This talk was presented at the Founding GIDE Community Event 2026 on 5/5/2026. After two successful global community events in Japan (2024) and Australia (2025), the 2026 event was held on 4-6 May 2026, in Heidelberg, Germany, and was followed on 7-8 May by an in-person hackathon and several workshops. More than 140 participants from 30 countries came together to exchange ideas, share progress, and discuss the future of a connected and interoperable Global Image Data Ecosystem (GIDE). ----This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number #2513921Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.