Giacomo Martirano
Engineer
Epsilon Italia
Italy

Biography
Electronic Engineer, since 1997 cofounder and CTO of Epsilon Italia, an independent SME active in the Geomatics sector. He was/is responsible for many international projects as well as for projects implementing SDIs at local level for Local Authorities. He is actively involved in many INSPIRE implementations, ranging from data harmonization to network service deployment and to validation and testing. Since 2012 he is also vice-chair of CEN/TC 287 and since 2014 co-chair of OGC CITE SC (OGC Compliance and Interoperability Testing and Evaluation Program Subcommitee).

Abstract
SMEs as key players in geospatial-driven innovation

GeoICTSMEs can enable countries to fulfil the Directive, creating new market opportunities with increased potential forinnovation and new jobs. Due to the legal requirements, the INSPIRE implementation becomes the entry-pointfor crucial business opportunities, opening new, or reinforcing existing perspectives (including Linked Open Data,Sensor Web, cloud computing and other e-environment application domains). The smeSpire project (www.smespire.eu) paved the way forward, encouraging and enabling the participation of SMEs in the mechanisms of harmonizing and making large scale environmental content available.