GeoNetwork opensource is a standard based and decentralized spatial information management system, designed to enable access to geo-referenced databases and cartographic products from a variety of data providers through descriptive metadata, enhancing the spatial information exchange and sharing between organizations and their audience, using the capacities and the power of the Internet. The system provides a broad community of users with easy and timely access to available spatial data and thematic maps from multidisciplinary sources, that may in the end support informed decision making. The main goal of the software is to increase collaboration within and between organizations for reducing duplication and enhancing information consistency and quality and to improve the accessibility of a wide variety of geographic information along with the associated information, organized and documented in a standard and consistent way.

The prototype of the GeoNetwork catalog was developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2001 to systematically archive and publish the geographic datasets produced within the Organization. The prototype was built on experiences within and outside the organization. It used metadata content available from legacy systems that was transformed into what was then only a draft metadata standard, the ISO 19115. Later on, another UN agency, the World Food Programme (WFP) joined the project and with its contribution the first version of the software was released in 2003 and operational catalogues were established in FAO and WFP. The system was based on the ISO19115:DIS metadata standard and embedded the Web Map Client InterMap that supported Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) compliant Web Map Services. Distributed searches were possible using the standard Z39.50 catalog protocol. At that moment it was decided to develop the program as a Free and Open Source Software to allow the whole geospatial users community to benefit from the development results and to contribute to the further advancement of the software.

Jointly with the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), FAO developed a second version in 2004. The new release allowed users to work with multiple metadata standards (ISO 19115, FGDC and Dublin Core) in a transparent manner. It also allowed metadata to be shared between catalogues through a caching mechanism, improving reliability when searching in multiple catalogues.

In 2006, the GeoNetwork team dedicated efforts to develop a DVD containing the GeoNetwork version 2.0.3 and the best free and open source software in the field of Geoinformatics. The DVD was produced and distributed in hard copy to over three thousand people and is now also available for download from the GeoNetwork Community website.

The latest release of GeoNetwork opensource is the result of another round of critical improvements, supported by FAO, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CSI-CGIAR), UNEP and other donors. Support for the final metadata standard ISO19115:2003 has been enabled by using the ISO19139:2007 implementation specification schema published in May 2007. The release also serves as the open source reference implementation of the OGC Catalog Service for the Web (CSW 2.0.1) specification. Improvements to give users a more responsive and interactive experience have been substantial and include a new Web map viewer and a complete revision of search interface.

GeoNetwork has been developed following the principles of a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) and based on International and Open Standards for services and protocols, like the ISO-TC211 and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specifications. The architecture is largely compatible with the OGC Portal Reference Architecture, i.e. the OGC guide for implementing standardized geospatial portals. Indeed the structure relies on the same three main modules identified by the OGC Portal Reference Architecture, that are focused on spatial data, metadata and interactive map visualization. The system is also fully compliant with the OGC specifications for querying and retrieving information from Web catalogues (CSW). It supports the most common standards to specifically describe geographic data (ISO19139 and FGDC) and the international standard for general documents (Dublin Core). It uses standards (OGS WMS) also for visualizing maps through the Internet.

Within the geographic information environment, the increased collaboration between data providers and their efforts to reduce duplication have stimulated the development of tools and systems to significantly improve the information sharing and guarantee an easier and quicker access of data from a variety of sources without undermining the ownership of the information. The harvesting funcionality in GeoNetwork is a mechanism of data collection in perfect accordance with both rights to data access and data ownership protection. Through the harvesting functionality it is possible to collect public information from the different GeoNetwork nodes installed around the world and to copy and store periodically this information locally. In this way a user from a single entry point can get information also from distributed catalogues. The logo posted on top each harvested record informs the user about the data source.