RIEGL’S JAMES VAN RENS ATTENDS MEETING OF THE UN GLOBAL GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

“The role of Geospatial Data and its impact on the global community has reached a level that the UN-GGIM and world associations such as WGIC are studying its impact. For those of us in the geospatial community it is clear that we need to understand these impacts and to provide our perspective on future policies.” said Van Rens.

As a WGIC Patron Board Member, he is helping to enhance the role of the geospatial industry and strengthen its contribution in global economy and society, facilitate exchange of knowledge within the geospatial industry and co-creation of larger business opportunities for the geospatial industry, and represent business interest, share perspectives of the geospatial industry and undertake policy advocacy and dialogue with public authorities, multilateral agencies and other relevant bodies.

At a panel discussion held during the 9th meeting of the United Nations Global Geographic Information Management (UN-GGIM), the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) and its Policy Committee briefed Member Countries, the UN-GGIM Private Sector Network (PSN) and other observers on progress to date, surveying existing regulations and legislation governing geo-location and personal privacy in selected jurisdictions around the world.

There is a growing global recognition of protecting personal privacy information, and WGIC is interested in broadening its efforts to gain a more comprehensive view of related current and planned legislation and regulations globally.

Participants to the Roundtable were very interested and engaged during the discussion, and encouraged WGIC to continue its efforts, particularly with reaching out to other regulatory and legal professionals who are in positions of responding to, and/or implementing, these policies and regulations.

The Policy Committee also received valuable feedback and encouragement related to the strategy to have more impact on policy-makers, and the specific role that WGIC could play in this important policy domain.

The WGIC will be developing a white paper compiling the results of the survey, as well as the inputs obtained from this event.