Yes, in fact SDIs are beginning to be established around the world. Several national and regional SDIs are already building the policy framework for collaboration and opening up GIS assets. With the rise of web services, cloud computing, and volunteered mapping, SDIs are enabling trusted official data sources from national mapping organizations to be available to citizens and businesses which advances open government. The common interpretation of this vision involves the creation of a shared library of geospatial data and services. These data/services are created from multiple layers of geographic data holdings that are managed and maintained by different authoritative agencies. The concept is that these layers are served as geospatial services for use by various applications across organizations and for citizen access. Read More