Being responsible for R&D in Remote Sensing at the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture, I first met the wider earth-observation community at the conference “Earth Observations and Global Change Decision-Making, 1990: A National Partnership”, where the luncheon speaker was Senator Albert Gore. The global change issue gave birth to the “Mission to Planet Earth”, which called for collaboration between academia and policy makers. The need for a similar level of co-operation between all nations in Geographic Information Systems and Services was articulated some years later, at launch of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) initiative.
While US presidential decrees facilitated access to and widest possible use of geospatial information, contributing to more effective and less expensive governance, US industrial players achieved global dominance. In Europe, Delors’ “White Book”,Growth, Competitiveness and Employment, paved the way for a wider use of novel technologies, including GIS, and the establishment of an umbrella organisation for national GI associations in Europe, EUROGI. The first GSDI Conference in Bonn-Königswinter in 1996 was a joint initiative on the part of enthusiastic experts from all continents. Supported by Hungarian R&TD policy makers, the Hungarian GI association was established in 1994 and has since been an active participant in all EUROGI and GSDI annual assemblies, conferences and working programmes. Besides the political leadership, other driving forces include availability, accessibility, interoperability and (re)useability of core data; the relevant legislation and co-operation frame-works, standards and implementation rules, co-ordination, scientifically sound reference, capacity building, convincing best practices, user involvement and awareness raising.
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