An Education and Outreach Atlas Based on Geographic Infrastructure: Lessons Learned from the Development of an On-Line Polar Atlas/Atlas Pédagogique Destiné au Grand Public Fondé sur une Infrastructure Géographique: Leçons Tirées de la Conception D’un Atlas Polaire en Ligne

Since 2002, the authors have been contributing to the establishment of a community-driven geospatial information infrastructure for the South Polar region. This infrastructure has been used to support the development of a prototype on-line atlas of Antarctica. The prototype will contribute to the establishment of an online polar atlas planned for release during the International Polar Year. Methods used to develop the geospatial information infrastructure underlying the atlas included community review, and adoption of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) specifications and standards. Standards and stan- dards-based technologies were then used to develop a series-standard semantics and geospatial Web services. Interoperable semantics and services are being used to expose the framework and domain-specific data sets serving The Atlas. Efforts to establish a geospatial information infrastructurefor the Antarctic region have resulted in a series of baseline standards and services for delivering framework data sets. In addition, community semantics in the form of an ISO- compliant feature catalogue and a related geo-ontology now exist. Research related to developing The Atlas has resulted in a widely available open-source, atlas-development framework. The discussion includes lessons learned in relation to the establishment of a community of practice, adoption of standards and development processes. The paper concludes with a review of current and future research and development activities, in the context of developing a geospatial information infrastructure for the Canadian North. Included are discussions highlighting existing applications related to community development, resource monitoring, environmental management and supporting sovereignty claims in the Canadian North. Depuis 2002, les auteurs ont contribué à la mise en œuvre d’une infrastructure d’information géospatiale sous l’impulsion de la communauté pour la région polaire australe. Cette infrastructure a été utilisée pour gérer la conception d’un prototype d’atlas en ligne de l’Antarctique. Ce prototype contribuera à la mise en place d’un atlas polaire en ligne, dont la publication est programmée au cours de l’Année polaire internationale. Les méthodes utilisées pour élaborer l’infrastructure d’information géospatiale servant de base à l’atlas, incluaient une étude communautaire, ainsi que l’adoption des spécifications et normes OGC et ISO. Les norm