 Ian Jackson, Chief of Operations at the British Geological Survey, is co-ordinator of the project. Jackson explained that, although most countries had extensive geological data, sharing it would make an impact. ‘We had three goals. One was to improve the accessibility of the data. For example, if you wanted to find some geology from Britain you might go to the British Geological survey. But if I asked you to find data for Kazakhstan or Mongolia or Sierra Leone it may be more difficult to know where to go. Secondly, we wanted to transfer some of the know-how. We in the UK, and other countries have spent 20 years developing systems, and making a lot of mistakes on the way, turning paper geological map data into digital form. Why should every country that is just starting to develop these systems need to go through the same long process when we can help?’
And finally, Jackson had been working with an international group which had developed GeoSciML, a geological mark up language for the web. It had the potential to be a common language with which to share data. A geological map of the earth was a good reason for people to adopt it. And this common set of languages and standards means that data is available for people to use in creative ways.
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