What Would You Like to See at the 2006 Annual Conference?

The 2006 NSGIC Mid-Year meeting was a great success. There were 250 attendees.

The Annual Conference is next on the agenda and should be another in the annual string of vibrant and exciting meetings. We hope to see you there.

The Conference Committee has issued its second call for session content ideas, keynote speaker suggestions and themes for the Conference. Send your ideas to Rick Memmel.

The 2006 NSGIC Annual Conference will be held October 1 through 5, 2006, in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Purpose and Approach

The NSGIC Blog is intended to serve as a venue for announcements of and links to a variety of events, web sites, and resources of interest to the general membership of the National States Geographic Information Council. In addition, it should serve as a site for informal discussion (commenting) of some of the issues and ideas that float through and around the community of state GIS Coordinators from time to time.

It is not expected that the discussion here will always reflect the official (or even the general) position of NSGIC as an organization. Venues for formal policy-making and avenues for structured discussion already exist and will continue in their valuable roles.

Warning: Analogy Ahead
Think for a moment about the Annual NSGIC Conference, or the Mid-Year Meeting. There are a variety of formal sessions, including the NSGIC Business Meeting, a selection of committee meetings, and various opportunities to meet, greet, network, and hobnob at the coffee station, over meals, in the lobby, and elsewhere.

This blog should serve the same sort of function as the unstructured, but valuable, chattering time at a conference. The formal business and presentations take place in the main conference venue. Outside, during breaks, and afterwards, there's a sharing of experience and open discussion. "Ancillary activities," to be pseudo-scientific about the idea.

End of Analogy, Back to Plain-Speaking
To that end, the NSGIC Blog Team, listed in the right-hand column, will post short thoughts, links to other web sites, notes about events, pointers to interesting commentary, and occasional announcements.

Feel free to comment. Just remember, the official discourse takes place in the committees, at the meetings, and by the Board of Directors.

It is also worth noting that this blog is open to the internet. It can, and should, be read by anyone interested in the coordination of the use of geospatial data within and among states and between the states and the federal government.

Your Input Needed for the Imagery for the Nation Proposal

NSGIC has created a short survey on the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) proposal. It has 14 questions, only 6 are mandatory. The survey is designed to collect information from across the country on current digital orthophoto acquisition activities and record comments on the IFTN proposal.

We want feedback from all levels of government, so please encourage other GIS users to complete the survey as well.

Before taking the survey, please take a moment to review the Imagery for the Nation brochure (PDF).

The Imagery for the Nation Survey should take about 5 minutes to complete. Thank you for adding to our knowledge and helping us create a nation-wide imagery program that will serve all of our needs.

Side note: Watch ArcNews for a special IFTN article and poster!

OGC GeoDRM Reference Model

In the latest GIS Cafe newsletter 4/3/06, I see under GIS in the News heading this: The OGC(R) Invites Public Comment on Candidate Geospatial Digital Rights Management (GeoDRM) Reference Model [03 Apr 2006]

This idea caught me a bit flat footed and irritated me. I despise the way DRM is used in the entertainment world and would hate to see it used in the Geospatial Realm in like manner. My question is How or Is DRM being used already by the public sector or is this a private sector issue to protect their investment? I don'’t know of DRM being used in Idaho by the public sector.

Am I getting excited about nothing or is this a valid rant?

The OGC request for public comment is ongoing and can be found here.

Nathan Bentley
State GIS Coordinator
nathan.bentley@adm.idaho.gov