The International Workshop on Open Data and Knowledge Environments for Innovative Research and Development & International Workshop on the 2008/2009 Implementation Plan of UN GAID e-SDDC was successfully held in Shanghai, China on 24 to 26 May, 2008.

 

In 2006, UNDESA GAID formally approved UNDESA GAID e-SDDC which was initiated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). With the strategy of building network, opening and sharing data, encouraging innovation and developing common benefit, this project aims to develop a Decentralized Network of Networks and establish an alliance by combining current relevant resources to realize the resource increment.

 

Since 2007 when UNDESA GAID e-SDDC was launched in St. Paul, Brazil, implementation plan workshops have been held in South Africa, America and China. To further put into effect the 2008/2009 implementation plan of UN GAID e-SDDC, UNDESA and CAS in collaboration with other relevant organizations host the International Workshop on Open Data and Knowledge Environments for Innovative Research and Development & International Workshop on the 2008/2009 Implementation Plan of UN GAID e-SDDC.

 

This UN GAID e-SDDC workshop has six major sessions. They are International and National Level Programs on Open Data and Knowledge Environments (ODKE), ODKE for Poverty Reduction and Ecosystem Protection, Public Health, ODKE for Disaster Mitigation and Hotspots of Global Change Research, Training, Technology Assistant and Joint Database Development, and e-SDDC Development Strategy and Think Tank Network. Topics cover Strategy and Progress of the UN GAID e-SDDC, UN Public Administration Network and Global Knowledge Repository for Electronic/Mobile Government, Global Alliance for ICT, Global Assets and Technology Exchange System for the South, Socioeconomic Data and Applications, the Establishment of Global Geospatial Datasets, Global Disaster Emergency Response, InterAcademy Panel on International Issues Program on Digital Knowledge Resources & Infrastructure in Developing Countries and so on. Around 80 representatives attended this workshop and participated in discussions with scientists coming from different countries around the world. During discussion sessions, a young scientist forum and a visiting to recycle park were successfully conducted. After the last session, a special meeting of e-SDDC steering Committee, Executive Committee and Co-Chairs of Each of Sessions was carried out to make a conclusion for this workshop. On this meeting, scientists from different countries and different research fields fully exchanged their ideas and opinions on UN GAID e-SDDC.

   

Participants positively estimated the active role of UN GAID e-SDDC and came to a consensus that we have actually already obtained quite lots of useful data relevant to the field that people are focusing on, such as global change, natural disasters, health care, public education and so on, and the most important and urgent task for us is how to efficiently combine and use these data to promote the social and economic development. Participants expressed their passion and desire to contribute to this project from now on.