URISA Delivers Draft Address Standard to FGDC

The Board of Directors of the Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) has sent a draft address standard -- more properly the United States Thoroughfare, Landmark, and Postal Address Data Standard -- to the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) for review and comment.

This draft is the result of five years of work by the URISA Address Standard Working Group (ASWG), an effort that has been watched and supported by many in NSGIC and the larger GIS community, including NSGIC President Will Craig, of Minnesota, who helped lead a NSGIC Address Work Group. The need for national address data is part of the current NSGIC Advocacy Agenda (PDF).

Will Craig notes that Ed Wells, from URISA, was a member of the NSGIC working group and was a leader in developing the draft standard.

We early-on recognized that it would be hard open the Census Bureau's Master Address File (MAF) for public use to fulfill our need for a nation-wide address resource. Title 13 of the US Code and Census Bureau sensitivities would require an act of Congress to overcome. If we are going to have a nation-wide address resource, it will be build from the ground up by cities and counties.

To make it work nation-wide, we need this standard. I am delighted to see it delivered to the FGDC for formal review.  I trust the review will be quick and thorough.  We need this now.

A Few Words from the NSGIC President: On the FGDC Annual Report

From the desktop computer of 2009-2010 NSGIC President Will Craig, of Minnesota.

A few things stood out for me as I read the Federal Geographic Data Committee's 2009 Annual report.

First was the naming of Bill Wilan as National Spatial Data Infrastructure Champion. Our previous post on the FGDC annual report accurately reflects my thoughts on Bill and his being honored.

I do recall one other thing, though. I remember talking to Bill at the 1996 award event. He was pretty proud of his work.

"I think it is the first layer of the NSDI, isn't it?"

Indeed it was. The NWI is not one of those "core Framework" themes, but it was the first out and it met the needs of all levels of government across the nation.

I was also pleased to see the Fifty States Initiative as both an accomplishment and a part of the FGDC's goals for the next year. This partnership between the FGDC and NSGIC has been very valuable for the states, helping almost all of us increase our strategic planning efforts. I'm happy to see that the FGDC plans to start working with us on a transition from planning to implementation.

Among the success stories in the report is one about using geospatial data for program compliance. This is a story about USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) using NAIP images from four consecutive years, along with Common Land Unit data, to analyze areas suspected of improper claims. NAIP imagery allowed the RMA to identify large areas that were ineligible for payment, thus preventing more than $700,000 in improper payments in one state.

This illustrates the value to the federal government and to states of a sustained orthophotography effort and highlights, I think, the importance of the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) initiative. Among the goals in the FGDC report for IFTN are "establishing a virtual project management office to implement the governance structure and to advance the funding strategy for full implementation in fiscal year 2011."

And I was impressed by the substance in the white paper on parcel data included in the report: Cadastral Data and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis: A Case for a National Land Parcel Database. A number of studies identify the need for an indicator based on parcels. The conclusion here is basically the same as that of the 2007 National Academies report -- that immediate action be taken to put in place a national land parcel coordinator. Because establishing this position will require resources and because the job is likely be a difficult one, the report also recommends that a review be done of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) authorities to understand who could take on this work.

It's a start, and I hope it is a start that we make in the coming year. This is important work and I was very happy to see it highlighted by the FGDC in this report.

Speaking of the FGDC Annual Report...

Several folks in NSGIC leadership have called my attention to the naming of Bill Wilen as National Spatial Data Infrastructure Champion in the FGDC's 2009 Annual Report. The FGDC honors one champion in its report each year who "has taken a strong leadership role in the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI)."

Mr. Wilen, Senior Wetland Scientist at the National Wetlands Inventory Center's Washington office, is chair of the FGDC’s Wetlands Subcommittee and is credited with helping to lead that group to produce the FGDC’s Wetlands Classification System and Wetlands Mapping Standard.

As the citation in the FGDC Annual Report, puts it:

Mr. Wilen’s leadership is well recognized within the geospatial community, as are his exemplary efforts to advance the management and preservation of wetlands. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar’s announcement of the adoption of the Wetlands Mapping Standard in August 2009 came about largely as a result of the tireless commitment, leadership, and dedication to the development of this standard by Mr. Wilen. It is in recognition of his trusted leadership within the NSDI community that Mr. Wilen is recognized as this year’s NSDI Champion.

Mr. Wilen also wins praise from those in the NSGIC community who have worked with him.

"I'd like to highlight his focus on Wetland Data for the Nation," noted NSGIC President Will Craig (MN). "He didn't call it that, but I will. He developed the NWI to meet the needs of all levels of government."

"Over the course of its 18 year history, the Minnesota Governor's Council on Geographic Information has given 24 awards; these are commendations signed by the Governor," Mr. Craig continued. "Wilen got the first of these in 1996 for the National Wetland Inventory. The NWI and NAIP are the only two federal programs that we have ever awarded."

2009 FGDC Annual Report Released

The Federal Geographic Data Committee has released its 2009 Annual Report, detailing accomplishments from the last year and plans for the year ahead.

According to the introduction from FGDC's acting Chair Karen Siderelis (U.S. Department of the Interior), the theme of the report is "The U.S. Mortgage Crisis and Land Parcel Data."

Land parcel data combined with other geographic information are essential to such functions as the management of emergency situations, development of domestic energy resources, management of private and public lands, support of business activities, and monitoring of regulatory compliance. The feature story of this year’s report underscores the need for a coordinated system of land parcel information across the country.

The introduction also points to progress on Imagery for the Nation:

In particular, the FGDC is pleased to announce its approval of the Record of Decision of the Phase 1 plan for the Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) initiative, which is an important 2009 milestone.

The report includes ten highlights of 2009 progress:

1. The Geospatial Line of Business
2. The National Geospatial Advisory Committee
3. National Policy and Strategy for Geospatial Information
4. The Fifty States Initiative
5. International Activities
6. Geospatial One-Stop
7. Standards
8. Imagery for the Nation
9. National Land Parcel Data
10. Homeland Security and Emergency Management

And there are ten goals for 2010:

1. Advance the Geospatial Line of Business
2. Collaborate with the National Geospatial Advisory Committee
3. Kickoff Development of a National Policy and Strategy for Geospatial Information
4. Transition the Fifty States Initiative
5. Advance International Activities
6. Improve Geospatial One-Stop
7. Advance the Development and Acceptance of Standards
8. Implement Imagery for the Nation
9. Advance National Land Parcel Data
10. Support Homeland Security and Emergency Management

There is a section devoted to a report on parcel data ("Cadastral Data and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis: A Case for a National Land Parcel Database"), a section outlining challenges to achieve the NSDI, and, among the appendices, a review of the status of the NSDI Framework Data Themes.

NSGIC President Pens NSDI Goverance Article

NSGIC President Will Craig's article, Governance of the NSDI, made the front page of the Fall 2009 issue of ArcNews.

The US has been working its National Spatial Data Infrastructure -- the NSDI -- since 1994, he observes, but has not made significant progress. He says that the problem is institutional, not technical.

We simply haven’t figured out how to engage and coordinate all the significant players – federal, state, and local, and tribal governments, or the private sector. We need comparable data that comes from all these players and which meets all of their needs: Data for the Nation.

The problem is becoming apparent to Congress. In July a subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee held an oversight hearing on federal geospatial data management. That hearing was preceded by a report of the Congressional Research Service called Geospatial Information and Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Current Issues and Future Challenges. The report investigates coordination efforts both internally within the federal government and externally with state and local government.

The US has focused all its geospatial data coordination efforts in the Federal Geographic Data Committee. According to Will Craig, the FGDC has a good mission and a good staff, but comes up short in two critical areas:

First, it has no power to require federal agencies to deliver their assigned components of the NSDI. Second, it coordinates only federal activities, not state or local activities.

States have figured out how to coordinate their activities. Many have designated a Geographic Information Officer (GIO) – giving them the power to make state agencies work together and a mandate to encourage cooperation among other levels of government.

Mr. Craig notes that his home state, Minnesota, has two advisory councils -- one for state agencies and one for other GIS communities. Both have direct connections with the GIO.

He suggests that the federal government should follow a simple model:

• Add a GIO to work with the new federal Chief Information Officer (CIO) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
• Empower FGDC to coordinate federal efforts by moving it to OMB.
• Create a new council to coordinate non-federal activities – giving it the resources to make a difference.
• Finally, add a Congressional oversight committee to watch over all this.

Congressional Research Service Looks at GIS

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has published a new report that looks at GIS, geospatial data, the NSDI, the FGDC, various geospatial coordination groups, and the challenges and opportunities that the geospatial community faces.

The report -- Geospatial Information and Geographic Information Systems (GIS): Current Issues and Future Challenges (PDF) -- includes a primer on GIS that would be useful in introducing GIS to new audiences, particularly among policy-level leaders. It also presents of examples of uses of geospatial information and explores the issues of geospatial data coordination, governance, and data sharing.

The report ends with a discussion subtitled "A National GIS?" which draws on the several proposals offered at the time of the presidential transition earlier this year. It concludes:

Congress may wish to consider how a national GIS or geospatial infrastructure would be conceived, perhaps drawing on proposals for these national efforts as described above, and how they would be similar to or differ from current efforts. Congress may also wish to examine its oversight role in the implementation of OMB Circular A-16, particularly in how federal agencies are coordinating their programs that have geospatial components. In 2004, GAO acknowledged that the federal government, through the FGDC and Geospatial One-Stop project, had taken actions to coordinate the government’s geospatial investments, but that those efforts had not been fully successful in eliminating redundancies between agencies. As a result, federal agencies were acquiring and maintaining potentially duplicative data sets and systems. Since then, it is not clear whether federal agencies are now successfully coordinating among themselves and measurably eliminating unnecessary duplication of effort. An additional challenge is how Congress oversees the federal geospatial enterprise when so much government information has a geospatial component, and many departments and agencies are actively involved in acquiring and using geospatial data for their own purposes.

The The Congressional Research Service provides research support to members of Congress and to congressional committees. It does not directly post its reports for the public, but other services, in this case the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), often post CRS reports.

The FAS web page that collects CRS reports includes this explanatory note:

The Congressional Research Service, a congressional support agency, does not make its publications directly available to the public online. The FAS collection of CRS reports indexed below primarily addresses national security, foreign policy and related topics. These reports are provided without CRS authorization as a public service.

FGDC Announces SmartBuy RFQ

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has released a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for vendors to become part of a SmartBuy agreement, under the Geospatial Line of Business (GLoB), to provide geospatial technology to government agencies.

The SmartBuy agreement is to be a multi-vendor Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) covering a broad spectrum of government agencies and technologies.

[To] provide small, medium, and large government users a common portfolio of geospatial technology options. Types of software within the scope of the RFQ include computer aided design, web-based visualization, imagery analysis, geo-coding, national and international road networks, and geospatial analytics and modeling.

NSGIC members are watching this process closely, since this agreement will be open to state, tribal, and local governments. While some states have already established "enterprise level" agreements with some geospatial vendors, the new SmartBuy agreement promises to open up more technologies and to help increase the use and sharing of geospatial tools and data among more levels of government.

And Now, the Rest of the CAP Grants...

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has announced the final awards in the Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) grant series for 2009. The FGDC had earlier announced grant awards in most of the 2009 CAP grants categories.

Today's announcement was for grants in Categories 2 and 4, which both focus on improving the use and function of local, state and federal data-sharing tools.

Category 2: Behind the Portal - Use of GOS Map and Data Services

• The Carbon Project was awarded a grant for An Enterprise GIS Desktop Dashboard for the GOS Portal.
• The Center for Intelligent Spatial Computing (CISC) at George Mason University was awarded a grant to Utilize GOS Map and Data Services for Cross-Agency Earth Science and Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure Communities.
• Innovate! Inc. was awarded a grant to develop a suite of reusable components to enable The Coeur d'Alene Tribe, The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and US Environmental Protection Agency to integrate Geospatial OneStop search capabilities into their websites and other tools.
• MobiMaps LLC was awarded a grant to integrate access to Geospatial OneStop catalog and data services into NASA WorldWind.

Category 4: Enabling Use of Government Tabular Data in a Geographic Context

• Fortius One was awarded a grant to extend the GeoCommons platform to create geospatial data sets automatically from tabular data.

Today's announcement brings to a close the "announcement" portion of the 2009 grant series. Work is already started on many of the grants already announced.

Many of us working on state GIS strategic plans will watch the grant projects announced today with great interest. Tools developed under these grants could be greatly useful in state and local geospatial data coordination.

Cason Presented With Distinguished Service Award

NSGIC President Learon Dalby, of Arkansas, presented the 2009 NSGIC Distinguished Service Award to James E. Cason, formerly of the U.S. Department of the Interior, on Wednesday, February 25. The presentation took place at the NSGIC Technology Showcase at the Rayburn House Office Building.

Mr. Cason, who had served as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget (PMB) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for the Department, was given the award both for his work as a strong and effective champion for Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) and for his leadership as Chair of the Steering Committee for Federal Geographic Data Committee.

In this role, he quickly realized that the committee needed strong leadership and a sense of purpose which he provided. In addition, he became the “Champion” for Imagery for the Nation which is still NSGIC’s #1 advocacy issue. He created an Executive Committee to shepherd development of IFTN and gave them a mandate to complete their planning process by the end of 2008. Based on the work of the Executive Committee, Mr. Cason forwarded a stimulus request to fund the program.

Many members of NSGIC were saddened to see Mr. Cason tender his resignation, as protocol dictates, with the recent change in administration. His leadership will be missed, but will serve as an inspiration to help carry forward the work of providing dependable geospatial data for the nation.

The Distinguished Service Award is one of several awards presented by NSGIC. It is usually given "to an individual or organization that is in a leadership position, advanced the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, promoted NSGIC’s goal of efficient and effective government through prudent implementation of geospatial technologies, and is likely to continue in their current or a more challenging position." It is NSGIC’s highest service award recognition.

More (But Not Yet All) 2009 CAP Grant Awards Announced

The Federal Geographic Data Committee today announced more of the 2009 NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP) grant awards. The latest announced grants were awarded in the following CAP grant categories:

• Category 1: Metadata Trainer and Outreach Assistance
• Category 5: Building Data Stewardship for The National Map and the NSDI
• Category 6: FGDC-Endorsed Standards Development and Implementation Assistance and Outreach
• Category 7: Demonstration of Geospatial Data Partnerships Across Local, State and Federal Government

Awards in Category 2 (Behind the Portal - Use of GOS Map and Data Services) and Category 4 (Enabling Use of Government Tabular Data in a Geographic Context) are to be announced soon. Awards in Category 3 (Fifty States Initiative: Strategic and Business Plan Development in Support of the NSDI Future Directions Fifty States Initiative) were announced earlier this month.

Among the grant awards announced today were funds for:

• Metadata training initiatives by Winston-Salem State University and by the Penobscot Indian Nation:
• NSDI Data Stewardship initiatives in Alaska, Michigan, Montana, and Utah;
• Development of data standards by Old Dominion University and by the Open Geospatial Consortium; and
  
• Demonstrations of cross-government partnership in Idaho, Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
  

Further discussion of the NSDI CAP grants program -- both its present and its future -- is expected at the NSGIC Mid-Year Conference, starting soon in Annapolis, Maryland.

Issue Brief: NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program Grants (CAP)

NSGIC has published an issue brief (PDF) on the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) Cooperative Agreements Program (CAP). The brief, one of a series of issue briefs focused on the organization's 2008 - 2009 Advocacy Agenda (PDF), presents an overview of the annual program that assists the geospatial community through grant funding and other resources to implement components of the NSDI.

This program (sponsored by the FGDC and housed at USGS) has funded 75 projects in the previous 3 years that have focused on building and improving the existing geospatial data infrastructure necessary to implement the NSDI.

How has the Cooperative Agreements Program benefited the States? Among the competitive grants that make up the CAP program are the 'Fifty States Initiative' grants that have been awarded to 30 States (thus far) to develop and implement statewide strategic and business plans.

Speaking from a personal perspective, in 2007, the Iowa Geographic Information Council received one of the Fifty States Initiative grants to develop a business plan for the creation of an Iowa Geospatial Infrastructure. The State of Iowa has had several statewide GIS coordinators in the last dozen or so years (and without any Coordinator at all since 2004). The Council itself is an entirely volunteer organization.

The CAP Grant awarded to Iowa has allowed the Council to hire a consultant to come and collect business costs and benefits associated with geospatial practices in Iowa. Without the CAP Grant award, Iowa would not have been able to approach a task as daunting as this. And we have seen positives that have stemmed from this project. The Council is now in a position where we have "hard" dollar costs associated as well as documented benefits related to geospatial practices in Iowa. We have found these figures to be extremely helpful as we enter into uncertain economic situations and look to compete for funding sources with other more established government business practices.

The achieve that vision, the NSGIC issue brief suggests that Congress:

• Instruct the Department of Interior through specific language in the budget to ensure that these funds are not used for other purposes and that they are awarded to non-federal entities to further the development of the NSDI.
• Double the available funding.

The issue brief provides more detail and additional information. it is part of a series that also looks at Transportation for the Nation, Nationwide Parcel Mapping, Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) , and improved Technology for the 21st Century.

FGDC Winter Newsletter Released

The Winter 2008 edition of the Federal Geographic Data Committee Newsletter (PDF) has been released. The Newsletter includes updates on a number of fronts:

• A meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC).
• 2008 NSDI CAP Grant highlights and a reminder about the 2009 grants,
• New FGDC employees,
  
• Announcement of the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management 2009 Geospatial Conference,
  
• Metadata activities, and more.

The newsletter is one of many resources available on the FGDC web site library page.

FGDC Publishes 2008 Annual Report

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has published its 2008 Annual Report. The document is available as both a web page and a PDF document.

The Annual Report includes highlights of 2008 and goals for 2009.

The highlights for the last year include:

• The Geospatial Line of Business,
• Formation of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee,
• The third year of the 50 States Initiative,
  
• Growth in the Geospatial OneStop,
  
• Progress on Imagery for the Nation, and
  
• Several success stories.

Goals for 2009 include continuing to work in these areas and:

• Developing a national strategy for geospatial information,
• Improving national land parcel data, and
  
• Support for homeland security and emergency management.

Among several appendices are an update on the status of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Framework Themes.

NGAC Transition Recommendations Posted

Materials from the most recent meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) have been posted on the FGDC web site. The NGAC met October 15 -16, 2008, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

The posted materials include a meeting summary (PDF), updates from NGAC members, an action plan for the committee and information on several major issues now under discussion by the committee:

• The "Changing Landscape" White Paper
• National Land Parcel Data
• Imagery for the Nation (IFTN)
• The Geospatial Line of Business (LoB)

Most timely on this election eve, there is also a three-page paper outlining the NGAC's recommendations (PDF) for the transition team of which-ever candidate will be the next President of the United States.

Coalition of Geospatial Organizations Becomes Official

The Coalition of Geospatial Organizations (COGO) came into official being during a regularly scheduled meeting on August 4, 2008, at the ESRI User's Conference in San Diego. Representatives of several organizations attended via conference call and WebEx.

The following founding member organizations voted unanimously to approve a set of Rules of Operation and Procedure that brought COGO into existence:

• American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM)
• American Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS)
• Association of American Geographers (AAG)
• Cartography and Geographic Information Society (CAGIS)
• Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA)
• GIS Certification Institute (GISCI)
• International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO)
• Management Association for Private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS)
• National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC)
• University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS)
• Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA)

The group also elected its first group of officers:

• Chair: Cyril R. Smith (NSGIC)
  
• Chair-Elect: Curtis W. Sumner (ACSM)
  
• Secretary: George Donatello (IAAO)

The next meeting of COGO is expected to be held in conjunction with the next meeting of the Federal Geographic Data Committee, in October.

Agenda Posted for NGAC Meeting

A draft agenda is now posted for the next meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). The meeting is set for June 3 and 4, at the American Institute of Architects Building in Washington, DC.

The agenda includes work on organization issues related to the creation of the NGAC and discussions of the Geospatial Line of Business, Imagery for the Nation, and a National Geospatial Strategy. The meeting is open to the public and there are opportunities for public comment.

Getting Serious About Original Place Names

The April Edition of Spatially Speaking (PDF), the FGDC's monthly update, includes a short article on a grant from the USGS National Geospatial Program Office to the Hawaiian Geographic Information Coordination Council (HIGICC) to enhance the web site of the Hawaii State Board on Geographic Names (HBGN).

The Hawaii names folks have been working through USGS place-name data for the island state (at the USGS' request) and making suggestions on updating the typography and spelling of those names to help users towards a more correct pronunciation of traditional names. The new grant will go towards adding audio files to the HBGN web site to demonstrate proper pronunciations.

The idea is borrowed from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe in Idaho, who have added written and recorded traditional names information on their web site. The Coeur d'Alene Tribe GIS Program has created a Native Names Project (with some USGS funding) that presents information on original names in a searchable database and in several map formats, including as a Google Earth KML.

The project is open to input on names outside of traditional Couer d'Alene areas. Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, for example, is at the same spot as what was once known as Tsi wahswèn:to (MP3) which translates as "at the coal forked mouth."

The projects are expected to expand to include video presentations, additional history, and other information.

Draft Agenda Posted for National Geospatial Advisory Committee Meeting

The FGDC web site has a draft agenda up for the initial meeting of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). The meeting is set for April 15 and 16, at the American Institute of Architects Building, on New York Avenue in Washington, DC.

The NGAC is a Federal Advisory Committee set up to "review and comment upon geospatial policy and management issues and will provide a forum to convey views representative of non-federal stakeholders in the geospatial community." It includes members from the private sector, nonprofits, and Academia.

The agenda includes a variety of introductory remarks, briefings on federal geospatial data activities, planning for future study and discussions, and public comment.

The meeting is also announced (PDF) in the March 31 issue of the Federal Register.

2008 CAP Grant Awardees Announced

The FGDC Secretariat has announced the selection of the 2008 NSDI Cooperative Agreements Program (PDF) proposals that will be funded this year. The list includes several NSGIC members and partners. The 2008 grants were awarded in 6 categories, several of which are of greater interest to NSGIC members.

Seven states, and the US Virgin Islands, have been awarded funds to "develop and implement statewide strategic and business plans" under the Fifty States Initiative.

Two universities, a state council, and a state agency have been awarded funds to support for "building data stewardship for The National Map and the NSDI."

And two universities, a city and a state have been awarded funds "to assist in the implementation of FGDC- endorsed [data] standards."

Other categories are:

• Metadata Trainer and Outreach Assistance,
• Best Practices in Geospatial Service Oriented Architecture, and
  
• Joint Canadian and United States Spatial Data Infrastructure Project.

The FGDC has also posted a project status table that will eventually include fact sheets, a projects map, and reports and updates.

Latest FGDC Newsletter Released

The Federal Geographic Data Committee has released its Winter 2007/2008 Newsletter (PDF).

The newsletter includes a detailed article about the late Carol Brandt, who was awarded the first-ever NSGIC Dedicated Service Award in 2007.

There are also articles on using Web Services to deliver framework data, the 10th Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Conference, the Fifty States Initiative, Geospatial One-Stop, the buzz about metadata in Virginia, and several Tribal Government GIS success stories.

FGDC Releases Summer 2007 Newsletter

The latest newsletter from the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) is available for download from the FGDC web site.

This issue includes a note about NSGIC giving FGDC Staff Director Ivan DeLoatch the NSGIC Distinguished Service Award. It gives an overview of the Dept. of the Interior's Geospatial Modernization Blueprint, which attempts to organize the many geospatial initiatives in the Department. And it provides a brief review of recent FGDC Steering Committee and Coordination Group meetings.

The newsletter lists the 26 projects that were granted 2007 CAP Grant awards under the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Cooperative Agreements Program. It provides an update on the Geospatial Line of Business and the work of the Common Solutions Team. And it lists several emergency response success stories.

Another (the Official) Update on Imagery for the Nation

The first of a planned series of Imagery for the Nation (IFTN) updates has been posted to the NSGIC web site.

Imagery for the Nation is a cooperative effort to make real a vision of "a sustainable and flexible digital imagery program that meets the needs of local, state, regional, tribal and federal agencies."

Update #1 (PDF) looks at several on-going activities related to the effort:

• Work now under way on a Cost Benefit Analysis study.
• Thoughts on the idea from the Western Governors Association.
• Recent discussions on potential funding options.
• Next steps and "what can I do to help?"

One answer to that last question is very simple:

You can assist the implementation of IFTN by showing your support for this initiative. Please have your organization send a letter of support to NSGIC for posting on its web page. You can simply use the format from one of the letters on the site, or create your own format. What’s important is your show of support.

Stay connected to the NSGIC blog and to the IFTN web site for further updates.

FGDC Releases 2006 Annual Report

The Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) has released its 2006 Annual Report. The report is available on the FGDC web site in both PDF and HTML versions.

The report includes highlights and successes from th past year, as well as goals for 2007. There is also a status report on the NSDI Framework Data Themes.