Poor access to data has been a significant barrier to the development of the information society. The project's main aim was to contribute to the removal of this barrier. The consortium is convinced that the results of this project will help to initiate activities that will support better access to GI data for all and will help to take another step towards the European Spatial Data Infrastructure (ESDI) It will also help to promote the use of geographic data beyond the traditional community. The challenge is to find appropriate ways to communicate the findings to the providers and users of geographic information. We hope that the final ETeMII seminar in March is a first step in the process of making proposed solutions work.