Are We Monitoring an Open Earth for a Community, or for a 'Big Bang'? (Xavier Pons)

The Open-Earth Monitor Global Workshop 2026 "Next-Generation EO & GeoAI Built on Openness and Distributed Data" 7-9 October 2026, Barcelona, Spain https://earthmonitor.org/global-workshop-2026/ GIS&T has accumulated enormous scientific and technological energy, producing an explosion of data, sensors, models, formats, standards, software and research initiatives. But is this a controlled explosion? Are we constructing a rigorous and interconnected representation of the Earth, or a universe of disconnected “solar systems” in which interoperability conceals losses of geometry, topology, semantics, metadata and time? Using examples from Earth observation, cartography, multiscale modelling and 3D representation, this talk invites the community to look beyond immediate technological achievements and reconsider the foundations on which a global digital representation of the Earth should be built.