Non-Governmental Organizations for Spatial Data Infrastructure Project (NGO4SDI) – Project Closing Introduction and Overview
Non-Governmental Organizations for Spatial Data Infrastructure Project Closing will gather project partners for presenting the research and conclusions brought up during the project awarded as GSDI Small Grant for 2011/2012. The intended audiences are primarily the SDI stakeholders related with work with organizations with potential for using the geospatial technologies, concretely non spatially engaged NGOs, as well as (sub) national governmental representatives, spatial technology vendors etc. Work during the project focused on the three modules as the base for the research, covering: - NGO sector analysis with focus on spatial needs - possibilities of potential stakeholder (NGO) acting within SDI - identifying of the methods and means for applying spatial technologies within the NGOs Project aimed at the NGO sector in South-East Europe and the results refer to this region. The best practice case treated during the fieldwork considered work with NGO from Macedonia acting on the national level. The activities of the Project were presented during the Enlargement and Integration Action Workshop at the INSPIRE Conference in Istanbul 2012 while the Project was in ongoing phase. The intention was to get the feedback and hear opinions for such an initiative in the region. Interest raised during the discussion encouraged project partners to broaden their work. Workshop findings should lead to the recommendations of NGOs’ involvement in SDI, in order to spread the need and return stronger demand from NGO activism. Recommendations rely on infrastructure of existing NGOs activities and introducing enriching means of NGO acting with the added value coming from geospatial information system tools and SDI.
Keywords: Non-Governmental Organizations, Spatial Data Infrastructure, GSDI Small Grant Award, AGISEE