There is an increasing need for TEI files to incorporate geographic information within individual projects in ways that allow for interchange with other geographic encoding systems and standards (e.g. GeoJSON, GML, KML). However, support for encoding geographic information (GIS) in TEI is rudimentary at best. At present, the Guidelines provide only passing mention of other (arguably outdated) geographic standards and the existing complement of elements for encoding geographic information only allow for the most basic data and documentation.

The overall objective of the GIS Working Group is to provide standards-informed mechanisms that are at least interchangeable, if not interoperable, for encoding geographic information in TEI that are capable of unambiguous interpretation and transformation to and from standard GIS file formats.