NSGIC Releases Advocacy Agenda

The National States Geographic Information Council has released its 2008-2009 Advocacy Agenda (PDF). The Advocacy Agenda is developed each year by the organization's Outreach Committee and presented to the membership for consideration at the Annual Conference.

The Advocacy Agenda focuses on five specific initiatives:

• Imagery for the Nation
• Parcel Mapping
• Partnership Funding
• Transportation for the Nation
• Technology for the 21st Century

The 2008-2009 Advocacy Agenda builds on earlier versions and incorporates lessons learned and issues developed over the past year. The Agenda represents the combined concerns of state GIS Coordinators and their partners in local government, in Academia, and in the private sector. It maintains a focus on NSGIC's commitment to "efficient and effective government through the prudent adoption of geospatial technology."

Montana gets a GIS Portal

The state of Montana has a new GIS Portal. The portal was announced today by The Montana State Library and was featured on mtbusiness.com (New State Geographic Information Portal Launched) where it was picked up by Adena Schutzberg and passed along to the rest of us on All Points Blog.

The State Library GIS chief shares a statement of purpose in the mtbusiness.com story:

"The new Montana GIS Portal will provide improved access to geographic data for our state," said Gerry Daumiller, manager of the Library's GIS section. "Montana agencies are always increasing their use of GIS, whether it's to map water rights or identify land owners affected by a construction project. The new GIS Portal will help them find data to make their GIS work. We will go to the Montana organizations that produce GIS data and make sure it is all accessible to everyone through the Portal."

Based on a quick visit, it looks like the Montana Portal is using standard portal technology, integrated with ESRI's Map Viewer. It has a neat, user-friendly layout. Not all of the links worked in FireFox, but it performed well in Internet Explorer 6, Chrome, and Safari.

Google Goes to Washington

The Washington Post this morning pays a visit to the newest corporate offices set up to work with the federal government -- the Reston, Virginia, offices of Google.

In Google Goes to Washington, Gearing Up to Put Its Stamp on Government the Post looks at Google's efforts to get federal and other governments to use Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs and other tools.

Among the examples cited are some of the Google-related applications that NSGIC's own Barney Krucoff has been involved with for the Government of the District of Columbia.

An Interview with the USDOT GIO

Adenda Schutzberg has a five-question interview with USDOT GIO Steve Lewis up on DirectionsMag.com today. Mr. Lewis, who was with NSGIC in Colorado this fall and spoke this past March at the NSGIC Mid-Year, includes a gratifying shout-out to NSGIC when speaking about the role of a federal agency GIO.

But the part of the interview that caught my eye is where Mr. Lewis explains how his approach to coordinating the use of geospatial technologies will differ from past attempts in his agency, which focused on technical governance requirements.

There were no attempts to create a true sense of community, where the members can learn from each other and leverage the work that is being done across all of the DOT Operating Administrations. The community will, of course, address FGDC and OMB requirements, but it will also focus heavily on sharing experiences and working together.

This is an important aspect of coordination efforts that sometimes gets lost in the bureaucracy. NSGIC has, I think, done a fairly good job of building a community, and many of us working at the state level find that a sense of community and shared-purpose, while hard to measure, can be a valuable asset to coordination.

Extending NSGIC into Social Media and Stuff Like That

As a result of discussions at the recent NSGIC Conference (you may have heard about it), we have staked a NSGIC claim in a few social media spaces this fall.

A basic introduction to NSGIC has been added to Wikipedia. The material for this was mostly drawn from the About NSGIC page, with some expansion based on personal experience. We have tried to include material and references from outside of NSGIC, as a way of cementing the new article in Wikipedia. Any NSGIC folks who are Wikipedians should feel free to keep and eye on the new entry and edit or add as they see fit.

There is also now a new NSGIC Group on the business networking site LinkedIn. A number of NSGIC folk who are on LinkedIn have already linked to the new group. The rest of the NSGIC community is invited (encouraged? urged? peer-pressured?) to join as well.

Someone mentioned a NSGIC profile on MySpace or FaceBook. We'll have to think about those, though I will note that if we go that route my teen-aged daughter will be horrified.

NSGIC Awards in Focus: Ted Koch

Wisconsin State Cartographer Ted Koch was presented with the prestigious NSGIC Lifetime Service Award last week at the NSGIC Conference in Colorado. You may have read our recent post about the other service awards presented. Ted's is one of only three Lifetime Service Awards ever presented by NSGIC. It deserves a post all of its own.

This is in addition, by the way, to a well-written recent post on the Wisconsin Mapping Bulletin.

It seems worth our time to look at the full text of the award statement from the Conference. It was extracted from the nomination submitted by GIS professionals in Wisconsin.

Ted is a founding member of NSGIC, having joined in 1991 shortly after assuming the role of State Cartographer in Wisconsin. After 12 years of supporting NSGIC’s goals, Ted served on NSGIC Board of Directors from 2003 to 2005. Most recently, Ted served as Chair of the Conference Planning Committee in 2007. From his seemingly daily calls with Bill Burgess, to his able voice as the NSGIC representative on the National Digital Orthophoto Steering Committee, Ted’s dedication to NSGIC is unquestionable.

What has Ted done for NSGIC? You will recall it was Ted who at a NSGIC state caucus meeting in 2004 suggested we tackle federal policy issues. Among his ideas, he presented a concept he called “Imagery for the Nation.” Needless to say, IFTN has become a centerpiece of NSGIC’s advocacy agenda. Thanks to his original idea, we all have a new and exciting concept to rally around.

Despite this long list of honors and achievements, Ted is easily the most humble person I know. Not once have I heard him take credit for the original idea called Imagery for Nation, or for that matter, any other major initiative for which he deserves credit. That’s “classic Ted.” Selfless, devoted, and always looking out for the best interest of the team.

From cracks about his 1970’s vintage plaid pants at least year’s conference, to jabs about his golf game, Ted is a guy that takes it all in stride. He always has a smile on his face, and always puts his own needs behind others. Simply put, Ted is always there when you need him.

I doubt there are any NSGIC members who don't whole-heartedly agree with these sentiments. And we were all saddened to hear Ted announce his impending retirement as he accepted the award. It makes those of us in the younger ranks realize that we need to step forward and live-up to an impressive example of leadership.

There is no better metric of Ted Koch's leadership than the number of interested, active and effective young geospatial leaders he has mentored in Wisconsin. Over the last several years it has become clear that the folks from Wisconsin are going to play important roles in the future of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure.

That is a credit to Ted Koch. he will deny it, of course, but we know better.

2008 NSGIC Awards Presented

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) presented five Outstanding Service Awards and one Lifetime Service Award for 2008 at its Annual Conference in Colorado. These are two of four possible service awards that can be granted by the organization. The others are the Distinguished Service Award and the Dedicated Service Award.

The awards were presented by 2007-2008 NSGIC President Cy Smith, of Oregon. The Lifetime Service Award was presented to Ted Koch, of Wisconsin. Outstanding Service Awards were presented to:

• Ivan Weichert, of Kansas
  
• Vicki Lucas, of the USGS
  
• Shirley Hall, of the USDA
  
• Craig Molander, of Surdex Corporation
  
• Mike Mahaffie, of Delaware

The NSGIC Outstanding Service Award (PDF) is presented to individuals (or organizations) in leadership positions who have advanced the National Spatial Data Infrastructure and promoted NSGIC’s goal of efficient and effective government through the prudent implementation of geospatial technologies.

As this is one of NSGIC’s highest service award recognition, a recipient's service must exceed the normal expectation of duty.

Ivan Weichert, of Kansas, serves as the Treasurer for NSGIC Board and was honored for his work in the role:

Ivan pays close attention to the financial health of our organization and carefully plans with our Financial Officer to ensure that we are implementing the best practices that are expected. Ivan can always be counted on for candid communications and he is able to make his point heard when needed. Our future financial success as an organization is in good hands with him.

Mr. Weichert was unable to attend the conference. His award was accepted on his behalf by fellow Kansan Rick Miller.

Vicki Lucas, of the USGS, has been a long-time partner with the states and a leader in national initiatives:

Vicki possesses the characteristics that every NSGIC state member wants to see in a federal agency employee. She doggedly pursues a vision of the NSDI that is a shared function of Federal, state, local and other governments. She has been instrumental in advancing the credibility and commitment of the NSDI liaisons and worked to pursue partnership opportunities through them. Most recently, she has been appointed to oversee and merge the activities of seven Executive Committees that will advance the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) initiative which is NSGIC’s number one advocacy issue. In addition to being a long-time NSGIC resource and member, she has done an excellent job of pulling these diverse groups together to work as one.

Shirley Hall, of the USDA, helps manage the National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) , a valuable resource for the states:

She has also gone to extraordinary lengths to ensure implementation of Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) and been an ardent supporter of this initiative including her tireless work on several of the FGDC Executive Committees. Shirley has listened to state government coordinators and incorporated design changes into the NAIP program that are consistent with the principles of IFTN. These changes will make NAIP an even more valuable resource for state and local governments.

Ms. Hall was unable to attend the conference. Her award was accepted on her behalf by NSGIC Washington Liaison Bill Burgess.

Craig Molander, of Surdex Corporation, is a leader among NSGIC's private sector partners:

Craig is a Senior Vice President of Surdex which is a busy corporation that is also a NSGIC sponsor. He has been an active leader on NSGIC’s Corporate Leadership Council (CLC) and helped to shape that group as a trusted adviser for NSGIC leadership. In spite of his corporate responsibilities, Craig has participated in most of the NSGIC Conference Committee activities to help ensure the success of the organization. He has also provided leadership for the CLC presentations which have been well received by the members.

Mike Mahaffie, of Delaware, is a Board Member and chair of the NSGIC Communications Committee:

Under his guidance, communications have greatly improved and the organization is better connected with its members. He is constantly searching for ways to use today’s technology to better advantage and will undoubtedly continue to improve communications within the organization.

All five join a distinguished list of NSGIC awardees (PDF) dating back to the 1995 Annual Conference in Vermont. Nominations for the NSGIC awards are solicited by the NSGIC Awards Working Group twice each year. awards can be given at either the Annual or the Midyear NSGIC conferences.

We have create a whole blog post devoted to the Lifetime Achievement Award to Ted Koch. It deserves one.

New NSGIC Board and Officers Elected

Learon Dalby (left), of Arkansas, took over the Presidency of NSGIC during the 2008 Annual NSGIC Conference in Colorado last week.

Under the NSGIC Bylaws (PDF), candidates are elected to President-Elect for one year, then serve a year as President, followed by a year as Past-President. This allows for a continuity of leadership and creates a solid core of experienced executives who work closely together to guide the organization. The change of office takes place at the conclusion of the annual conference each year.

Mr. Dalby was elected President-Elect in 2007 at Madison, Wisconsin. He takes over from Oregon's Cy Smith, who now takes on the role of Past-President. Minnesota's Will Craig (right), was elected President-Elect at the 2008 Annual Conference.

Meanwhile, the NSGIC membership selected four new members of the NSGIC Board of Directors. Three will replace Board members who have stepped down and one will complete the term of Will Craig, who leaves his seat on the Board to serve as President-Elect.

The newest board members are Danielle Ayan, of Georgia: Michael Byrne, of California; Jon Gottsegen, of Colorado; and Dan Widner, of Virginia. They join returning Board members Mike Ouimet, of California; and Mike Mahaffie, of Delaware.

Ivan Wichert, of Kansas, was appointed to another term as NSGIC Treasurer. Mike Van Hook, of Alabama was appointed Secretary. Bill Burgess, of Maryland (ret.), will continue as NSGIC's Washington Liaison.

The NSGIC Board and officers meet monthly by Conference Call, making use of on-line meeting and collaboration technology as appropriate. They hold face-to-face meetings during the NSGIC Mid-Year and Annual Conferences. Approved meeting minutes are published on the NSGIC web site.

NSGIC Conference Report 3

This entry will cover Wednesday and Thursday (days 4 and 5) of the NSGIC Conference in Colorado. I had hoped to post daily updates, but a day at the NSGIC Conference is too long, and exhausting, to promote evening blogging. So I will play "catch-up."

Wednesday started with updates from NASCIO and MAPPS, two valued partners of NSGIC. Eric Sweden, NASCIO's Enterprise Architect, reviewed the roles of the CIO and the GIO and connections between them. he highlighted some of the findings from the recent NASCIO issues brief "Where’s the Data? Show Me." MAPPS board member Brant Howard reviewed the organization's legislative priorities, the results of a recent member survey, and several concerns about terminology.

A panel of representatives from GITA, the state of Washington, Iowa, Idaho, Florida and Vermont discussed state and regional strategic plan efforts under the 50 States Initiative.

GIS Coordinators from Texas and Georgia gave a joint presentation on a new effort to craft a "Geospatial Maturity Assessment" that state's can use to gauge their progress in achieving a fully function State Spatial Data Infrastructure.

That was followed by a quick tour of the new Utah GIS Portal.

After lunch, Virginia GIS Coordinator Dan Widner moderated a "Transportation for the nation" session that featured presentations from the states of Washington and new York and from representatives of NAVTECH and TeleAtlas.

Geospatial Preparedness Committee head Jon Gottsegen, of Colorado, moderated a session on using GIS data and tools to manage and fight wildfires. It included presentations from the USGS, a front-line fire-fighter, and the state of Arizona.

ESRI's Pat Cummins led a discussion of state-federal coordination efforts to build the NSDI that included presentations from the Department of the Interior and the state of Colorado. That was followed by a session on map services and state-local data exchanges featuring presentations from New York and Maryland.

Thursday, the final day of the conference, started with a presentation on the USGS' National Map customer survey. Larry Sugarbaker explained his survey process and gave some details on the results from the survey, expanding on the report he gave for the Summer 2008 Edition of NSGIC News (PDF; see page 7).

A NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council panel, with help from two federal purchasing officers, presented an overview of both QBS and "best value" contracting.

Representatives from Massachusetts and California presented different methodologies to use GIS tools to help promote statewide broadband infrastructure.

A panel that included the state of Minnesota and the EPA and USGS discussed state and federal collaboration to maintain and update the National Hydrography Dataset.

Following lunch, NSGIC held the second part of its formal business meeting and adjourned into a private "State Caucus" to hammer-out positions and concerns to guide the organization's efforts in the coming year.

Stay tuned to the NSGIC Blog for more details from the Conference, including the results of the NSGIC election the posting of all (we hope) of the presentations from the 2008 Conference.

NSGIC Conference Report 2

Tuesday (day 3) of the NSGIC Annual Conference began with a presentation by Dr. Steven Corbett, of Loma Linda University, on the Advanced Emergency Geographical Information System (AEGIS). AEGIS is a GIS-enabled emergency management application that brings dependable situational awareness to the managers of emergency operations and to the front-line responders.

NSGIC President Cy Smith (Oregon) gave an overview of the proposed Strategic Framework for the National Spatial data Infrastructure (NSDI). The proposal includes six strategies:

• Fully implement and maintain fifty state-level Spatial Data Inventories (SSDIs).
• Create a functional governance structure.
• Enable more "For the Nation" initiatives such as the Imagery for the Nation Initiatives now gaining traction.
• Implement a national funding strategy.
• Improve advocacy for and communication about the NSDI.develop and implement a tech strategy to achieve SSDI and NSDI
• Develop and implement a technical strategy to enable both state and national spatial data infrastructures.

Following the NSDI discussion, the first of two NSGIC business meetings were held. This one featured annual reports from the several NSGIC committees and presentation of a number of awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award to Ted Koch (Wisconsin).

Following lunch, Will Craig (Minnesota) led a panel discussion of lessons learned from efforts to create statewide address data sets. Panelists shared success, failures, and advice from efforts to create address data for West Virginia, Ohio, Oregon, Vermont, Indiana, and Virginia. Utah's Bert Granberg, blogging from the front row (on the right), has a nice, detailed write-up of this session.

A panel of NSGIC Corporate Leadership Council members held a discussion about enterprise licensing and data licensing. Many states are now working with software vendors and imagery contractors to take advantage of licensing.

Zsolt Nagy (North Carolina) led a panel discussion on archiving digital data. The panel included representatives from archiving and GIS organizations in North Carolina, Utah, and Kentucky as well as from the Library of Congress.

Ted Koch (Wisconsin) and Vickie Lucas (USGS) gave an update on progress on the Imagery for the Nation initiative. They reviewed actions by IFTN committee and support for the idea recently voiced by the US Secretary of the Interior.

The day ended with a BBQ picnic and bonfire at a nearby stables. There was a heavy rain shower, but it coincided with the eating and chatting portion of the evening, which took place in a tent. After dinner, the rain stopped and the crowd gathered around the fire for a loose, rambling bluegrass concert by Denver's Long Road Home.

NSGIC Conference Report 1

The 2008 NSGIC Conference started on Sunday, September 7, with a morning Board Meeting and continued into the afternoon with a State Members Caucus meeting at which the states shared ideas, concerns and plans for the conference and the coming year. After a "meet the candidates dinner," at which those running for the Board and for the position of President-Elect had a chance to introduce themselves to the members. Afterwards, the Coastal States Caucus held an evening meeting.

The more formal start to the conference was on Monday, September 8, with a welcome from NSGIC president Cy Smith and from the conference "host," Jon Gottsegen, of Colorado. The balance of the morning was given over to a Roll Call of the states at which lead delegates for each state, and representatives of sponsors and corporate partners, gave short updates on their activities.

Lunch breakout sessions focused on the update of the national metadata standard and on using geospatial data to help with emergency preparedness efforts.

After lunch, Colorado CIO Mike Locatis gave a keynote address. Mr. Locatis was brought in by a new state Governor and assigned the task of building a statewide IT infrastructure out of what had become a series of stove-piped and separate agency-specific IT sections. He outlined his efforts to centralize those functions that should be centralized in order to free-up agency CIO's to focus more on their own agency lines of business. He pointed to GIS support and architecture as IT infrastructure needed by all agencies.

Several of the NSGIC members who are also members of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) discussed the early efforts of the Committee and future plans.

After the board and President-Elect candidates made formal presentations to the membership, the whole large group trooped outside for the traditional group photo. This year, the photographer brought his own lift to get the elevation needed to capture the whole crowd.

After a short break, members of the NSGIC Outreach Committee gave a presentation on the Federal Coordination Factors model (PDF) that NSGIC has been working on to help state GIS Coordinators improve their relationship with federal partners.

A panel of experts from Michael Baker, Jr., Inc.; 3001, Inc.; Sanborn; and Surdex Corporation discussed issues of data storage and dissemination for large orthophotography and LiDAR projects. the discussion included a look at the realities of growing file sizes and the demands on staff that a successful project can generate.

That session closed the formal plenary session for the day. NSGIC Board members met after that with representatives of Platinum Sponsors and later, following a Sponsor Reception and dinner, with the NSGIC Corporate leadership Council to discuss future partnership efforts and ways to bring more private sector partners into NSGIC.

Pre-Conference Palate Cleanser

As we get ready to head out to Colorado for the 2008 NSGIC Conference, here's an interesting new experiment in art, culture and geography from Yahoo and Flickr: the ybike.

Librarian-activist and web-stuff speaker Jessamyn West posted the photo at right recently in a post titled "the internet got you a bicycle?"

It’s basically a purple bicycle with a cell phone and a solar powered battery charger. The cell phone has a camera and a GPS unit and is mounted behind the handlebars. The bike takes a photo a minute when it’s moving.

The photos are posted to flickr, with a "ybike" tag and geospatial information that feeds flickr's photo map application.

A number of these bikes have been passed out. Aside from Jessamyn's, I have found bike photo's from Eddie (who also posted pictures of the bike and its auto-camera components), Josh, dogseat, tarikh, and folks at the flickr offices.

It looks like they have covered Vermont, New York City and San Francisco (at least). If they want a steady stream of photos of beautiful downtown Dover, Delaware, at Lunchtime, maybe they should send me a bike too.

My doctor and my blood-pressure monitor would approve.