The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has played a major role in helping to stand up the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure (GSDI) Association. In 2003 the GSDI Association was incorporated in the U.S., and at the beginning of 2004 in Bangalore, India at the 7th GSDI meeting, it became a formal organization with dues-paying/voting members and a cadre of elected officers.

What is the mission of the GSDI Association?  

• Serve as a point of contact and effective voice for those in the global community involved in developing, implementing and advancing spatial data infrastructure concepts,

• Foster spatial data infrastructures that support sustainable social, economic, and environmental systems integrated from local to global scales, and

• Promote the informed and responsible use of geographic information and spatial technologies for the benefit of society.

Said another way, the goal of the GSDI Associationis to encourage anyone that collects, processes, stores, and distributes geographic (geospatial) data and information to do so using ISO approved standards and interoperable systems and techniques … and to share that data and information on the web.