California Opens A GIO Position

Last week, California opened an executive position in the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) for a Geospatial Information Officer. This is big news for California, and comes nine months after the California GIS Council adopted a Strategic Plan (see http://cgia.org/CA%20StrategicPlan%20P2.pdf ) calling for a GIO.

The GIO will be responsible for ensuring that the State of California receives the benefits associate with Geospatial data, specifically,

• increased data access and sharing;
  
• reduced GIS duplication and costs;
  
• developments of GIS standards;
  
• Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) centers of expertise; public outreach; and
  
• increased collaboration.

We are enthusiastic about this development and look forward to good things to come from now having

1. an executive sponsor,
2. close ties with our Chief Information Officer, and
3. a Paid full-time coordinator.

The link for the job announcement and details for the application process is here.