Working Group Metadata

The Working Group Metadata of the SDI Germany (GDI-DE) deals with a wide range of issues regarding the description of spatial data sets and services with metadata. The aim is to reach interoperability within the GDI-DE by harmonizing metadata contents and interfaces of catalogue services.

For this purpose, the standardization initiatives of the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the INSPIRE community as well as the Data Catalogue Vocabulary (DCAT) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) play an important role and something that is partly supported. Further-reaching (national) requirements and recommendations are described and established within the scope of the GDI-DE document "Architektur der Geodateninfrastruktur Deutschland - Konventionen zu Metadaten" (Architecture of the GDI-DE - conventions to metadata).

The WG Metadata was established in 2004 as an open, independent expert group with representatives of Geographic Information System companies and public administrations that create or operate Geo Metadata Information Systems. In 2007, a Memorandum of Understanding formally integrated the WG into the GDI-DE.

Currently, the WG metadata consists of representatives of technical administrations on federal and state level. The WG cooperates with experts from the (private) economy sector and science, if required.