Bas Kok Becomes GSDI President.

RESTON, Va. -- On February 24th, 2008 in Trinidad, the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI) Board of Directors elected Professor Bas Kok as President of the Association. Professor Kok replaces Jarmo Ratia of Finland who served as GSDI President for the previous term.

Bas Kok has been active for many years in the global movement on spatial data infrastructures and the crucial role of SDIs to support intra and inter governmental data sharing. He participated in the very first global GSDI conference in 1996 and has been actively involved ever since, serving most recently as a co-chair of the GSDI Legal and Economic Issues Working Group from 2000 through 2007.

Mr. Kok begins his work as President of the Association at a time when SDI is moving rapidly from concept to reality; many nations around the world have compatible policies and standards that enable critical sharing of geospatial or "location" information to address important social, economic and environmental issues. Professor Kok noted that "The time is ripe for the GSDI community to accelerate further advancement of SDI practices worldwide by emphasizing excellent results and implementations established by organizations and nations worldwide."

The GSDI Association mission focuses predominantly on awareness building and capacity building. It plays a vital role in global knowledge exchange by supporting open communications among interested parties across the globe through a variety of mechanisms. GSDI has earned its role as a locus for knowledge exchange due to the successes that its members have made in the introduction and implementation of SDI's, which lead to innovations and better performance in governments.

The GSDI Association is an inclusive group of organizations, agencies, firms, and individuals from around the world. The purpose of the organization is to promote international cooperation and collaboration in support of local, national and international spatial data infrastructure developments that will allow nations to better address social, economic, and environmental issues of pressing importance.