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Map World Forum Report In 10 years 'Map India' reaches to 'Map World Forum' Map World Forum 2007: Introduction Coinciding with its 10th anniversary of the annual 'Map India' conferences in the field of Geographic Information Sciences (GIS), GIS Development undertook a giant leap forward to organize a conference at global level, 'Map World Forum'. The meet was held at International Convention Centre in Hyderabad, India from January 22 to 25, 2007. With the mission of being a medium of convergence for various stakeholders of the geospatial community and its integration with end users, GIS Development through this conference provided a platform to world geospatial community to focus on various domains of GIS and other related technologies. Department of Science and Technology, Government of India was the patron and principal sponsor of the event.. The mega meet received support in a big way from other government institutions and private industry.  Participation: Map World Forum had 1737 delegates visiting the 4-day conference, representing 64 countries from across the world. Participants included representatives from the geospatial community comprising of map producers, users, educational institutions, technology developers from government, private industries and policy makers. Overall the conference featured 180 papers presented at the conference over, 5 plenary sessions, 11 seminars, 14 technical sessions and 5 workshops.  Inauguration: The glittering inaugural session was marked with a review of evolution of mapping and satellite technology through a video presentation, which provided a futuristic perspective, where the presentation showed the technologies in the field to come by 2012 and 2018. While delivering the opening remarks, Dr T Ramasami, Secretary Department of Science and Technology touched the right cord by saying that the conference's objective was to 'link technology to policy and their use' and at the same time he said it could well be achieved as “it is a special gathering of the geospatial community with a special purpose”.  Dr. M P Narayanan, President, GIS Development gave the introductory remarks briefly tracing the history of Map India Conference, from 1998, when it was first launched and celebrating the 10th anniversary of it this year. The presidential address was delivered by Y. Rajashekhar Reddy, Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, who exclaimed in his saying how Hyderabad has been home to remote sensing expertise in India since the formation of the NRSA.  The guest address was presented by Dato’ Seri Haji Ajimi Bin Khalid, Honorable Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Government of Malaysia. He mentioned that Malaysia is a huge trading partner of India where one of India's main exports to his country is "GIS expertise." In his inaugural address Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences mentioned that “India has the capacity to capture the outsourcing opportunities in the GIS market”. He also said that Government of India is contemplating a legislation to "revitalize and re-engineer" the Survey of India and provide greater freedom and flexibility to the organization. Maneesh Prasad, COO and Managing Editor, GIS Development delivered vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and delegates present during the occasion.  Plenary Sessions: The conference had 5 plenary sessions, which had a very impressive list of national and international speakers. The topics discussed at plenary sessions included
The seminars at the conference proved to be equally diverse and interesting. All the sessions included a discussion of the world-view and perceptions of dignitaries from across the globe covering most of the topics relating to GIS, Remote Sensing and its sub domains. The new idea of panel discussions at the seminars evolved to an informative, interesting and thought provoking discussions. The topics discussed in seminars included
In total there were 14 technical sessions running parallel in six different halls. These sessions provided opportunity to speakers to present papers on varied fields of technical and social applications of spatial technology. The technical sessions covered were
The exhibition space was spread over 1500 sq ft with over 69 exhibitors from across the globe showcasing and displaying products, services and solutions. It also presented 3 best exhibitor awards based on participants' feedback, which went to UAE Armed Forces, Autodesk and Leica Geosystems. Other highlights: The other highlights of the conference were Workshops, Poster sessions, Editors forum and Students forum. The conference had 5 specialized successful workshops, which were executed under the guidance of GIS experts. The objective of these workshops was to cater to a range of people with different interests. All the workshops had good number of participants representing from various countries. Poster sessions at the conference provided a chance for various speakers to share their experience and expertise in GIS and related topics. MAP WORLD FORUM-2007 AWARDS: Best Student Poster Award “Development of a System for 3D Visualization of LiDAR Data” Sudhasheel Ghosh, Ph.D Student, IIT Kanpur Best Paper Award- Student “Calculation of Human Resources Index using GIS Software and GUI Customization” G Saradha and N Muthulakshmi, College of Engineering, Anna University Best Paper Award – Technical Session in Seminars “Metadata and Data quality: Does it impact Interoperability?” Manoj Mishra, Formed Head of GIS and Strategic Business Development, RMSI, India Best Paper Award – Technical Session “Industrial resiting in view of impending urban sprawl – A case study if EIA if Industrial Estate of Hyderabad” S Padmaja, Professor, Osmania University, India Best Exhibitors
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