Within the framework of this Demonstrator project, primary public actors from the 3 Wadden Sea countries will be organised in a so called Public Interest Group, chaired and co-ordinated by the inter-governmental Common Wadden Sea Secretariat (CWSS)

The CWSS was established in 1987 as the secretariat for the Trilateral Co-operation on the Protection of the Wadden Sea and has been systematically working on co-operation and co-ordination of activities between public partners, including exchange of data & information. Their experience and achievements will provide a fruitful basis for the development of the WADSIS public network.

These public partners will team with private partners to develop the Demonstrator. The focus of the Public Interest Group will be the following:

• to define the structure and scope of the meta-data web service for Wadden Sea data & information resources, targeting specifically at GIS-datasets
• to provide the basic meta-data references to public data & information
• to advice and determine the scope and content of thematic maps to be selected for the CD-ROM electronic atlas
• to provide basic GIS-datasets and to assist in harmonising and aggregating these datasets and related attribute information, in preparation of the production of thematic maps
• to act as a consultative group for guiding the development of the planned Trans-national Meta-data web service for GIS-datasets and the development of the multi-media CD-ROM

The development of the multi-media CD-ROM Atlas with selected thematic maps and extensive explanatory and educational data; information and illustrations (incl. animations, video's, sounds) will be lead by ETI Biodiversity Centre, an established developer of educational (environmental) software, including special multi-media features, and in strong co-operation with MARIS and EcoMare.