SDI Convergence - Nederlandse Commissie voor Geodesie - KNAW

level’ within and between organisations can be an important factor for success. The
following conclusions have been reached:
1. Cooperation as a general concept has been studied quite intensely during the past
decades and a number of interesting results have been published.
2. In the field of SDI and adjoining areas cooperation has gained much attention but it
is seldom the prime target for research and development.
3. Experience from many projects and activities connected to SDI points to a lack of
understanding what cooperation is really about and how cooperation should be implemented
in daily practice.
4. Since about 1990 different periods related to handling of issues of cooperation can
be distinguished. In the period which we are probably about to enter, questions of
cooperation seem to be especially decisive.
5. For the establishment and running of ‘SDI-based networks’ there are indications
that it is important to study questions of cooperation at ’base level’ (in daily work)
within and between organisations.
With this in mind three questions related to relevant trends and experience have been
formulated, which are addressed in the following steps of this research.
1. ’Sustainability’ is an important quality of an SDI-based network. What is the relation
between this quality and cooperation?
2. Sharing and supplying data in a distributed network is discussed more and more.
What is required in terms of cooperation of a distributed network?
3. Cadastral information is considered to be key information in many business activities
with reference to spatial data and in Sweden a lot of relevant experience stems
from handling cadastral information. Can experience from this field be of value in a
broader perspective?
Previous discussion and formulation of problems can also be summarised by stating
that the following aspects of cooperation are of special interest for further study:
– Cooperation within organisations participating in the ‘SDI-based network’ (network of
organisations);
– The importance of cooperation in the process of introducing new members in the
’SDI-based network’, and
– The attitudes and capabilities, in terms of cooperation, of forerunners.
With the general background about cooperation presented in this article the Swedish
SDI development will be analysed with the framework and concepts from the ‘talkdecision-action’
concept in particular.
REFERENCES
Alsén, L. and T. Troedsson (2002). “Don´t Panic” Paradigmmäklarna I Sverige AB
(www.paradigmmaklarna.com), Sweden.
Assimakopoulos, D. (2000). Social network analysis as a tool for understanding the
diffusion of GIS innovations: the Greek GIS community. Environment and Planning
B: Planning and Design, 27 (4): 627-640.
Axelrod, R. (1984). The evolution of cooperation. New York: Basic Books, Inc.
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