The project consortium was a broad-based mixture representing the public and private sector:

• MEGRIN (Europe/France) Project Co-ordinator

• EUROGI (Europe/The Netherlands)

• IGN-France (France)

• GIM (Belgium)

• ESRI France (France)

• BRGM (France)

• BGS (Great Britain)

• ITGE(Spain)

EUROGI
EUROGI, the European Umbrella Organisation for Geographic Information, was set up in November 1993, as a result of a study commissioned by DG XIII-E of the European Commission to develop a unified European approach to the use of geographic technologies. It has been established as a European Foundation under Dutch law with its headquarters in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. The Secretariat is also based in Netherlands. EUROGI now has 18 members, i.e. 17 national associations and one pan-European sectorial organisation. EUROGI objectives include:
• Define a European GI policy and facilitate a European Geographic Information Infrastructure (EGII).

• Improve communication between members of affiliated associations through conference co-ordination and directories.

• Ease data exchange at the national and European level through the development of standards and limit the impact of the constraints of the various legal issues affecting GI.

IGN
IGN is a French government agency supervised by the Ministry of Equipment, Transports and Housing. Its budget is worth 700 million French Francs per year, part of it is assured by government endowment for public-service missions, and part by commercial revenues. The main production site is located in Saint-Mandé (south-east of Paris) where 300 maps are published yearly and 4 major geographic databases are maintained. There are 6 inter-regional production centres and 16 regional agencies. A satellite image production and processing unit is also located in Toulouse (IGN-Espace). An airport, with 4 survey aircrafts and 1 research aircraft, is located in Creil (north of Paris). An integrated printing workshop delivers 10 000 000 maps yearly, while the geodesy department maintains 100 000 geodetic points and 400 000 bench-marks.

IGN has a research department involving 4 laboratories and employing 80 persons, including 30 survey engineers.

IGN employs 1900 highly qualified members of staff. Retail distribution is via 16 distributors and there are 10 000 sales outlets spread over France. There are 4 700 000 maps sold annually to the public. Like all mapping agencies, IGN's role has changed in recent years from providing traditional geodesy, surveying and cartography to one of spatial data managers and producers. IGN has been making pioneering steps with their use of the Internet for on-line sales of aerial photography. Involvement in this project will allow them to further explore the commercial opportunities opening up with e-commerce and to contribute their expertise in areas of Internet site management, commercial and legal issues.