Just as the highway infrastructure allows unimpeded access from point A to point B, an open standards-based infrastructure for data access allows virtual globes to exchange data in the most efficient manner possible. The benefit derived from access to this data within virtual globes represents a significant return on investment for government, industry, the general public, and especially in the realm of education. There is a large universe of public and private geospatial data sets that virtual globes can bring to light. The sophisticated concepts related to global climate change would be far more comprehensible when experienced via a virtual globe. Anyone flying along a chain of volcanoes, a mid-ocean ridge or deep ocean trench, while simultaneously seeing the different depths to the history of earthquakes in those areas, will be delighted to sense Earth's dynamic nature in a way that would otherwise take several paragraphs of 'boring' text. Virtual globes are almost magical in their ability to reveal natural wonders. There's so much we could know if the world's knowledge was presented to us in its natural context.

Our instincts for discovery and entertainment urge us on. How we harness this technology to serve a world inundated with information will describe the quality of our future. Just as the sawbones of not-too-long-ago have given way to sophisticated surgical operating theater, today's medium for information exchange is just beginning to leap from the staid chalkboards and remote libraries to fingertip navigable 3D worlds. Once you've experienced the visually rich and highly compelling nature of data delivered via virtual globes with their highly engaging context of 3D, it's hard to go back to a flat 2D world. Virtual globes have set the standard for information exchange.

Gus goes to cybertown science dome