Dear colleague,

 

In an increasingly global and complex world, standards are a vital part of life. Various pieces of research have proved that they bring benefits, including significant economic benefits, to all stakeholders in a community, and to the community in its entirety (research in Germany, for instance, has quantified the annual benefit of standards to the national economy as being $15 billion). What is vital, however, is that the standards produced are appropriate, in particular that they meet the needs of the sector, are workable, and are produced and revised in a timely manner. This requires ongoing liaison with all stakeholders.

 

The development of standards in the area of geographic information has been ongoing for some years now, with a considerable number of standards in the ISO 19100 series developed by ISO/ Technical Committee (TC) 211 and published since 2000. A key current focus for ISO/TC211 is the data provider community, and the Committee last year set up a Focus Group on Data Providers. The Group's workplan includes the development of suitable support material, including guidance notes and good practice case studies, for data providers, thus supporting wide use of the standards by data providers, and therefore realising of the benefits arising from the use of standards.

 

As a first stage, the Group needs to confirm the requirements, and current state of standardisation, of data providers. To enable this, the Group has developed a web-based questionnaire. We would be very grateful if you could take some time (we estimate that about 20 to 30 minutes will be required) to complete the questionnaire. In return for you completing the questionnaire, the Group will provide you with a copy of the summarised results from the questionnaire and will keep you informed of relevant developments in ISO/TC211.

 

To ensure a broad base of responses, we are keen to get a good number of returns, so please feel free to forward the link to this page to other relevant contacts. Responses received by 20 May 2005 would be particularly helpful.

 

For your convenience, a printable version of the questionnaire is available at http://www.isotc211fgdp.info/docs/print_survey_1.htm. Although you can use it to prepare your answers, we kindly request that you use the on-line questionnaire for submitting your answers.

 

To complete the on-line questionnaire, please go to the following web address http://www.isotc211fgdp.info/survey/index.php?sid=1 and follow the on-screen prompts. Many thanks, in advance, for your support of this work.

 

On behalf of the ISO/TC211 Focus Group on Data Providers,

 

Cordially,

 

Antti Jakobsson, a chairman of the EuroGeographics Expert Group on Quality,