The access to information is an essential asset for our information society. Especially geoinformation nowadays is necessary for almost every action we undertake. The general public needs access to valid geo-information. This geo-information has to be provided through a network of services and data providers and is delivered to the consumer through an infrastructure that guarantees the access anytime and anywhere.

The talk will first differentiate between the data and the network as the basic components of GDI. In a second part the author will focus on different geo-spatial services and the acquisition of geo-information in real time from distributed locations. Finally he will face the differences in GDI between Western, industrialized countries with a well established networking infrastructure and those countries with a low GDP. We have to consider geo-data quality, data completeness and data acquisition. Recently started data collection services like the “Open Streetmap” (OSM) project may lead to more reliable geo-information which is available for free.

This talk will focus on the main challenges for the design of a unique GDI and it will address the problems especially in less developed countries. Using his practical experiences, the author will demonstrate the actual lacks and he will outline possible solutions to create and manage future uniform GDI all over the world.