Peter Pulsifer is a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), University of Colorado at Boulder where he leads the Exchange for Local Observations and Knowledge of the Arctic project (ELOKA). His research addresses questions related to the use of computer--based forms of geographic information. He focuses on theory, methods and tools that inform and support "interoperability." Interoperability refers to the ability to readily share information and/or operations for a particular purpose. As an applied researcher, Peter has focused his activities on the polar regions for more than fifteen years. He has worked extensively with Indigenous organizations, Arctic residents, and the science community to facilitate ethical sharing of data including local observations and traditional knowledge. He is the Canadian Representative to the Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management, the American Representative to and Chari of the Arctic Data Committee. As a scholar who has expertise in cartography and geographic information science, science data management, Indigenous knowledge and epistemology and who is a leader in the polar data management and policy community, Dr.

Pulsifer is in a unique position to linking the increasingly important polar knowledge domain to the opportunities and issues facing cartographers and geographic information practitioners and theorist. Professor Taylors combination of experience and expertise in the areas cartography and geographic information, governance, public policy, international affairs, polar issues, indigenous knowledge and other themes addressed in this volume is unmatched. Professor Taylor's main research interests are in the application of geospatial information management to the analysis of key socio-economic problems in a national and international context and the presentation of the results in innovative new cartographic forms. He introduced and continues to develop the new paradigm of cybercartography. His interests in cartography and international development issues are often inter-related. He has extensive field experience in developing nations, especially in Africa, which included a six year period as an education officer in rural Kenya where he completed his Ph.D. thesis on Rural Development in Murang'a District.

His research interests in this area include: development studies with special reference to Africa, China and Latin America; regional and rural development theory and practice sustainable development an indigenous development strategies; technology transfer in the field of geomatics; Canada's international policies in ODA; and technology transfer. Dr. Taylor led a major SSHRC Initiative on the New Economy project entitled "Cybercartography and the New Economy" which produced a Cybercartographic Atlas of Antarctica and a cybercartographic product on Canada's Trade with the World. He was also a collaborator in an InterPARES 2 project which deals with the authentication and preservation of dynamic electronic records. Current research includes the use of Cybercartography to create a series of atlases with Inuit and other aboriginal peoples in Canada's north and active participation in the new United Nations Initiative on Geospatial Information Management, the Open Geospatial Consortium, the Global Earth System of Systems, and the Arctic Geospatial Data Infrastructure. Mark A. Parsons is Secretary General of the Research Data Aliiance/US and the Rensselaer Center for the Digital Society.