California CIO's Office Gets a Geocoding Grant

California GIO (and NSGIC Board Member) Michael Byrne has announced that his state's Emergency Management Agency has awarded the Office of the State Chief Information Officer a $1 million dollar grant to develop an enterprise geocoding service.

Mr. Bryne announced the grant award on California's The Tech Blog, calling it "another milestone in geospatial information for California." He notes that the grant will not only bring all state emergency response comand centers to a common operating picture for the state, but will also help save money for the state:

By setting up a comprehensive enterprise service, we ensure all state agencies which maintain address data will be able to use this service. Having these agencies use this single comprehensive service means for the first time there will be a common understanding of mapping addresses in the state. We will ensure that addresses in every state agency are mapped with the same standards and methods providing a common approach and bridging the cap of our state silos.

California's Selection of GIS as a Key Enterprise IT Strategy Featured in ArcNews

California GIO Michael Byrne joins NSGIC President Will Craig on the front page (PDF) of ESRI's ArcNews this fall. Mr. Byrne, who also serves on the Board of Directors of NSGIC, has written an article on the selection of GIS as a one of California's six key enterprise IT strategies.

What this effort really identifies is a set of unifying business examples that can be leveraged across agencies for increased economies of scale in technology service delivery. The fact that one of the technologies is GIS points to just how important GIS is as a solution for California needs. We need solutions that can tackle the large policy issues we face in this diverse state, and few technologies get us there—but GIS does.

Mr. Byrne notes that just under a quarter of California agencies projecting capitol investments in their IT plans include investment in GIS technologies. Including geospatial investments in the state's over-all IT plan allows the state to "analyze common business needs across departments and look for opportunities to align these investments."

He highlights two examples of GIS as IT infrastructure -- CalAtlas (www.atlas.ca.gov) and a Common Operating Picture (COP) effort in response to the state's need to fight major wildfires. And he explains that this is only the start of work to make geospatial data a key part of almost all of the states data assets.

GIO Michael Byrne Takes to YouTube to Outline his Approach in California

The YouTube Channel of the California Office of the CIO this week features a brief discussion by California GIO Michael Byrne, on his priorities as the state's new Geographic Information Officer.



The video is highlighted in an article on the Government Technology web site: GIS Helps State Understand "Unintended Things," Says California's Geographic Information Officer. The video runs nearly four minutes and includes a good overview explanation of GIS as well as a set of goals for the new GIO office.

(NSGIC's Own) Michael Byrne Named GIO of California

NSGIC Board member Michael Byrne has been named the state of California's first ever Geographic Information Officer (GIO).

Mr. Byrne will be charged with "ensuring that the state receives the benefits associated with geospatial data, specifically, increased data access and sharing; reduced duplication and costs; development of technology standards; centers of expertise; public outreach and increased collaboration in state and local governments."

The announcement included a statement from California CIO Teri Takai, who made the appointment:

"Establishing this position is a critical step in implementing a statewide strategy to more efficiently use geospatial data throughout state and local governments," said Takai. "There is a tremendous value in coordinating our resources so that we can share data and work toward more common systems to improve health, public safety, emergency preparedness, environmental protection and other services for the people of California. I am pleased to have Michael serve on our team in the Office of the Chief Information Officer."

Along with his seat on the NSGIC Board, Mr. Byrne is a member of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee, sits on the Board of GreenInfo Networks, and is Chair of the California GIS Council.

Hat Tip: Thanks to Adena Schutzberg for noting this story on All Points Blog.

Note to Self: Now we have to update Mike's bio on the Board pages.

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.

LA Times Adds a Geospatial View to its Collection of Homicide Data

The Los Angeles Times this year has been using a blog to track all of the homicides in Los Angles County this year. The Homicide Report has a simple mission:

The report seeks to reverse an age-old paradox of big-city crime reporting, which dictates that only the most unusual and statistically marginal homicide cases receive press coverage, while those cases at the very eye of the storm -- those which best expose the true statistical dimensions of the problem of deadly violence -- remain hidden. (From an early "what is" post)

This week, an interactive map and database interface has been added, apparently coded by a professor at USC. It includes a filtering function, search, listings, and a geospatial display created using Google Maps.

It's not clear based on my brief poking around the site, what the back-end consists of, though it appears to be some form of simple server-side database query that exports XML or GeoRSS. The user interface allows "export" to GeoRSS or KML; the URLs that are returned are formated "getSavedQueryResults" commands.

The new web map interface strikes a nice balance between simple information presentation and a robust data query interface.