Sharing authoritative and reliable geospatial information has been an important issue for decades or nearly a century inside and outside the United Nations. [[United Nations Geospatial]] has been collaborating with country-led projects like [[International Map of the World]] ([[IMW]]) project and [[Global Mapping]] ([[GM]]) project in spite of technological challenges regarding possible [[political concerns]] involved.
Vector Tile (VT) technology is a key technology for [[Smart Maps]] that enables full data ownership and control by data providers with reasonable cost-sharing arrangements, which is a technological solution reducing possible political concerns. [[United Nations Vector Tile Toolkit]] ([[UNVT]]) was established in 2018 as a successor of the [[GM]] project with an unchanging ideal of sharing authoritative and reliable geospatial information for [[Sustainable Development]], and with a new important objective to meet the requirements of [[UN operations]].
[[DWG7]] is a [[UN Open GIS Initiative]] [[Domain Working Group]] built on top of the [[UNVT]] project and is going beyond. Participated by partners from not only Member State governments and International Organizations but also the private sector and academia, Domain Working Group ([[DWG]]) 7 is building an open global practice community of engineers and operators who are keeping web maps open and diverse. [[DWG7]] is contributing to informed decision making by providing fast and smart maps based on modern web technologies.
This part is an excerpt from the [[UN Open GIS Initiative]] document.
The [[UN Open GIS Initiative]] is to identify and develop an Open Source GIS bundle that meets the requirement of UN operations, taking full advantage of the expertise of mission partners ([[Member States]], technology contributing countries, [[international organizations]], academia, NGO’s, and the private sector).
The strategic approach shall be developed with best and shared principles, standards, and ownership, in a prioritized manner that addresses capability gaps and needs without duplicating the efforts of other [[Member States]] or entities. The [[UN Open GIS Initiative]] strategy shall collaboratively and cooperatively develop, validate, assess, migrate, and implement sound technical capabilities with all the appropriate [[documentation]] and [[training]] that in the end provides a united effort to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of utilizing [[Open Source]] [[GIS]] around the world.
This part is an excerpt from the [[UN Open GIS Initiative]] [[ToR]] (updated 29 June 2018).