The International Coalition for Geoinformatics (iGeoInfo) was founded after an inaugural meeting, organized by H. Richard Lane of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Cinzia Cervato (CHRONOS) on Friday 20 August 2004, which took place during the 32nd International Geological Congress in Florence, Italy.
The purpose of iGeoInfo was to build a community to promote data sharing concepts, and geoinformatics in general, at an international level. Initially, the main focus of iGeoInfo was to foster the collaboration between geoinformatics initiatives in the United States and Europe rooted in the fields of stratigraphy, sedimentary geology and paleobiology.
The founding members of iGeoinfo were scientists from Chronos, EarthChem,PaleoStrat, PANGAEA,SESAR and Stratigraphy.net. Several other initiatives and programs joined later such as GEON and PaleoDB.