Key Factors Influencing Regional SDI Development and Relevance to Global and other Levels

The challenge of designing, building, implementing, and maintaining an SDI draws on many different disciplines and requires examination of a large number of factors and issues. It is essential that SDI practitioners understand the significance of human and societal issues as much as technical issues, all of which contribute to the success of SDI developments. Key issues include sustaining a culture of sharing, establishing a common language, and maintaining reliable financial support. This paper presents and discusses major classes of factors which influence, or contribute to the development of a Regional SDI initiative together with recommendations to facilitate the development of Regional SDI initiatives. It is argued that the adoption and implementation of these recommendations can assist Regional SDI coordinating agencies to receive more support and speed up their progress in the development of SDI initiatives. This paper draws on research conducted by the authors in Asia and the Pacific region, based on the theory of innovation diffusion which provides the research framework. The results and lessons learned from this research can also be used and applied in other regions, and potentially other jurisdictional levels such as local, state, national and global.