GI_Forum 2011 – GI Community in Focus

With over 1200 participants from 46 countries across the world, the conference organizers of GI_Forum and AGIT received an overwhelming response from all participants: GI_Forum has become an annual event for vibrant GI community from academia, industry, and government to analyze progress and to explore new research directions. The 5th Geoinformatics Forum “GI Community in Focus” (July 5-8 2011), co-located with the highly regarded annual German language conference on Applied Geoinformatics (AGIT), was once again organized by the Centre of Geoinformatics (Z_GIS) at the University of Salzburg.

High-quality Presentations and Workshops

The programme committee selected over 50 contributions to be presented as paper sessions, in a discussion session, as workshops or poster presentations at GI_Forum 2011. These presentation formats facilitated the exchange of experience and enhanced discussion among presenters and audience. The programme comprised not just keynotes and presentations organised in 14 sessions but also a poster session and social events that created a good atmosphere.

Learning with GI: Implementing Digital Earth in Education

The 2011 edition of the international Learning with GI–Conference was held in collaboration with the digital-earth.eu network, including presentations, workshops, poster presentations and special interest group meetings. Joseph Kerski talking about “Sleepwalking into the Future: The Case for Spatial Analysis Throughout Education” introduced the audience in an incredibly enthusiastic way to the possible input of the use of GI to educational outcomes. At the final Round Table session, international experts summed up and discussed results from the conference and indicated trends on where digital earth should move in education as part of the EU Digital Agenda 2020.

Keynote Speakers

– J. Kerski, ESRI Inc., USA: “Sleepwalking into the Future: The Case of Spatial Analysis Throughout Education”

– J. Raper, City University London, GB: “Realising the benefits of open geodata: lessons from London’s experience”

– I. Dowman, University College London, GB: “Integrating Images with GIS for the Benefit of Society”

– E. Beinat, University of Salzburg, Austria: “Understanding urban dynamics: unlocking the power of networks as collective sensors”