"Old Guard" Meets "New Guard"?

There has been a flurry of reaction around the web of GIS-related bloggers about the joint appearance by ESRI's Jack Dangermond and Google's John Hanke at Where 2.0, the geo-web conference. The pair announced increased interconnectivity between ArcGIS and Google's Maps and Earth that should make sharing data with more folks on-line easier and more effective.

Sean Gorman, of FortiusOne, spoke just before Mr. Hanke and called it a pleasant surprise but added a note of caution:

Its great to see the big guys on the GeoWeb and GIS respectively working together to bring more data to the masses. While there was a nice canned demo showing ArcGIS 9.3 interacting with Google Earth, it will be interesting to see how it works in the wild and how it scales. My one concern is that is seemed from the demo that the model is still based around the public being passive viewers of GIS professionals work.

Adena Schutzberg, in her All Points Blog, has a detailed, plain-English review of the idea:

This is a huge step forward for geography (neo, paleo, and all the rest). It does indeed bring the hidden data and emerging Web services from the huge ESRI community out into the light of day.

Theron Hatch, at The GeoJobe Blog, builds on Adena's analysis with some thoughts about where we go next:

It seems that costs should come down for budget conscious agencies looking to maximize the ingestion of free data available throughout the Where 2.0 map world, while at the same time managing only those internal datasets that are either required by law, security-focused, or otherwise need to be handled locally. This leaves a plethora of free data that someone else can manage and make available. This news means combining these disparate datasets is now easier and more seamless than ever. “Why can’t we all just get along” just flew out the window.

Finally, Sue, posting yesterday on Very Spatial, suggested the "old meet new" idea:

...for those of us GIS old timers, it was kinda symbolic to see the old and new guard coming together.

Things are getting interesting. Yet again.

If the Internet is a Tool for Communication, We Need to Stay Sharp and Hone our Skills at Using This Tool

Today (May 1) is RSS Awareness Day. Who knew?

I did, and I knew because a blog post about it popped up this morning in my RSS feed reader. A part of my job as GIS Coordinator for Delaware (and GIS practitioner for State Planning, and Census Data Person, and aware state employee) is to pay attention to what is going on in these various areas of practice. So I regularly scan headlines, and read content, from blogs, news organizations, and professional organizations. And I do so via their RSS feeds.

And we can and should use RSS feeds to share our information with our various audiences. In Delaware we use RSS to share headlines and items of interest with our constituents. Here on the NSGIC Blog you'll see both State GIS News, aggregated from our members' RSS feeds, and Links by NSGIC Folks, which uses RSS to collect things some of us have found and tagged as "of GIS interest."

Are you using RSS as completely as you could? If you are publishing RSS as a State GIS Coordinator, please let us know via the comments section below and we will add you to the State GIS News feed. Are there other ways we should be using this tool?

Please, share...

Getting Serious About Original Place Names

The April Edition of Spatially Speaking (PDF), the FGDC's monthly update, includes a short article on a grant from the USGS National Geospatial Program Office to the Hawaiian Geographic Information Coordination Council (HIGICC) to enhance the web site of the Hawaii State Board on Geographic Names (HBGN).

The Hawaii names folks have been working through USGS place-name data for the island state (at the USGS' request) and making suggestions on updating the typography and spelling of those names to help users towards a more correct pronunciation of traditional names. The new grant will go towards adding audio files to the HBGN web site to demonstrate proper pronunciations.

The idea is borrowed from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Idaho, who have added written and recorded traditional names information on their web site. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe GIS Program has created a Native Names Project (with some USGS funding) that presents information on original names in a searchable database and in several map formats, including as a Google Earth KML.

The project is open to input on names outside of traditional Couer d'Alene areas. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, for example, is at the same spot as what was once known as Tsi wahswèn:to (MP3) which translates as "at the coal forked mouth."

The projects are expected to expand to include video presentations, additional history, and other information.

Draft Agenda Posted for National Geospatial Advisory Committee Meeting

The FGDC web site has a draft agenda up for the initial meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). The meeting is set for April 15 and 16, at the American Institute of Architects Building, on New York Avenue in Washington, DC.

The NGAC is a Federal Advisory Committee set up to "review and comment upon geospatial policy and management issues and will provide a forum to convey views representative of non-federal stakeholders in the geospatial community." It includes members from the private sector, nonprofits, and Academia.

The agenda includes a variety of introductory remarks, briefings on federal geospatial data activities, planning for future study and discussions, and public comment.

The meeting is also announced (PDF) in the March 31 issue of the Federal Register.

More Roots of Photogrammetry

The blog Modern Mechanix offers another glimpse at the history of photogrammetry today with a scan from the May, 1939, edition of Popular Science. This is the same blog that gave us a glimpse of terrestrial photography-based surveying earlier this month.

The article, Flying Cameras Map America for War, takes a look at the whole process, including collecting imagery from the belly of a military plane, survey parties recording reference points, and stereoscopic photogrammetry back at the base.

The statement of purpose that opens the article feels oddly familiar to a 21st-century geospatial data coordinator:

From aerial photographs snapped by giant bombers soaring four miles above the earth, U. S. Army engineers are compiling maps that will serve as eyes for our armed forces if they ever have to wage a defensive war on American soil.

The image above is a reproduction of "a stereoscopic image of the kind produced by the multiplex aeroprojector used by U. S. Army engineers in making contour maps from aerial photographs." The image at right is an illustration of how one might make sense of "this seemingly meaningless blur of colored lines" to create a topographic map.

I don't think the second image is an actual illustration of a U.S. Army engineer.

2008 NSGIC Mid-Year Wrap-Up

The presentation materials and other documents from the 2008 NSGIC Mid-Year Conference have been posted on the NSGIC web site along with a final attendance roster (PDF), the final conference agenda (EXCEL), and the conference program (WORD), as handed out on site.

Materials are available from all of the sessions that we have already posted notes for on this blog:

• Monday Morning Keynote Speaker
• NSGIC Goals and the NSDI
• Imagery for the Nation Update
• Geospatial Preparedness
• Transportation and Addressing
• Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker
• Airborne Imagery
• National Land Parcel Data
• Emerging Technologies
• GIS in Health Issues
• The National Map Tactical Plan
• The Lightning Round

And there are materials from several workshops and sessions for which we have not already posted notes.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: The Lightning Round

NSGIC traditionally closes its State Caucus sessions with a "lightning round" in which all state representatives have a chance to note a concern or an issue, lobby for an initiative, grant kudos, or otherwise vent.

Here is an overview of this year's mid-year lightning round, thanks to the flashing note-taking fingers of Georgia's Danielle Ayan and with additional scribbles from a few others. I've tried to group and aggregate them into some sort of logical structure.

• NSGIC Communications
  Several members noted the importance of communications; both among NSGIC members and with our partners and sponsors. There was a pitch for increased "in-reach" to the membership as well as outreach. There was a suggestion of a "NSGIC Channel." There was a call for more member participation in committees.
  
• Assistance to States
  There were several expressions of thanks to the Board for travel grants that helped bring attendance from almost every state and several territories. Members were pleased with recent WebEx seminars such as that on working with Congress. There was support for Return on Investment studies and other ways to show the importance and value of data coordination. There was interest in strengthening the role of GIOs in states, better linkage with CIOs, and helping those states now in transition from one form of GIS coordination to another. There was a concern about funding within some states.
  
• Conference Issues
  Long-time conference-runner Rick Memmel threw-in a plug for members to complete their conference evaluations (I have, have you?). There was a request for at least one "walking meeting" in future conferences (There is a lot of sitting and listening...). Earlier notice for some breakfast meetings was suggested. Tony Spicci said something about some sort of other conference this spring somewhere in the middle of America?
  
• Technologies
  There is interest in web services and streaming data. Members want more presentations on application delivery and open GIS services. And what about 3-D data? And geocoding too. There is also interest in geodetic control.
• Partnerships
  A member suggested that we develop federations. There was a call for a regional Transportation for the Nation proof of concept project. A member noted the importance of vertical data-sharing, data licensing and GIS surveyor issues. It was suggested that we remember to keep data sharing and other agreements simple and focused. One member called for standardized contractual federal/state agreements that include service charges and verbiage for public access to data.
• NSGIC Priorities
  A periodic update was suggested to help maintain focus on priorities. It was suggested that we keep promoting and using the GIS Inventory. There were several pitches for land parcel data. There was a mention on NAIP funding issues (did someone really suggest a bake-sale?). There was a mention of keeping our focus on state spatial data infrastructures (SSDIs).
  

It was a lively lightning round.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: The National Map Tactical Plan

The USGS has been working on a new tactical plan for the National Map. Bill Carswell, of USGS, gave an overview of the purpose of the National Map. He described it as a key part of the NSDI and noted that it is built on partnerships and standards. He listed some of the accomplishments of the first version of the National Map, but added that the job is not yet done.

The focus for the National Map "2.0" includes integration into a consistent, quality assured and seamless map; revitalization of topographic maps, and online services from consistent national data.

The near-term priority areas include the coasts, along international borders and the 133 urban areas, among other areas.

Mr. Carswell set out a tactical plan to gather and publish base-map data for the National Map.

Paul Wiese explained a movement from distributed data to centralized data in National Map 2.0.

Vickie Lucas spoke about the importance of partnerships, which she called the foundation of the National Map. The USGS partnership strategy is based on the complimentary roles of levels of government to develop the NSDI.

She noted that the National Hydrography Dataset (NHD) is an example of working in partnership with states and local governments.

She said that the USGS will draw from the NSGIC 50 States Initiative and the strategic plans that states are developing. Staff are starting meet with NSGIC members to gather feedback.

Bill Carswell reported that the USGS director has signed the National Map 2.0 tactical plan.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: GIS in Health Issues

A panel of contractors and officials in the health arena gave an overview of the use of geospatial data in health policy and health care.

A contractor for the CDC showed a shared data portal that has been updated to try to increase interconnections among agencies and information groups.

Another speaker demonstrated using GIS to analyze the frequency of types of disease to help plan the deployment of resources. He also showed examples of using GIS to explore health policy issues. He noted that the need for strong confidentiality in the health arena may reduce public use of GIS in the industry.

One speaker looked closely at ways to analyze sampled patient hospitalization data to find ways to improve policy.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Emerging Technologies

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council gave a presentation on emerging technologies in the geospatial industries.

Malcolm Adkins, of Michael Baker, spoke about the on-going effort to update the nation's Flood Maps. He noted that the tools now available make it easier to create widely usable flood maps. He also pointed to new ways to share data with the public using new tools from Google, Microsoft, and others.

Martin Hogeweg, of ESRI, spoke about working towards service-oriented architectures to take full advantage of data and applications. It is the advent of services that are widely available and inter-operative that has brought about the new practice of "mash-ups." He drew a parallel between established enterprise business models and an open, enterprise approach to the use and sharing of geospatial data.

Bill Bates, from TeleAtlas, gave an overview of navigation devices and a sense of how rapidly they are changing and being adopted. He noted that technology advances are helping to drive the market changes. This is true both of the tools used to collect and edit data and of the tools used by the public to make use of that data. He speculated that eventual two-way data communication between data users and data managers will allow continual, real-time data update by communities of data users.

John Auble, of DigitalGlobe, looked at changes in the aerial imagery tools and techniques, especially as satellite data improves. He hopes to work with the state GIS Coordinators to shape the business model that will take advantage of this growing volume of data. He suggested one day having a steady relationship for imagery; a line-item rather than a capital expense. He noted the idea of licensing data, rather than owning it (licensing rather than owning the copyright).

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: National Land Parcel Data

Will Craig, from Minnesota, led a discussion of the recent National Land Parcel Data Report. The vision, he reported, is for one nation's worth of data, from multiple data sources. This is part of the NSGIC Advocacy Agenda.

The reality is that parcel data is created a very local level. It should be coordinated at the state level and made available at a national level. The federal government, as a land-holder and manager is in a similar situation, where individual agencies hold parcel data (similar to county data) and that data should be coordinated up to a national system.

Recommendations from the study include making sure there is national leadership and a lead agency and that parcel data, not just cadastre, be added to the idea of Framework data. There should be support for state coordination and local data creation , some funding, and some "carrots and sticks." And the congress should revisit the laws that require the Census Bureau to not share parts of their master address file.

Will Craig suggests working through the FGDC and other mechanisms to push for some of these recommendations. He recommends focusing on these policy issues in a variety of outreach approaches.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Airborne Imagery

Members of the NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council gave a presentation on new developments in airborne imagery and LiDAR. They focused on new technologies and how state GIS Coordinators can take advantage of those technologies. They also listed factors that should be considered in creating RFPs for new imagery.

Craig Molander, from Surdex, spoke about large-format digital cameras. These collect a wide, rectangular image and collect digital data from several sensors at once.

Bob William, from Sanborn, spoke about small-format cameras often used to collect oblique imagery, which has a variety of uses and is growing in popularity.

Dave White, from Fugro EarthData, spoke about the "push-broom" camera, which looks forward, down and back as it moves along. This can help reduce building-lean. It can also make it easier to create elevation data without LiDAR.

Jay Arnold, from 3001, spoke about LiDAR as an adjunct to, or sometimes a temporary replacement for, orthoimagery. He spoke about both topographic and bathymetric LiDAR systems.

Most of the speakers recommended now requesting 4-band imagery, as opposed to just black and white, color, or infrared imagery. This is because most sensors now collect all at once. And there was general agreement that the industry is constantly, and sometimes rapidly, changing.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Tuesday Morning Keynote Speaker

Tuesday Morning's Keynote Speaker at the NSGIC Mid-Year was Dr. Edward Papenfuse, the State Archivist in Maryland. He describes himself as having a passion for maps and spoke on a project to preserve historic maps of Maryland.

The Maryland State Archives has, over the years, published collections of maps of Maryland. He outlined the process of finding and writing about those maps.

He also spoke on the lessons that can be learned about the history of a place from the historic maps of that place. He explained how historic maps have been used to help settle a variety of boundary disputes with neighboring states.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.

NSGIC Mid-Year Reports: Transportation and Addressing

The Transportation for the Nation and Addresses for the Nation working groups presented a joint panel that included several states, the US Census Bureau, US DOT, the Forest Service, the Postal Service and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).

Will Craig, of Minnesota, gave an overview of the different roles of the counties, states and federal agencies and Jill Saligoe-Simmel gave an overview of the need for good address data. The address work group is developing a white paper on needs and approaches that will be reviewed by the NSGIC membership.

Dan Widener, of Virginia, gave an update on work on Transportation for the Nation. There was a Transportation Research Board meeting in 2007. That workshop was meant to bring data users and data producers together to talk about the idea of Transportation for the Nation. Dan ran through some of the work done to flesh-out ideas for national transportation data. The results of the workshop will be published in the summer of 2008 by the Transportation Research Board.

In 2008, the Transportation for the Nation working group will be working on a business plan and is interested in creating a regional "proof of concept." This would have to be a volunteer effort but would result in a report at the NSGIC Annual Meeting.

The US Census Bureau presented it updated TIGER data set as perhaps the start of Transportation for the Nation. Bob LaMacchia described the effort to update TIGER. The data were updated with input from states and counties and the TIGER now includes the National Hydrography data set. He noted that TIGER doesn't include everything that is needed, but it can provide a basis for the Transportation for the Nation. TIGER will now be released in shapefile format, starting with the 2007 update.

The US Department of Transportation expressed support for the idea of Transportation for the Nation, based on the needs of DOT for assistance in tracking the road miles in the nation. US DOT tracks several networks, including the federal highways, freight routes, a system used to track highway funding needs, and TIGER and TeleAtlas data. Steve Lewis suggested that the DOT and NSGIC will need to lead a group effort to create a single data set that meets all needs.

Betsey Kanally of the US Forest Service, presented some facts on the numbers of miles of roads on Forest System lands. The Forest Service provides some map data but hopes to provide more.

Ruth Jones, who works in Address Management for the US Postal Service, spoke about how the Postal Service manages addresses and how they might be shared. About 2 million addresses are added each year, from a variety of sources.

Patrick Halley, of the National Emergency Number Association, spoke about the needs of the emergency response community as they relate to addressing. He noted that the 911 community is still coming up to speed technologically. He also reviewed the changes in how people use telephones, cell phones and the personal computers and how those changes are impacting the emergency response community.

Update (3/18/08): Presentation materials from this session are now available on-line.