KCOD’s Bastiaan van Loenen presented the concept of open spatial data infrastructures at the Institute fur Geo-Information (IFGI), University of Muenster, Germany. In his presentation he addressed the most pressing societal challenges and the role open SDIs may play in addressing these challenges. The audience highlighted that the German SDI is in a very early stage of development: a so called 1st generation SDI, barely taking user needs seriously. Moving towards an Open SDI would require major innovations in data policy, governance, and institutional reform. More information on Open SDI can be found at www.kcopendata.eu/opensdi