Dear Colleagues,

The Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association is pleased to invite the global spatial data community to attend our 9th international conference in Santiago, Chile. The primary sessions will occur Monday through Friday November 6-10, 2006. Continuing with our organizational goal of fostering spatial data infrastructure developments in support of important worldwide needs, the theme of GSDI-9 is "Spatial Information: Tool for Reducing Poverty."

The conference program has been designed to accommodate opening and closing plenary sessions with keynote speakers, a special plenary session on the use of spatial technologies in addressing the plight of the poor, technical sessions in five parallel tracks for which many will have simultaneous translation in Spanish and English, half-day pre-conference and mid-conference workshops freely open to all registrants, an extensive poster exhibit and competition, and numerous organized round table discussions to allow people from common regions of the globe or with common interests to present, discuss, and share issues, experiences and plans.

The conference will be held at the Diego Portales Convention Center in the heart of the lovely city of Santiago. The program promises to be the most exciting and best yet.

GSDI-9 will support two primary forms of publication:
(1) a normal conference proceedings with abstracts and full articles
(2) a published book of fully refereed articles

For further information, see:
Conference web site: http://www.igm.cl/gsdi9/
Call for papers: http://www.igm.cl/gsdi9/english/04_Over_Call_for_Pap.htm

Submission deadlines:
     Fully Refereed Publication: Full paper due March 15, 2006
     Proceedings Publication: Abstract due May 2nd, 2006. If accepted, full paper due Sept 1, 2006

The web site will be updated regularly to give clear, full and current information.

We look forward to enjoying your company and benefiting from your insights. Please come!

Professor Harlan J. Onsrud
President, Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association

Luis A. Alegría Matta
Organizing Committee President, GSDI-9 Conference and
Director, Military Geographic Institute of Chile (IGM)

Contact: gsdi9@igm.cl or onsrud@gsdi.org
Sponsor web site: http://gsdi.org