In 2001, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations (FAO) set up FAO
GeoNetwork (www.fao.org/geonetwork), a facility that provides various services, such
as a global library for geospatial data; a metadata catalogue; a system for
searching, editing and publishing geospatial information; as well as information on
how to integrate geospatial data from various sources on the Internet. The United
Nations World Food Program's Vulnerability Analysis & Mapping branch (WFP-VAM) soon
joined FAO in the further development of GeoNetwork through formulation of additional
requirements and through co-funding. Early 2004 the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) joined FAO and WFP in the development, further strengthening the
GeoNetwork opensource software and improving standardized access to spatial data and
information.

GeoNetwork opensource is released as a standards based Free Open Source Software,
implementing OGC and ISO TC211 standards. This means that users are able to use,
modify and redistribute system source code software without significant restrictions,
thus benefiting communities and organizations in countries with limited financial
resources and often inadequate internet access. 

Recent work has resulted in GeoNetwork version 2 and has generated interest from
other related open source software projects. Efforts are underway to work on
effective integration of GeoNetwork with these projects through the OpenSDI initiative.

The workshop will provide an opportunity for participants to familiarize themselves
with the technology and the requirements for implementation.

The GeoNetwork opensource software is maintained at
http://sourceforge.net/projects/geonetwork .