Abstract:
MEGRIN is the "implementation and commercial branch" of CERCO, the forum of the Heads of the European National Mapping Agencies (NMA) counting 35 members. CERCO and MEGRIN believe that the European and global dimension of Geographic Information (GI) is increasingly becoming a key issue for the future development of our sector. Consequently any "national" GI initiative should be encouraged to consider the cross-border and international potential use of their products, and take into account the more global patterns that emerge from the regional, i.e. European initiatives.
MEGRIN has created and maintains the GDDD (Geographical Data Description Directory), an Internet metadata service describing the main GI products from NMAs of 20 European countries, a pioneer initiative in international implementation of the emerging CEN-TC287 standards on metadata. The service has been praised for its quality and consistency by all experts in the sector. However, standards practice and web technologies are quickly progressing, and the GDDD has to adjust to the new conditions.
Within a new project named "la clef" (sub-titled "unlocking the public sector GI"), the "old" GDDD will be greatly upgraded:
The main purpose behind the project is the opening of the GI market across borders and across European cultural diversity. MEGRIN will develop and maintain the necessary infrastructure for the marketing and information exchange platform. Its success will ultimately depend on national organisation's willingness to collaborate in linking their national specifics and initiatives to that broader European platform.