Broadband Mapping Funding Available

The US Department of Commerce has released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) (PDF) for a State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program. The Notice is published in the Federal Register. There is also a Fact Sheet (PDF).

The media announcement, from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), explains that the funds are intended to support the collection of state-level broadband data, "as well as state-wide broadband mapping and planning."

The Program will provide approximately $240 million in grants to assist states or their designees to develop state-specific data on the deployment levels and adoption rates of broadband services. These data, including publicly available state-wide broadband maps, will also be used to develop the comprehensive, interactive national broadband map that NTIA is required by the Recovery Act to create and make publicly available by February 17, 2011.

This is a grant opportunity that has been expected for some time. Most states have already established teams working on possible approaches to broadband mapping. Broadband mapping is a part of the "Technology for the 21st Century" section of the NSGIC 2008-2009 Advocacy Agenda (PDF). And broadband mapping has been the subject of presentations and discussions at the most recent NSGIC Annual (September 2008) and Midyear (February 2009) conferences.

The program allows only one grant application per state. State-level grants will range from $1.9 million to $3.9 million. Applications are to be accepted via grants.gov between July 14 and August 14, 2009.

A Few Words From the NSGIC President: April Showers Bring May Flowers Showers

The following is the seventh in a series of monthly guest-posts from 2008-2009 NSGIC President Learon Dalby, of Arkansas.

It's been a busy April for NSGIC, and we don't see any signs of a slow-down in May. The Board and committee leadership have been active on many fronts. Let me give you a sense of what's been going on. I know I can't do real justice to any of these, but here's what's been happening.

The NSDI White Paper
The NSDI white paper (PDF) is complete and has been approved by the NSGIC Board. This paper, based on many discussions among NSGIC membership, presents our thoughts on how best to create the National Spatial Data Infrastructure that we all seek to achieve. If I have to boil it down to one thought, it is this: The NSDI will be created as a collection of inter-related SSDIs - State Spatial Data Infrastructures.

Broadband
NSGIC leadership provided comments to the Federal Communications Commission on ways to make broadband mapping more effective as the nation works to close the digital divide. Broadband enhancement is a big and complicated job, but it will depend on accurate mapping of where the broadband infrastructure already exists. And that's something we know how to do.

The National IT Dialogue
NSGIC, as an organization, submitted two ideas to the National IT Dialogue. And many NSGIC members have been active in this on-line discussion which was set up to try to find ways to make recovery and Government Transparency web sites more useful.

We suggested ways to enhance recovery web sites with imagery; a funded Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) program would certainly make this easier.

We also offered thoughts on a nationally consistent approach to collecting geospatial location information on where recovery funds are spent. You'd think that that would be an easy thing to do. But if we want to do it right on a nation-wide basis, we all need to agree on a simple, logical approach.

ARRA Comments
We submitted comments on May 1, 2009, on OMB Section 1512 of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5. Again, our focus was on a consistent approach to collecting geospatial location information.

FLAIR Act Support
The NSGIC Board passed a motion supporting HR1520 (The FLAIR Act) at its April meeting. This is legislation that calls for the federal government to "improve federal land management, resource conservation, environmental protection, and use of Federal real property, by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to develop a multipurpose cadastre of Federal real property and identifying inaccurate, duplicate, and out-of-date Federal land inventories, and for other purposes."

NSGIC continues to respond to federal requests for comments as best it can. To be most effective, we need the whole of the state GIS coordination community to present a united message and to speak, at times, with many voices in unison. If we do that, we can share the load of speaking to the federal government. If we present a consistent message, we can amplify our message and be most effective.

The NSGIC leadership also needs to hear from individual states as we formulate NSGIC positions. The "State Caucus" is no longer just a part of the mid-year and annual conferences. We now have a "continual caucus" that meets on-line and by conference call. Please don't be a stranger; be a voice in our discussions and in our chorus.

Since We Said We Should, We Did

NSGIC President Learon Dalby has submitted a pair of related suggestions to the National IT Dialogue that we wrote about yesterday. Since good suggestions regarding the value of GIS tools for data visualization are already under discussion, Mr. Dalby has offered two suggestions on ways to make the best use of those tools for tracking stimulus funding:

• Location Schema - Enables Data Analysis and Visualization -- If we're going to track where stimulus funds are spent, let us do it right.
  
• Use Annual Imagery to Track Success (IFTN) -- We can help the people see exactly where and how their money has been spent.

A few words to the wise... There are many voices in this IT Dialogue. The servers are showing the strain; getting from idea to idea can be slow. But it is worth the wait to make your voice heard in an important discussion.

The first thing you should do is register and log in so that you can comment, and vote, on these ideas. Don't wait until after you have scanned the ideas; register now and join the dialogue.