Government of Grenada hosts Eastern Caribbean open-source Geospatial data sharing and management workshop - October 6-7, 2011

ST. GEORGE’S GRENADA, Thursday, October 06, 2011: The Eastern Caribbean Open- Source Geospatial Data Sharing Management Workshop began in Grenada today (Thursday, October 06, 2011) at the Spice Isle Beach Resort and will run until tomorrow, October 7th, 2011. This is the first regional workshop of this kind.

The main objective of this workshop is to examine the availability of national and regional geospatial data and tools to support evidence-based decision making to increase climate resilience and reduce risks related to the adverse effects of climate change in the Eastern Caribbean.

 This initial regional workshop aims to create a forum for practitioners to address the technical challenges of both national and regional geospatial data management, including data-sharing and metadata policies, GIS infrastructure, technological capacity, and open-source data platforms. Participants will present national, regional, and international case studies as a platform for discussions, and will contribute to formulating a regional roadmap to improve geospatial data-sharing in the Eastern Caribbean.

A component of the workshop will also be held at the ICT Centre where participants will gain hands-on experience with the application of GeoNode which is a web-based open -source data platform. 

In addition, an online community of practice (CooP) will be launched at the workshop to provide a forum for technical discussions, creating subsequent activities, and building partnerships.

It is expected that a second workshop targeting policy makers, and focusing on macro-level policies related to data-sharing, will soon be organized.