Iqaluit (Feb 17/03) - So much information about Nunavut's geography and geology is being gathered that it's time to share.

Thanks to digitized information collected by satellite and aircraft rigged for the job, government organizations met in Iqaluit, Feb. 12-13, to work out ways to spread the wealth of data to those who can make the most from it.

For example, a government agency might buy data from a recent satellite scan of Nunavut, explains workshop organizer Edward Little, a research scientist with the Ministry of Sustainable Development.

"Normally we'd throw away any data we didn't want," he says.

Instead, the workshop participants hope to determine an arrangement that allows the biggest bang of knowledge for the buck.

That way, different government offices can make it more cost effective if each pays for part of the data package.

"We're trying to avoid duplicating our efforts," Little says.

Twenty presenters taught seminars at the workshop, including people from the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Agency for Remote Sensing.

"They have the technology and data acquisition techniques they can make available to us to help us achieve our information gathering goals," Little says.

Also benefitting from the workshop were senior Inuksuk high schoolers and students of Arctic College, who got a chance to hear from the experts about Nunavut's geography, geology and creating different types of topographic maps. ic maps.