1. C4 and EXCOM 12 Alan Edwards European Commission Report to Capacity Building Committee May 22, 2008

2. Report on C4 meeting Geneva, 18-19 Feb 2008 Taken from slides prepared by U. Gärtner, Chairman C4

3. C4 report The GEO IV and the Ministerial Summit in Cape Town were seen as successful. Plenary discussions and the Cape Town Declaration give guidance for the future work of the GEO. The following major issues were discussed at this C4 meeting: > GEO Web portal and GEO Wiki > Data sharing principles > IGOS-P transition > Work plan 07/09 and 09/11 > Committee co-ordination

4. C4 report GEO web portal Architecture of the web portal has been developed by ADC. 3 candidate offers: ESA/FAO, ESRI, Compusult. In order to start in April 2008 a decision is required from EXCOM at its meeting in March. The recommendation of the C4 was to start with the 3 offers and to run an initial operating capability phase for 1 year. This time to be used to decide on the criteria on how to proceed. Important issues are clearinghouse policy, registry, costs, overall control, backup, etc.

5. C4 report GEO Wiki ADC proposing to introduce a GEO Wikipedia activity of best practises IEEE is offering the technical base Committee members are asked to volunteer as facilitators Registry to be installed, questions to be answered Everybody may contribute Pilot for three months, operational as of 1. Nov 2008 Committees are asked to discuss criteria for best practise

6. C4 report Data sharing principles The current White Paper (Feb 2008) gives an overview, without describing the implementation process. Reluctance by participating organisations to be active. Very complex situation how and where to start. Cape Town Declaration stipulates GEO should present the process

7. C4 report IGOS-P transition Basic decisions of the transition have been taken. Tranferring IGOS themes into the GEO work plan structure. Maintaining the IGOS themes momentum. Presentation of IGOS to EXCOM on how to do the transfer. Some procedure of IGOS as regards the definition of new themes could be applied in GEO IGOS-P will be closed in May 2008

8. C4 report Work plan 07/09 and 09/11 Proposal to have one year overlap and two year period, which will give the 2010 Summit an optimal review of achievements. Forming cluster of tasks and avoiding increasing numbers. Some tasks with complex targets to be redefined with subtasks. New tasks - if any - only with commitments by a lead and a POC. Overall activities reported as satisfactory Current work on performance indicators not regarded as helpful in view of the voluntary nature of GEO. Work plan 09/11 to be developed by committees until September. Task template to be updated with box Relevance to Capacity Building

9. C4 report Committee Co-ordination There is a need to co-ordinate the trans-committee work even more closely than at present. Clustering of tasks with two committees responsible may help. Scheduling committee meetings back to back can also help. C4 will introduce more tele-conferences.

10. Report on 12 th EXCOM meeting Geneva, 26-27 March 2008 A Edwards (HEALTH WARNING: This report is taken from my notes. The minutes of this meeting have not yet been officially agreed by EXCOM.)

11. EXCOM report SECRETARIAT OPERATIONS The Secretariat Director presented the report on the Secretariat Operations and stressed the need for GEO Members to second experts to the Secretariat. Action: GEO Secretariat to write to GEO Principals clearly outlining the needs for secondments.

12. EXCOM report SECRETARIAT Arrangements The members of the Executive Committee unanimously endorsed a proposal that the current Director of the GEO Secretariat should be re-appointed for a second 3-year term with effect from 1 January 2009. The Executive Committee then asked the incumbent Director if he would be willing to serve a further three- year term from January 2009 to December 2011. The Director stated that he was honoured by the proposal and glad to accept it. The members of EXCOM warmly welcomed this response.

13. EXCOM report Branding/logos/publications The Executive Committee endorsed the GEO logo and gave a mandate to the Secretariat to have it registered. On behalf of EXCOM, the Chair asked the Secretariat to prepare a list of official GEO documents, together with publication guidelines, to be reviewed at the next meeting.

14. EXCOM report GEO PORTAL PROCESS EXCOM decided that a task force of experts, drawing on the expertise of the GEO Committees, GEO Members and Participating Organisations, would be established by the Secretariat to oversee the Initial Operating Capability (IOC) phase. Action: Establish a Task Force of experts. Action: Organise a kick-off meting of the IOC. Action: The Task Force, supported by the GEO Secretariat, should prepare a more detailed reference document.

15. EXCOM report GEO WORK PLAN Forest Monitoring: EXCOM noted that the current GEO work plan contains several relevant Tasks and that the importance of forest carbon monitoring should be reflected in the new 2009-2011 work plan.

16. EXCOM report GEO WORK PLAN Process for next Work Plan: EXCOM was requested to: Approve the principle of a new Work Plan. Accept the schedule. Accept the creation of a task team to revise and update the six and ten year targets. The Executive Committee agreed to the proposal from the Secretariat, with the caveat that with regard to the revision and updating of the six and ten-year targets, changes should only be made where they are well reasoned Any revised targets should not undermine the current 10-year Implementation Plan.

17. EXCOM report TSUNAMI WORKING GROUP The Executive Committee agreed that the Tsunami Working Group had successfully completed its mandate and therefore did not need to be extended. EXCOM strongly restated the need to ensure continuity of coordinated action by GEO to support the establishment of a Tsunami Early Warning System of Systems worldwide and invited Members and Participating Organizations to actively support the activities of task DI-06-04. The Committee also emphasized the need to strengthen coordination with other international initiatives and programmes, in particular with UN-ISDR and WMO Disaster Risk Reduction.

18. EXCOM report GEO Wiki The Executive Committee concurred that: The Best Practice Wiki be provided at no cost to GEO. The pages of the Wiki would carry the GEO logo, to ensure that the Registry would appear as a GEOSS component, fully endorsed by GEO. The identity of the providers could be shown, in accordance with the rules for the branding of GEO documents and services. The Wiki would be reviewed after a year, to allow the Executive Committee to make a decision for the future.

19. EXCOM report DATE AND PLACE OF GEO-V GEO-V will be hosted by the government of the Peoples Republic of China, on Wednesday 19 and Thursday 20 November 2008, in Beijing, China. DATE OF 13TH EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE The next meeting of the GEO Executive Committee will take place in Geneva on 15 and 16 July, starting mid- morning 15 July and ending mid-afternoon on the 16 th.

20. Thank You