OMB Addresses Geospatial

The Obama administration is continuing the e-government and line-of-business initiatives of the Bush administration. This includes the Geospatial Line of Business and other initiatives important to the geospatial community.

A recent article in Federal News Radio presents information from internal documents they obtained from the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB). EXCLUSIVE: OMB guidance sets technology tone for 2010, beyond quotes pleasantly surprised federal officials who are accustomed to seeing good ideas discarded when a new administration takes command.

Here is a critical quote from the article:

• By April 1, the Geospatial Line of Business program management office will provide recommendations to revise its governance structure, a 2012 business case and budget request for imagery for the nation and a modernization plan, including a target architecture of the geospatial platform.

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.