Implementation
Mechanisms

allow stakeholders to cooperate flexibly in a bottom-up fashion and with a low initiation cost. They can include a broad variety of activities with varying degrees of coordination. GEO Community Activities may, for example, define user needs, explore new frontier applications or demonstrate technical possibilities, or agree on specific observation or analysis protocols and data exchange.

allow Members and Participating Organizations to coordinate their actions and contributions towards a common objective within an agreed, yet flexible framework. They develop and implement prototype services according to GEO priorities and have identified committed resources to a certain extent. GEO Initiatives may, for example, demonstrate technical feasibilities through pilot services, or serve a user need.

allow Members and Participating Organizations with a policy-relevant mandate to spin-up a dedicated operational service serving common needs and/or well-defined user groups. They develop and implement near-operational services according to GEO priorities and are fully resourced. GEO Flagships may operate for as long as they are able to generate sufficient impact to attract support for their activities. Once they reach a mature, operational stage, they may be taken up by operational organizations (e.g. GEO Participating Organizations), for their continued operation over the long term.

allow GEO to implement selected, often enabling, tasks to achieve GEO Strategic Objectives. These include coordination actions, gap analyses, the implementation of technical elements for accessing GEOSS, and other routine operations of the GEO Secretariat. Thus, they provide important support functions to Flagships, Initiatives, and Community Activities.