tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-187254242024-03-07T11:02:39.101-05:00Surveying, Mapping and GISExploring all aspects of mapping and geography, from field data collection, to mapping and analysis, to integration, applications development and enterprise architecture...Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.comBlogger396125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-14162566609822131312010-12-02T21:20:00.001-05:002010-12-02T21:22:43.891-05:00EPA ARRA MapperSince joining EPA I've been engaged in a wide variety of projects and efforts - one which we are currently getting out the door is an <a href="http://epamap17.epa.gov/arra/">upgraded mapper</a> for EPA projects funded by the <a href="http://www.recovery.gov/Pages/default.aspx">American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA)</a>, otherwise known as Stimulus or the Recovery Act.<br />
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The major categories of projects receiving EPA funding via ARRA include Superfund Hazardous Waste Cleanup, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks, Clean Water State Revolving Fund (typically wastewater treatment), Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (potable water), National Clean Diesel Campaign, and Brownfields.<br />
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The idea was to provide more granular data across the various programs where EPA has been getting ARRA funding to projects. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizNBPugwV8ClXTmhh4n5FIvsEo5FOlgArcXvfjM4iS9799L-7BeYg2-ErXkZ3waQ1ZDw_qMk285mqEzMKkvjabpuV6yLCUQ3qId216NCQZLeScKUhGQTd1_EzgezbTY-Qp0JV/s1600/ARRA1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="465" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhizNBPugwV8ClXTmhh4n5FIvsEo5FOlgArcXvfjM4iS9799L-7BeYg2-ErXkZ3waQ1ZDw_qMk285mqEzMKkvjabpuV6yLCUQ3qId216NCQZLeScKUhGQTd1_EzgezbTY-Qp0JV/s640/ARRA1.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
The mapper reports on a quarterly basis, in concert with the ARRA reporting requirements, and was built on the ESRI Flex API. As a quick overview, it shows statewide figures, as choropleth map, with summary tables:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt9z1vBWwdohMATxPsRX1HZS8cLyS9Vi6GBxVp12RAUN0HMk1xSikk8g44IBhItY1gjYEyDrl51me69DY1uPBc_cICXjPHJelNO0pNDBCP7wie-TY5S6c0wfTYb5GCbth9Kdo/s1600/ARRA2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrt9z1vBWwdohMATxPsRX1HZS8cLyS9Vi6GBxVp12RAUN0HMk1xSikk8g44IBhItY1gjYEyDrl51me69DY1uPBc_cICXjPHJelNO0pNDBCP7wie-TY5S6c0wfTYb5GCbth9Kdo/s640/ARRA2.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
Visitors can click on the menu to view awards by program category, or to view all awards, for example:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBPRNHi4GqeiqT4BsXm7qMLGtbI_Zvh0OqzDechy-wEiNrmWCoYbVk4XrhMiWNUiHdZ3fVinxuARM6y3Md9KFlA4yqFY68YJA8L8R_ipfguc6Q4hLpkN1F89URzqbd4me-hrsv/s1600/ARRA3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBPRNHi4GqeiqT4BsXm7qMLGtbI_Zvh0OqzDechy-wEiNrmWCoYbVk4XrhMiWNUiHdZ3fVinxuARM6y3Md9KFlA4yqFY68YJA8L8R_ipfguc6Q4hLpkN1F89URzqbd4me-hrsv/s640/ARRA3.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
The pushpins indicating awards can then be selected, and info boxes will pop up with the details. In the example below, we asked the mapper to show "Chelsea, MA" and turned on Clean Diesel awards, and clicking on the map pin, we get the goods, two awards for Chelsea (<i>note, spelling of "Collabrative" comes directly from the database</i>):<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQo2JCviofBGys2XIBdF6jaP1BouLQWpjFtuQ6JfniFglHRW7ALaf9O9bHSFovmcv0SCb9_ESeULUm7EB3eMqPU7y7IPEDdSzMjd5zQE8aMRHEj8JOs1DIh-xQz28D11zOIs7D/s1600/ARRA4.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQo2JCviofBGys2XIBdF6jaP1BouLQWpjFtuQ6JfniFglHRW7ALaf9O9bHSFovmcv0SCb9_ESeULUm7EB3eMqPU7y7IPEDdSzMjd5zQE8aMRHEj8JOs1DIh-xQz28D11zOIs7D/s640/ARRA4.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />
This application should improve transparency, with the direct intent of showing tangible benefit to users in showing what's going on right at the community level. As for lessons learned, the technology was far less of a challenge than the learning curve of how government works, and navigating my way through various EPA offices and stakeholders and gaining their acceptance and participation. My many thanks to all those who helped out.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-44442413191289469152010-11-14T08:59:00.001-05:002010-11-14T09:17:01.702-05:00FEA, CPIC, LoB, and Strategic Alignment...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Since joining a federal agency and becoming a national program manager of a federal IT investment, I have been navigating various things like Capital Planning and Investment Control (CPIC), Line of Business (LoB) initiatives, Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), and other pieces – there is certainly no shortage of process and documentation required throughout the lifecycle as systems are planned, designed, built, maintained and decommissioned. However, for all of its compliance documentation, metrics and matrices, I still think there are a number of core disconnects.<br />
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CPIC and LoB initiatives should inform on investments, and align investments. One area where I see inadequate trackability is in mission support. Each and every IT investment should be able to map to a matrix of mission drivers – such as Agency Strategic Plan elements, such as stated priorities and core initiatives within the agency, such as specific laws and mandates which the Agency is charged with carrying out. In turn, these mappings can be aggregated and examined for alignment. If for example, if the mission objective is to assess the impact of a specific activity on a population, then there is now opportunity to understand how many IT investments relate to that assessment, and one can then get any potentially disparate and disconnected activities aligned and harmonized, to leverage each, take advantage of opportunities to share things like data, models and infrastructure instead of having stovepiped activities where each party reinvents the wheel independently of the next.<br />
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Additionally, functional components should be mapped to as well. For example, data requirements, modeling requirements, geodata hosting and web services needs, and so on. These can help to inform on infrastructure investments – for example, being able to build a robust, shared, scalable environment with load balancing and fault tolerance instead of having a series of fragile, disconnected stovepipes with no scalability or fault tolerance. It can help toward paradigm shifts like leveraging cloud capacity and other types of things which can provide cost savings – which can then hopefully be driven toward innovation and new development, rather than more stovepipes and reinventing of the wheel.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO0uPI6DfMqc5lnoacnUCt_Hhsrex8nMX7bMV8KTSqR1-co-f35-I1joP11EVACejC7h8aFa4ShRNnCe3y9Q8MZUwNfwlIXdTHLS5dAQ7XDUNHFV5tC9FMpNyxsFJubvCjAz3/s1600/Blueprint1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqO0uPI6DfMqc5lnoacnUCt_Hhsrex8nMX7bMV8KTSqR1-co-f35-I1joP11EVACejC7h8aFa4ShRNnCe3y9Q8MZUwNfwlIXdTHLS5dAQ7XDUNHFV5tC9FMpNyxsFJubvCjAz3/s320/Blueprint1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>As I have a background which straddles many disciplines, when I hear “Enterprise Architecture” it conceptually still goes back to old-school, bricks-and-mortar architecture, where a building is built from a blueprint. <br />
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Consider the enterprise as a house. You have several different rooms in it, serving different functions, yet for it to function effectively as a house, the work of the architect is to draft up the elements that bring it all together into a functional, cohesive whole. That means, the structural members to support the second floor as it is placed on the first floor, that means the stairs and corridors needed to connect the rooms, that means the placement of the rooms, to give them doors and windows to daylight where needed, the arrangement of them relative to each other and to the corridors and stairs, to ensure good flows where needed, the wiring to provide light, power and communications, the plumbing to bring water to and from where it’s needed, the HVAC systems to regulate heat and cold, and so on.<br />
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Yet, for all the talk in IT EA communities, most organizations largely still function as a series of disconnected, disjointed rooms. The EA effort should serve as the master blueprint. It needs to be informed by those who need each room, but in turn also needs to inform on how everything connects and how things flow from one room to the next, and where the wiring and plumbing is, and how to connect things and create meaningful flows, relationships and functionalities. For the developer, Enterprise Architecture should inform Solution Architecture, and where gaps are identified, that should in turn go back and inform Enterprise Architecture. The loops need to be closed. All of these things, FEA, CPIC, LoB and others, need to move beyond paperwork and compliance exercises, to becoming more robustly informed and cohesive, serving as the master blueprints and roadmaps.<br />
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In terms of metrics to gauge success, the best metrics would be those which demonstrate that alignment on mission, function and coordination have been achieved.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-40233121536045826472010-09-10T10:54:00.000-04:002010-09-10T10:54:58.064-04:00MyPropertyInfo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.epa.gov/foia/images/MyPropertyInfo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.epa.gov/foia/images/MyPropertyInfo.jpg" /></a></div>As I have been ramping up on EPA's Facility Registry System over the last couple of months since coming on board with EPA, I have also had the opportunity to work on a number of other projects - one recent one that's rolled out is MyPropertyInfo. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>The most truly fun thing about working in EPA's <a href="http://epa.gov/oei/">Office of Environmental Information</a> is that they are involved in a lot of collaborative, cross-cutting efforts, so I get exposed to a lot of different things across the agency. As an example of this, in working with EPA's <a href="http://epa.gov/foia/">Freedom of Information Act</a> (FOIA) officer Larry Gottesman and FOIA staff, they were pursuing an idea of greater accessibility toward reducing FOIA requests, such as in the case of common requests for data which actually is already being published by EPA, but which may be scattered across separate locations in the agency.<br />
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One example of this is MyPropertyInfo - <a href="http://epa.gov/myproperty/">http://epa.gov/myproperty/</a> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpitCKYC-QVPULT_FR88s8CuVQscvslurgZ1bGRmlf_OLPoKoJGDbwiyZ8Dhn2CD4wELHuz1hgI6OWm7wlDHtQh48GokZRBCC58xOoNr1aIsFarCwzlBelY9Bp2ijbyTojWsk3/s1600/Screenshot-My+Property+Info+-+Google+Chrome.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpitCKYC-QVPULT_FR88s8CuVQscvslurgZ1bGRmlf_OLPoKoJGDbwiyZ8Dhn2CD4wELHuz1hgI6OWm7wlDHtQh48GokZRBCC58xOoNr1aIsFarCwzlBelY9Bp2ijbyTojWsk3/s320/Screenshot-My+Property+Info+-+Google+Chrome.png" width="320" /></a>Here, we sought to address frequently-asked questions about properties. This type of basic background and screening is highly useful and important to bankers, realtors, prospective buyers, developers and others who deal in real estate and properties - yet, to gather all of the relevant information about a property, one might have to visit multiple sites across EPA, or to submit a FOIA request and wait to have EPA gather the data from those disparate sources. So what we did in the case of MyPropertyInfo is quickly roll out a tool that basically just gathers that existing content in one place, and additionally provide it in printer-friendly form.<br />
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Thought it was essentially just screen-scraping (as we do not directly control some of the source reporting systems), it was nonetheless a quick and effective way of getting questions answered. Moving foward, it again demonstrates also that using approaches that can provide easily integratable content like web services in addition to traditional HTML reports, content can be even more elegantly repurposed and reused in a variety of effective ways to answer business questions - with web services associated with the reporting engines, the widgets and iPhone apps for these types of applications will virtually build themselves. For example, real estate sites like <a href="http://zillow.com/">Zillow.com</a> would also be able to dynamically pull environmental profile information about properties of interest to prospective buyers - hopefully a vision for the future at EPA.<br />
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Here is some additional perspective on MyPropertyInfo as posted to EPA's <a href="http://blog.epa.gov/">Greenversations blog</a> by the FOIA office's Wendy Schumacher: <a href="http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2010/08/30/my-property-info/">http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2010/08/30/my-property-info/</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-77273866138836777202010-08-14T12:33:00.002-04:002010-08-14T12:35:52.328-04:00Traffic Congrestion, LBS and ITSFor something along a different theme, given my extremely late (1:30AM) arrival back in Pennsylvania last night, <a href="http://www.its.dot.gov/index.htm">Intelligent Transportation Systems</a> (ITS) and <a href="http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/resourcecenter/teams/planning/cms.cfm">Congestion Management</a>.<br />
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</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Previously, I had been involved in a few projects involving Intelligent Transportation Systems - and yet, it still amazes me how far behind we are in terms of even basic approaches. Last night, I was stuck in traffic due to an unfortunate accident ahead on the roadway. My immediate observations: A state trooper was sitting on the side of the road, with his mandate to alert drivers and monitor the end of the queue for problems. However, where he was situated, as so often happens, was past the last exit available where motorists could get off the interstate and find an alternative.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Had he been situated ahead of that last exit, I and so many other motorists with onboard GPS could quite easily have hit our "DETOUR" buttons and navigated around the congestion rather than end up in the midst of it. But instead, we end up stuck, and the congestion and queue only grows and grows. Poor congestion management.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><br />
</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Secondly, a police cruiser sitting on the side of the road certainly alerts drivers of something. However, it doesn't give any specificity whatsoever. Perhaps, it was just that the trooper stopped a speeder, et cetera. Often they are sitting well behind the congestion queue, and sometimes it's not immediately evident that there is congestion ahead. Opportunity for informing motorists is lost, and the situation is not mitigated and managed as well as it could be.</div><br />
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It would seem to me that there are any number of relatively simple ways to address and mitigate congestion as a result of an accident or other similar traffic event - we certainly have ample technologies available. For example, a portable variable message board that could rapidly be deployed by troopers (as in the photo), or other alerts. There are numerous <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-message_sign">Variable Message Sign (VMS) boards</a> along interstate corridors, yet amazingly, to this day, they still are largely uncoordinated, where messaging is not propagated along the corridor across district or state boundaries. Highway officials still seem to not recognize that roadways are functionally networks, that internal administrative boundaries are not appropriate barriers as far as motorists are concerned.</div><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It would also seem that protocols like <a href="http://www.incident.com/cap/docs.html">CAP messaging</a>, <a href="http://georss.org/Main_Page">GeoRSS</a> and others could and should be leveraged, and combined with very simple, wireless digital broadcast technologies, aligned to highway advisory radio beacon broadcasts, to provide simple, low-cost means of transmitting location-based information to in-dash receivers, GPS units and so on. Certainly some such systems exist, however via subscription, or at additional cost to the price of the receivers, and so on - however, perhaps a better business model for such as broadcast system could operate via public-private partnerships, where operators of hotels, restaurants and amenities could fund the system by providing basic information about available attractions and amenities when there are no highway incidents. A perfect case for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Location-based_service">Location-based service (LBS) technologies</a>. This does not have to be a costly, complicated thing. We already have all of the ingredients and have had them for several years.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-44540500841769266662010-08-07T11:22:00.002-04:002010-08-09T08:21:54.456-04:00Locational Data Policy and ToolsAs I've posted previously, one of the newest hats I now wear is that I'm now the national program manager for EPA's <a href="http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/fii/fii_query_java.html">Facility Registry System (FRS)</a>, where I am collecting and managing locational data for 2.9 million unique sites and facilities across states, tribes, and territories - I'm certainly excited about being able to contribute some good ideas toward enhancing its' capabilities, holdings, and collaborating and integrating with others across government.<br />
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A large part of this is data aggregated from other sources, such as data collected and maintained by state and tribal partners, EPA program offices and others, and then shared out via such means as EPA's <a href="http://www.exchangenetwork.net/">Exchange Network</a>. Historically, FRS has done what it can to improve data quality on the back end, by providing a locational record which aggregates up from the disparate underlying records, with layers of standardization, validation, verification and correction algorithms, as well as working with a national network of data stewards. This has iteratively resulted in vast improvements to the data, correcting common issues such as reversed latitude and longitude values, omitted signs in longitudes, partial or erroneous address fields and so on.<br />
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However, it still remains that there remain some issues with the data, with the weakness being in how data is collected, imposing limits on what kinds of backend correction can be performed. In most cases, data is captured via basic text fields. The further upstream that the data can be vetted and validated, the better, in particular, right at the point of capture, for example instances where facility operators themselves enter the data.<br />
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So, here is the notion - a toolbox of plug-and-play web services and reusable code to replace the basic free-text field, which allows real-time parsing and verification of data being entered. Part of that may involve using licensed commercial APIs to help with address verification and disambiguation, for example, the Bing Maps capability to deal with an incomplete address or one with a typo, such as "1200 Contitutoin, Wash DC" the web services would try to match these and return "Did you mean <em>1200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC</em>?"<br />
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Between suggesting an alternative which attempts to correct partial and/or incorrect addresses, and providing an aerial photo as a visual cue for verification, it improves the likeihood that the user is going to doublecheck their entry and either accept the suggested alternative or type in a corrected address, along with having the visual verification in the aerial photo. Notionally, if the aerial photo view shows a big open field where there should be a large plastics plant, they would stop and wonder, and perhaps doublecheck the address they had entered.<br />
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That's certainly a good first step, and is something I'm currently looking to promote on the short term. In talking to some of my EPA stakeholders, they are very interested in this, and I will look at developing some easy-to-integrate code for them to use.<br />
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But, to think more long-range, let's take that further - from the large universe of facilities that I deal with, not all things populating "address" fields are conventional street addresses. For example, remote mining activities in western states might instead be represented on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System">PLSS system</a>, such as "Sec 17, Twp 6W Range 11N", or rural areas might simply use "Mile 7.5 on FM 1325 S of Anytown" or "PR 155 13.5km west of Anytown".<br />
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Again, perhaps there are ways to improve this, a longer-term discussion, but certainly the ingredients exist. A first step might be to look at developing guidance on consistent ways to have folks enter this type of data, for example "Sec 17, Twp 6W Range 11N" versus S17-T6W-R11N, along with developing parsers that can understand and standardize the possible permutations that might be entered, including entry of section and meridian info, e.g. NW1/4 SW1/4 SE1/4 SEC 22 T2S R3E MDM for an entry that includes drilldown into quarter sections to identify a 10-acre parcel, also referencing the Mount Diablo Meridian.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Plssinfo.gif/400px-Plssinfo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Plssinfo.gif/400px-Plssinfo.gif" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Currently, there isn't any truly standardized way of entering and managing these, but perhaps there is a role in the surveying community toward standardized nomenclature to assist in database searching and indexing. Coincident with this is potential collaborative development of ways to approach parsing and interpreting nonstandardized entries, along with leveraging existing <a href="http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/lsis_home/home/index.shtm">PLSS data</a> and <a href="http://www.geocommunicator.gov/GeoComm/lsis_home/townshipdecoder/index.html">geocoders</a> built toward translating these into locational extents, such as a bounding box, along with provisioning it with appropriate record-level metadata describing elements such as method of derivation and accuracy estimate.<br />
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In concert with this, obviously, should be an effort toward providing linkages to actual field survey polygonal data, as appropriate if it's a parcel-oriented effort (for example, for superfund site cleanup and brownfields), and where such data is available.<br />
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Similarly, one could collaboratively develop guidance and parsers for dealing with the route-oriented elements, for example "Mile 7.5 on FM 1325 S of Anytown" or "PR 155 13.5km west of Anytown" toward standardizing these types of fields as well - for example, whether or not to disambiguate or expand FM as "Farm to Market Route", what order to place elements consistently.<br />
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And then, one would want to leverage routing software to measure the distance along the given route from the given POI, toward providing a roughly-geocoded locational value to get in the ballpark. And again, one would want a web service that does this to return any appropriate metadata on source, error and so on.<br />
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PLSS locations, mileage-along-a-route locations, and things like this are just a sampling of the universe of possibilities. And as I point out, there are bits and pieces of tools that can do some of these things, but they are currently scattered and uncoordinated, and community-oriented, collaborative efforts can help to pull some of these together.<br />
<br />
Atop these, as mentioned above one could also provide additional pieces, such as tools for visual verification, at the most basic level, or, if collection mandates permit, tools to allow the user to drop a pushpin on an aerial photo feature, drag a bounding box, or digitize a rough boundary - (and most ultimately of course, a means of entering and/or uploading survey data for field-located monumentation points, boundary topology, and record description data).<br />
<br />
From a federal perspective, EPA is certainly not the only agency that needs some of these types of tools, and EPA is certainly not the only agency that needs internal policy and/or best practices guidance on how to deal with how these types of values are best represented in databases. It would make sense, from an Enterprise Architecture perspective, for the federal community to collaborate, along with state, tribal and local governments. Similarly, I would think that there are a lot of non-profits, academia and private sector entities that have a big stake in locational data improvement that could benefit from improved data that would be facilitated by such tools, along with benefitting from such tools for data collection themselves.<br />
<br />
For my part, I will try to do what I can toward leading the charge on these, and to leverage any existing efforts already out there. Additionally, given the capabilities that FRS has, I am looking to continue to integrate across internal stakeholders as well as external agencies toward being able to aggregate, link and reshare, with a process where data is iteratively improved and upgraded collectively.<br />
<br />
I'd certainly be interested in getting thoughts, ideas and perspectives from others on this.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-56648927101446355472010-06-25T13:31:00.002-04:002010-06-25T13:32:49.045-04:00Federal Geospatial Platform<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYQQ9WpsupJJAZKF2GQAa4ugV5uW4gWYykDtHuMqG0Jnl8FLRQZpMHyw0NdAlaQmbyqCG1wye2xlrZvRZd_qr0gPebWQHsWBNCtKFfm4-33wmYK-yDf-CjtKcV9uI_LqgzPod/s1600/gp-head-title2.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="38" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBYQQ9WpsupJJAZKF2GQAa4ugV5uW4gWYykDtHuMqG0Jnl8FLRQZpMHyw0NdAlaQmbyqCG1wye2xlrZvRZd_qr0gPebWQHsWBNCtKFfm4-33wmYK-yDf-CjtKcV9uI_LqgzPod/s320/gp-head-title2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"In 2010 and 2011, Federal data managers for geospatial data will move to a portfolio management approach, creating a Geospatial Platform to support Geospatial One-Stop, place-based initiatives, and other potential future programs. This transformation will be facilitated by improving the governance framework to address the requirements of State, local and tribal agencies, Administration policy, and agency mission objectives. Investments will be prioritized based on business needs. The Geospatial Platform will explore opportunities for increased collaboration with Data.gov, with an emphasis on reuse of architectural standards and technology, ultimately increasing access to geospatial data."</i></blockquote><blockquote>- President’s Budget, Fiscal Year 2011</blockquote>Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend one day of the multi-day National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) meeting in Shepherdstown, WV - Though I had attended a few of their meetings previously, the thing that I was most interested in for this particular meeting is discussion of the emergent <a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/">Geospatial Platform</a>. As the NGAC is a FACA committee, non-member involvement and participation is limited, though was able to get to get a sense of things... The intent has a lot of potentialities, such as being able to provide more robust <a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/index.html">visualization</a> and geospatial tool capabilities such as geocoding services, to augment ongoing Data.Gov efforts, as well as support ongoing FGDC initiatives.<br />
<br />
The sense I got is that thre are many pieces still undefined, many things not yet prioritized, and so on, and discussion of options and alternatives was a big focus of the discussion that I sat in on - and one big challenge yet ahead is refinement of governance structure - as to how its' strategic vision and board of directors would be structured and at what level of government, where its' managing partner and operational/tactical component would reside. These things are being discussed in iterative fashion, as they develop their roadmap.<br />
<br />
Some interesting thoughts and ideas, not new, but again being raised - of the need for a strategic ownership stake in geospatial data at the White House level, e.g. a Federal GIO to reside within OMB, who would have the authority and teeth to centrally direct and manage geospatial policy in executive agencies at the federal level. Another question, at the operations level, of commoditized geospatial technology platforms which could be shared across all federal agencies - a federal geocoding service, for example, or a geospatial data services hosting platform where individual stewards in agencies which might not have their own robust geospatial infrastructure could upload data and register it, apply symbologies, et cetera to be served as fed-wide robust, shared OGC web services, and so on. <br />
<br />
What shape this will take is yet to be determined, and it sounds like the plan is to firm up the roadmap internally within the NGAC and then circulate it more broadly when v3 of the Roadmap is completed.<br />
<br />
More about the Geospatial Platform:<br />
<ul><li>Geospatial Platform: <a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/">http://www.geoplatform.gov/</a><br />
</li>
<li><a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/"></a>GeoPlatform - More Information: <a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/more_geoplatform.html">http://www.geoplatform.gov/more_geoplatform.html</a><br />
</li>
<li>BP Oil Spill Visualization (using NOAA's ERMA platform) on GeoPlatform.Gov: <a href="http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/index.html">http://www.geoplatform.gov/gulfresponse/index.html</a></li>
</ul><br><br />
<div>Other coverage, items and discussion:</div><div><br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.fgdc.gov/site-events/FGDC%20Executive%20Committee%20Meeting%20and%20Geospatial%20Platform%20Meeting">http://www.fgdc.gov/site-events/FGDC%20Executive%20Committee%20Meeting%20and%20Geospatial%20Platform%20Meeting</a></li>
<li><a href="http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-13289.htm">http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-13289.htm</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fgdc.gov/participation/coordination-group/meeting-minutes/2010/may/meeting-minutes.pdf">http://www.fgdc.gov/participation/coordination-group/meeting-minutes/2010/may/meeting-minutes.pdf</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.fgdc.gov/site-events/FGDC%20Executive%20Committee%20Meeting%20and%20Geospatial%20Platform%20Meeting"></a><a href="http://www.mapps.org/news/Press.cfm?PressID=152">http://www.mapps.org/news/Press.cfm?PressID=152</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3518">http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=3518</a></li>
<li><a href="http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/feds-launch-new-geospatial-platform">http://techpresident.com/blog-entry/feds-launch-new-geospatial-platform</a></li>
</ul><br />
<br />
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-3776799277113737372010-05-23T10:35:00.000-04:002010-05-23T10:35:44.930-04:00Think Globally, Code Locally<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg014PQEejc-glk1lobXNatA51AOqK6Tunln8hzwrIjtDkcVZMeADZY01ubJLsct7Vfc1q9eC-uZi4nG_vak03dLSIAgQPicUVKsdWesKiz0TNXDZeIxv98LmnXt56xTB5JJcka/s1600/thinkglobal_actlocal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg014PQEejc-glk1lobXNatA51AOqK6Tunln8hzwrIjtDkcVZMeADZY01ubJLsct7Vfc1q9eC-uZi4nG_vak03dLSIAgQPicUVKsdWesKiz0TNXDZeIxv98LmnXt56xTB5JJcka/s320/thinkglobal_actlocal.jpg" /></a></div>One of those key philosophical notions that circulates among many stewardship and advocacy groups is to <i>think globally, act locally</i> - The same notion can be applied in best practices in solutions architecture, requirements development, and coding principles, where it applies to so many things - in terms of true enterprise architecture and integration approaches, in terms of data stewardship, and for public sector agencies, in terms of transparency and open government.<br />
<br />
Each and every day, folks craft queries for accessing complex data, they write business logic for analysis and so on - and more often than not, they then wrap it up with a nice glossy user interface. MVC and many other best practices applied, check... But here is where another key opportunity to really open things up is lost. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPArGeDV3RPSpggF-Ijx4oa8l7FwQzNHROlCuzI4GzHctDNW2MVn3obQ7I4U96d3O8U7soJxs8piAOBFk9OillP3T3cWEgY6HORnKw2uS2f10X-IfRiZKhcakuX73HGU_Pmo4l/s1600/main_opengov_badge_v6-226.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="75" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPArGeDV3RPSpggF-Ijx4oa8l7FwQzNHROlCuzI4GzHctDNW2MVn3obQ7I4U96d3O8U7soJxs8piAOBFk9OillP3T3cWEgY6HORnKw2uS2f10X-IfRiZKhcakuX73HGU_Pmo4l/s200/main_opengov_badge_v6-226.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Let's take the example of state or federal agencies - many of them are doing great things, in terms of publishing datasets (<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/open">Open Government Intitiative</a>, <a href="http://data.gov/">Data.gov</a>, <a href="http://gos2.geodata.gov/wps/portal/gos">Geospatial One-Stop</a>, State Cartographers' Offices and Clearinghouses, and so on). They are doing great things in terms of reporting tools, web queries and lookups, and mapping and visualization tools. But... As wonderful as all of these efforts are, imagine how powerful it would be if these could be linked and integrated, from agency to agency? Imagine, for example, applications pulling in data from NOAA, NASA, EPA and other agencies? Imagine state environmental agencies pulling in information from federal environmental agencies - the power of open government and transparency begins to multiply and become more and more powerful by orders of magnitude.<br />
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So what are we talking about? Web services and APIs. Not even anything complex, it could be as simple as REST and JSON, as in the space of public-facing applications, for a vast majority of data-centric or analytical applications, we are generally talking about read-only, non-transactional, nonsensitive data. Why web services or APIs? Isn't something like publishing datasets to Data.gov enough? Publishing datasets to someplace like Data.gov is fine - but consider this - if someone downloads your data and integrates it into their own standalone application, what control do you then have over it? Precious little. When you refresh your database afterward and post a new dataset, is there any assurance that they will come back and get a fresh copy and keep up to date, or do you begin to incur a liability of your data being out of sync as it is represented in someone else's public-facing application? Absolutely.<br />
<br />
If, on the other hand, you post an easy-to-integrate RESTful service or API, you make it far easier to have your data current.<br />
<br />
Criticisms? Yes, there are many, but we can look at those as well - some might push back and say, "is there sufficient bandwidth and infrastructure for hosting those web services?" The mere fact of web services in and of themselves generally incur no more new bandwidth or infrastructure demand than the public-facing web applications that you are already building. So if that's really a concern, then maybe you shouldn't be building ANY applications. The argument is generally a red herring. <br />
<br />
Security concerns? Same deal - you are already exposing the data and business logic via your web applications - if you think the web service poses new security concerns, then perhaps you haven't adequately thought through your EXISTING security. So another red herring. <br />
<br />
"They will come and take all our data!" - Again, why would they, if they know they can grab it dynamically and that you will be assured of their reliance on them by continually posting data refreshes?<br />
<br />
What about poorly-behaved queries against your web service that might bring your database to its' knees? Same thing - those are things that really should be handled in the logic for your existing application. Better yet, think ahead a bit more and provide options - query filters, such as by a data attribute or domain, bounding boxes for geodata, and so on.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sDr5M7D4d2Z74VJmP2jsVv2pWNw3GbMbGa_f3hrFl_sXCRlaiCYIArhVzCA9tFicnZsoO0ixtH-ffWaClwP3wb0rsUvjpPd0L9dKW6gAnLsS3qkb1eQLws886snSMio0p7VG/s1600/handsholdingearth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9sDr5M7D4d2Z74VJmP2jsVv2pWNw3GbMbGa_f3hrFl_sXCRlaiCYIArhVzCA9tFicnZsoO0ixtH-ffWaClwP3wb0rsUvjpPd0L9dKW6gAnLsS3qkb1eQLws886snSMio0p7VG/s200/handsholdingearth.jpg" width="188" /></a></div>So - in conclusion, this type of thinking can up developers' approaches to how they deal with security, queries and filters, and so on, and generally tighten things up - but in the meantime, also provide a tremendous opportunity for data sharing and integration, whether within an agency, company or office, fostering collaboration across departments and programs, or outside of one's own organization, fostering collaboration across agencies and levels of government, across industry, academia and so on.<br />
<br />
An individual organization can try all they like to anticipate all of the public's thoughts, needs, interests, they can try to walk in their stakeholders' footsteps - but ultimately, one can never fully anticipate all possibilities, and there are a lot of bright people out there with many untapped ideas - so why not open it up and facilitate that larger collective brainstorm of ideas by providing services ready to integrate? Let's take things like the Open Government Initiative and other good things ongoing in government and elsewhere to the next level - dynamic, services and resources oriented architecture...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-1248310726815496642010-04-05T17:52:00.002-04:002010-04-06T15:24:19.176-04:00U.S. Environmental Protection Agency...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4085/1839/200/epa-seal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/4085/1839/200/epa-seal.jpg" /></a></div><br />
My big news to report: After 6 years at <a href="http://www.synergist-tech.com/">Synergist Technology Group, Inc.</a>, I am changing directions. I have accepted a position at the <a href="http://www.epa.gov/">U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's</a> <a href="http://www.epa.gov/oei/">Office of Environmental Information</a>. I will be starting at USEPA the week of April 26th, 2010.<br />
<br />
I greatly enjoyed the work I was doing at Synergist, having been involved in everything from business development to writing code and everything in between, supporting geospatial, mapping and integration efforts to support diverse business areas from environmental protection to emergency response to transportation to military and intelligence applications. I enjoyed the diversity. <br />
<br />
I have worked in private sector, consulting for over 20 years, but all throughout this, have always been solutions-focused, and have always had a keen interest in supporting the core mission of the agencies that I worked with - though, the downside of private sector consulting is always in the vagaries of its' occasionally fragmentary nature, with competetive bidding and teaming arrangements often dynamic and changing.<br />
<br />
So, coming into Federal service brings a whole gamut of new things. In some ways, I will get to dig deep into some of my core passions of environmental protection, geospatial technology and integration - and I look forward to this. However, it will surely bring many other challenges along with it - but I am up for any challenge.<br />
<br />
My new role will, among other things, involve support to EPA's <a href="http://www.epa.gov/enviro/html/facility.html">Facility Registry System (FRS)</a>, which is a repository for facilities data for 2.5 million unique facilities regulated under a variety of environmental laws and statutes. Herein, I see opportunity for further geo-enablement of Agency business processes, along with continued integration potential, to put hooks and eyes into a variety of other processes for ever-improving analytical, reporting and querying capabilities, cross-media, cross-agency, cross-domain, cross-dimension, as well as facilitating further <a href="http://www.exchangenetwork.net/">partnership-building</a>, between local, state, and federal government, tribes, academia, industry and the public, and supporting <a href="http://www.data.gov/">data publishing</a>, <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/Open">OGI</a> and transparency initiatives.<br />
<br />
I anticipate I will also be pulled into a variety of other geospatial efforts across EPA as well... In many ways, I will essentially continue to do many of the things I already did - only, from the other side of the fence. In terms of physical logistics, I have already essentially been commuting to Washington DC for 6 years - though, now having a permanent duty station there, I can now consider getting a place to stay, as opposed to living out of hotels and bouncing between various locales as I have been.<br />
<br />
So - mixed emotions - I will certainly miss working with Synergist, but likewise, there is a great team at EPA, and I am sure I will have a great time there.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-53476055115614471802010-02-20T10:36:00.006-05:002010-02-20T12:53:37.889-05:00ESRI and Volunteered Geographic InformationOnce again, I greatly enjoyed this year's <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2010/02/live-blogging-from-feduc-day-1ii-er-not.html">ESRI Federal User Conference</a> - I was able to make it to several sessions Thursday and Friday... Perhaps will post more on this, as time permits.<div><br /></div><div>As he has done before, Jack Dangermond solicited feedback and questions in his <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/agenda/closing-session.html">FedUC wrapup</a> following Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board chairman Earl E. Devaney's excellent talk - I was happy to pitch in and asked him my own question about ESRI's vision for volunteered geographic information / crowdsourcing / participatory GIS...</div><div><br /></div><div>This got Jack Dangermond excited, it seems he has been thinking about the concept, though even with his response, we need to get beyond the initial technical hurdles - and in talking to some other ESRI folks during and after the conference, I am happy to hear that some other ESRI staffers are thinking about this as well.</div><div><br /></div><div>The thing is this: It's not really about ESRI tools importing OpenStreetMap, GeoRSS or Twitter feeds, and so on. Mere import and merge with your own data is really just a tiny part of it.</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/2/12/1265986772242/OpenStreetMap_on_a_Garmin_in_Haiti.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/2/12/1265986772242/OpenStreetMap_on_a_Garmin_in_Haiti.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><div>The true power of VGI is in its dynamic nature - for example, in the case of <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/open-platform/blog/mapping-a-crisis">Haiti response</a>, there were dozens of volunteers all providing concurrent updates, imports and edits to OpenStreetMap, as well as hundreds consuming the map data. The state of the map changed, sometimes radically, from hour to hour, and often even from minute to minute. As one example, an individual on the ground in Haiti sent an <a href="http://haiti.ushahidi.com/reports/submit">SMS message to Ushahidi</a> with GPS coordinates for two locales where supplies could be airdropped or landed via improvised helicopter landing zone. The maps were blank in those two areas. Yet, within minutes, I and other OSM mappers pulled up the declassified DMA maps, DigitalGlobe and other imagery that had been donated by various providers, and sketched in the roads, trails, streams, buildings and other culture and planimetrics for those communities in need.</div><div><br /></div><div>Leveraging those dynamic updates is one key piece to making the most of VGI. That means, going beyond import, to being able to consume and integrate the data on the fly.</div><div><br /></div><div>The second piece is that VGI is not a one-way street. To use Haiti again as an example, dozens of disparate agencies are all using OpenStreetMap - several are in turn actively contributing back as well. Each is then building up on the work of the others, and the efforts of each resource leverages successive investments of the prior effort. This is particularly useful for resource-constrained organizations and volunteer efforts. As an example of this, as a member of <a href="http://www.ewb-usa.org/">Engineers Without Borders</a>, I have been trying to promote adoption of OpenStreetMap for mapping efforts - e.g. one effort providing potable water can then dovetail into another organization's efforts to do health assessments, and so on. </div><div><br /></div><div>As to cultural and organizational resistance to crowdsourcing, accuracy and reliability - that can be handled via record-level metadata. The double-edged sword of OpenStreetMap is in its use of <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features">key/value pairs for attribute data</a>, as opposed to rigidly structured tables and columns, which on one hand can lead to folksonomies with inconsistent tagging, but on the other hand can handle rapid, flexible, ad-hoc changes to accomodate new needs, as well as allow complex representations via a collection of tags - which in turn can then also be cross-walked to other agencies' data models for interaction and ETL. While OpenStreetMap, on its' face, leaves much up to the individual contributors, best practices can and should be implemented. All edits are tracked in OpenStreetMap, which provides some basic metadata as to who and when, however more robust means of reverting adverse changes would be useful. Similarly, best practices are generally communicated via wiki, such as adding tags for source (e.g. digitized from DigitalGlobe imagery, with date). One of my comments in my followup to Jack Dangermond was that some of the governance/user guidance can be put directly into the tools, such as via JOSM, Merkaartor or Potlatch presets and templates.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some may push back and suggest that shared community platforms like OpenStreetMap lack accuracy or reliability. The beauty of it is that if you don't like it, you can fix it.</div><div><br /></div><div>And another goal... Dynamic integration of community platforms like OpenStreetMap beyond just base mapping and visualization, to be incorporated into modeling and analysis, via crosswalks and semantic interoperability.</div><div><br /></div><div>I am happy to see this is something of interest to Jack Dangermond and ESRI, and hope that the bidirectionality and dynamic nature of VGI are fully embraced down the road. </div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergy">Synergy: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.</a></b></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-91589314421309203892010-02-17T18:51:00.010-05:002010-02-17T21:31:34.276-05:00Live Blogging from FedUC, Day 1 (er... not really)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDop9_G9SYF74bw_Hldg2DeMtHdn43k_OHE6ggwQs0tykNMsVrssOBQdXvd0HtyYKPgYbKuT7LB2BJQ0syvuFNcv7y6_Vm1QkNpHggC4IsHUKUXNH1UUiLU5ZBopQDwMCBmJp/s1600-h/Empty-plate.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDop9_G9SYF74bw_Hldg2DeMtHdn43k_OHE6ggwQs0tykNMsVrssOBQdXvd0HtyYKPgYbKuT7LB2BJQ0syvuFNcv7y6_Vm1QkNpHggC4IsHUKUXNH1UUiLU5ZBopQDwMCBmJp/s200/Empty-plate.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439365634115394066" /></a>This will be as close as I get to live blogging from the ESRI Federal User Conference, Day 1.<div><br /></div><div>Problem is, I missed it. </div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, as my day went, I was tied up in a meeting in Baltimore and didn't get back to DC until the tail end of the reception.</div><div><br /></div><div>So that should make this the shortest wrapup of FedUC Day 1.</div><div><br /></div><div>I heard there was some tasty sushi at the reception, but by the time I arrived, it was already gone... However, having not had anything to eat since morning, I did inhale a handful of various hors d'ouvres and a Heineken...</div><div><br /></div><div>To catch up, I did monitor a few assorted tidbits via <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23feduc">Twitter</a> throughout the day- some of these struck me:</div><div><ul><li><i>Buzzword: VGI. </i> Volunteered Geographic Information. a/k/a crowdsourcing. All pointing to the OpenStreetMap paradigm- Given the phenomenal success of OpenStreetMap in supporting base mapping for humanitarian efforts in Haiti, along with the fluid and adaptable nature of its key/value pair model, which was utilized for tagging crisis-related features, such as landslides, collapsed buildings, road obstacles, refugee camps and so on - how can one NOT talk about OpenStreetMap? Great to hear about OpenStreetMap being used in ArcGIS. But... the pundit in me asks, how transparent is this? Is it "importing OSM data"? That's great for many applications. But what of emergency response applications? Given the dynamic nature of OpenStreetMap, "import" might not cut it. How about direct, native OSM support? That I need to investigate further. But then, comes the other, far more important piece of VGI - the participatory piece? Can/will ArcGIS 10 support direct editing of OSM? And outside of OSM, how much robust ArcGIS 10 capability for participatory GIS exists right out of the box?<br /><br /></li><li><i>Offshoot: Citizen-centric science.</i> I understand Audubon demonstrated eBird - interesting - a year ago, I contributed a proof-of-concept to the eBio conference in London, demonstrating harnessing social media such as Twitter to allow citizen science participation to allow folks to record observations of various species in the wild, toward such ends as assessing biodiversity, invasive species, and so on. I tied this in with web services such as GBIF's lookup services to, for example, translate between common names and scientific name, and so on. This, in turn, tied in to other sources such as Flickr, and combined, wherever possible, with available geographic information, for providing feeds and display in, for example Bing Maps or other platforms. Great to see this coming along... I'd be interested in looking at the Audubon effort more closely, along with further exploring the model for vetting and validating inputs.<br /><br /></li><li><i>The Cloud...</i> Evidently a big focus on cloud hosting, the new partnership between ESRI and Amazon, and "rent ArcGIS Server by the hour". I think this is an interesting model and have been harping on this for years. Geodata services hosting at this point is nothing esoteric, and could/should essentially be commoditized <i>*cough* GeoServer *cough*</i>. But... where the less-well-charted and more-interesting territory still lies is not in just serving up data. ArcGIS Server is frankly often too much tool to waste on just serving up map layers and tiles. Where I see the opportunity for ArcGIS server is in true ANALYSIS, MODELING and so on. Web-based geoanalytical services and geoprocessing services. We need a good model, and some good strategic thinking in the community of how the long-range picture of all of that will look.<br /><br /></li><li><i>ArcGIS for iPhone...</i> That was another feature of ArcGIS 10 noted by some who attended the Plenary... Sounds great, but... I want to know more about how it operates, and more importantly, how customizable, configurable, how many features and functionalities it supports. Hopefully someone can shed some light there...</li></ul><div>Even for showing up at the last minute, I briefly ran into <a href="http://twitter.com/jfrancica">@jfrancica</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/donatsafe">@donatsafe</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/MikeHardy">@MikeHardy</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/sturich">@sturich</a> from Pen Bay Media and got to say hi to them, as well as various other friends - I know there are plenty more friends, tweeple and geobloggers in town this week - I also did see <a href="http://twitter.com/pbissett">@pbissett</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/cageyjames">@cageyjames</a> from afar - on locating the <a href="http://twitter.com/weogeo">@weogeo</a> booth, it still had a few people milling about, so I unfortunately didn't get to chat... </div><div><br /></div><div>More to follow... Tomorrow, my luck should be better, and I plan to be able to stay for the whole day - and for <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=geoglobaldomination">#geoglobaldomination</a> afterward. Hopefully others will be posting their recaps, observations and scuttlebutt as well... At this point, the handful of hors d'oevres and beer in my otherwise empty tummy are looking for company.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-23658650197906879422010-02-15T09:15:00.004-05:002010-02-15T09:51:35.342-05:00ESRI Federal User Conference 2010<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21xhEmz-Pi_juOMSQVZZd0aJ_QUh5wlHo8mbEtxtVOqHZume0qhEbysk48q7g1YRYneFhRpK9RK3khX7LW9a9Yhszs9SNjSYsm3H7lC75QURbqT19Sypeg9_I48AWxltm72DY/s1600-h/feduc2010.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 125px; height: 123px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg21xhEmz-Pi_juOMSQVZZd0aJ_QUh5wlHo8mbEtxtVOqHZume0qhEbysk48q7g1YRYneFhRpK9RK3khX7LW9a9Yhszs9SNjSYsm3H7lC75QURbqT19Sypeg9_I48AWxltm72DY/s200/feduc2010.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5438480915308585842" /></a>I am looking forward to spending this week in Washington DC, despite any further threats of snow (1"-3" expected tonight)... Living in Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1 to 3 inches of snow is no big thing. But the 30+ that hit the Washington area last week are astounding. Hopefully, much of the prior accumulation is now under control.<div><br /></div><div>Despite the snow, I laugh in the face of the snow and am still anticipating a decent turnout at the <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/index.html">2010 ESRI Federal User Conference (FedUC)</a>. At present, it sounds like a lot of my own federal colleagues are still planning on attending, as are various friends, geobloggers, <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=feduc">geotweeple</a> and so on... It has rapidly become the east-coast version of the <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/user-conference/index.html">San Diego ESRI International User Conference</a>, with solid attendance not just by feds, but by a wide variety of others as well. The <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/agenda/index.html">agenda</a>, again a mix of technical GIS topics and where GIS is being used in a wide variety of business domains, along with a collection of special interest group meetings. I will generally be following an environmental science track, along with a few excursions into other areas.</div><div><br /></div><div>It is being held once again at the <a href="http://www.dcconvention.com/Visitors/DirectionsParking/GettingHere.aspx">Walter E. Washington Convention Center</a> in Washington, DC, February 17-19th, although I will be arriving today, for various meetings around Washington today and tomorrow, and a few throughout the FedUC as well. Free for feds to attend, relatively cheap for others...</div><div><br /></div><div>I hope to be able to post here and there from the FedUC, depending on connectivity and power availability (my workhorse laptop no longer holds a charge as it used to) - as well as the periodic blips from <a href="http://twitter.com/druidsmith">Twitter</a>...</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you are in the DC area, but are NOT attending the ESRI Federal User Conference, then here's a definite to keep an eye out for: <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23geoglobaldomination">#geoglobaldomination</a> - essentially, just an ad-hoc, twitter-organized, vendor-neutral, platform-agnostic gathering of geospatial folks getting together over a few beers to discuss esoterics and idiosyncrasies of the geospatial business...</div><div><br /></div><div>It will be fun!</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-1935902926798969582010-01-18T21:09:00.006-05:002010-01-18T21:40:02.537-05:00Pennsylvania Geospatial Coordination Council<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecQjSVx0V-VqkXMhPbZNAoykRDWkJe8q8AgGcMT7FbpyfXGPlWfQ-IJBbsxNiK5lXAB3b2Mxur6bgJHLIjRh8y5JAwsTym2AJcqacrD7-AXoVdQCvSXoyB9N8t9IRVFQZYl3s/s1600-h/state-seal-pennsylvania.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 171px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhecQjSVx0V-VqkXMhPbZNAoykRDWkJe8q8AgGcMT7FbpyfXGPlWfQ-IJBbsxNiK5lXAB3b2Mxur6bgJHLIjRh8y5JAwsTym2AJcqacrD7-AXoVdQCvSXoyB9N8t9IRVFQZYl3s/s200/state-seal-pennsylvania.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5428273574980370466" /></a>Last week, I attended a discussion session sponsored by the Pennsylvania Mapping and GIS Consortium (<a href="http://www.pamagic.org/pamagic/site/default.asp">PaMAGIC</a>) and facilitated by John Palatiello, regarding standing up a Geospatial Coordination Council as a formal governmental advisory body for Pennsylvania. This is <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2006/07/pennsylvania-geospatial-coordinating.html">not a new concept</a>, it is something that PaMAGIC has been pursuing for several years, it has been discussed several times prior at the PA GIS Conference, and has been introduced in the legislature several times, in various incarnations. It was last introduced in 2007-2008 by Representative Russ Fairchild as <a href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&sessYr=2007&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billnbr=1304&pn=3534">House Bill 1304</a>.<br /><br />The discussion session was held at the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors' office just outside Harrisburg, and roughly 60 people attended in person and by phone - an excellent cross section of state government, county and local government, private sector, utilities and others. I did not, however, see any representation by the Pennsylvania Society of Land Surveyors<a href="http://www.psls.org/"></a> or <a href="http://www.pspe.org/index.shtml">Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers</a>. Similarly, I do not see a spot designated on the proposed Council for these organizations.<br /><br />I have posted two documents - one is a <a href="http://www.synergist-tech.com/documents/PA%20GIS%20Council%20-%20Jan%2014%20Meeting%20Summary%20and%20Strategy.pdf">summary</a> of the meeting, the second is the newest version of the <a href="http://www.synergist-tech.com/documents/PA%20GIS%20Council%20-%20DRAFT%20Legislation%20Jan2010.pdf">proposed bill</a> - the GIS community is invited to provide comment, by the end of this week, to PaMAGIC President Glenn McNichol, gmcnichol -at- dvrpc.org.<div><br /></div><div>What does give me more optimism in this iteration is that there appears to be additional championing of this cause coming from the Governor's office. It is anticipated that Rep. Fairchild will be introducing the bill again, and I am hoping that the geospatial community will be able to rally around the effort, hopefully PaMAGIC will spearhead a good communications campaign with John Palatiello's help.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-61141435376397673672010-01-18T16:30:00.006-05:002010-01-20T09:34:52.741-05:00Mapping for Haiti Earthquake Response<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/images/osm_logo.png?1218150545"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 120px;" src="http://www.openstreetmap.org/images/osm_logo.png?1218150545" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />For the last few days I have been working on efforts to help Haiti earthquake response - part of this is mapping Haiti via <a href="http://openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetMap</a>. Currently, useful maps of Haiti are few and far between, in some case there are detailed maps for parts of the country and cities like Jacmel, but which are print maps (no digital edition exists), in many cases many decades old and outdated, in other instances the only maps which exist are small-scale, with limited detail. Commercial map platforms like Bing Maps, Google Maps and Yahoo vary greatly in their detail as well, and update cycles are slow - however, here, OpenStreetMap has been able to rapidly respond and provide very speedy and robust updates, to include capturing data about collapsed buildings, and so on.<br /><br /><a href="http://brainoff.com/weblog/2010/01/14/1518">Mikel Maron</a> captures the speed and effectiveness of OpenStreetMap with these two screenshots of Port-Au-Prince, just before the earthquake and just after:<br /><br />before:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4274264767_c9933d12c5.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 379px;" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4037/4274264767_c9933d12c5.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />after:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4274264771_6873e16fa0.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 403px;" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2729/4274264771_6873e16fa0.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br /><br />I would encourage any others who have time to contribute to get involved in this effort as well - editing can be done directly in OpenStreetMap via the 'edit' tab, which opens a web-based tool called <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Potlatch">Potlatch</a> - or, a number of other tools are available as well. (You will need to register an account in order to edit - feel free to connect with me there as well - <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Dave%20Smith">http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Dave%20Smith</a>). The <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/WikiProject_Haiti">OpenStreetMap WikiProject Haiti</a> page provides a lot of good information and frequent updates. A number of data sources have been assembled, together with fresh post-earthquake imagery generously donated by companies like <a href="http://www.digitalglobe.com/index.php/48/Products?product_id=26">DigitalGlobe</a>.<br /><br />For folks who are interested in more robust tools, I primarily use <a href="http://www.merkaartor.org/">Merkaartor</a> which runs best on Windows platforms - others favor <a href="http://josm.openstreetmap.de/">JOSM</a> which is Java-based and runs on any platform supporting Java.<br /><br />With either of these, you should be able to use the download function to navigate to an area of Haiti (select a relatively small area) and then download the OSM data<br /><br />Some have wrestled with getting the various available imagery and map services to work properly in JOSM and Merkaartor - they are both a bit clunky about accessing WMS servers - I can offer some of my tips gleaned from a little debugging using <a href="http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/">Fiddler2</a>: For Merkaartor, use Tools -> WMS Servers Editor and create a new entry with the following URL: <a href="http://maps.geography.uc.edu/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/home/cgn/public_html/maps/mapfiles/haiti.map&version=1.1.0&SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetMap?">http://maps.geography.uc.edu/cgi-bin/mapserv?map=/home/cgn/public_html/maps/mapfiles/haiti.map&version=1.1.0&SERVICE=WMS&REQUEST=GetMap?</a> and show capabilities to access the DigitalGlobe CrisisEvent imagery (DG_crisis_event_service), select EPSG:4326 (only option available) and image/png and you should be able to go from there. If there is no image layer showing, go to Layers -> Add new image layer, and then right-click on the newly added image layer and select your newly-added WMS server for DigitalGlobe.<br /><br />Digitization tasks are fairly intuitive - tools allow you to draw points, lines and polygons, as well as to create relations which allow multiple entities to be grouped together - however the absolute key to success is in proper use of <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Map_Features">tags</a> to provide attribute values for any entities being created. These are generally intuitive as well, e.g. tag of <span style="font-weight:bold;">highway</span>, value of <span style="font-weight:bold;">residential</span> to turn a generic line into a residential road. It also helps to look at tagging of existing features, and to familiarize yourself with the features list - the OpenStreetMap wiki is searchable and quite useful. Finally, as terms of using the DigitalGlobe imagery, any data entered using their imagery should also be tagged with source=digitalglobe.<br /><br />One of the other projects I have been working on is development of a set of tags that would be useful for emergency responders, relief and aid efforts - for this, I have started a wiki page <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php?title=Humanitarian_OSM_Tags">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php?title=Humanitarian_OSM_Tags</a>- any comments and thoughts can be added to the wiki page.<div><br /></div><div><i>--- Update: Jan 20 ---</i></div><div><br /></div><div>To update, I wanted to also include reference to the video tutorial that <a href="http://www.maploser.com/">Kate Chapman</a> put together on mapping for Haiti, to help demystify the tools:</div><div><br /></div><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/D6pBBK1SHh0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/D6pBBK1SHh0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><div><br />Thanks to Kate and all the other great folks contributing to the Haiti mapping efforts...<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-62168999636631526642010-01-07T16:51:00.010-05:002010-01-08T11:03:20.348-05:00The "Antiquated" County Surveyor?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHBybDdx_hmXmBpzBke3eOOodazF08XWeCuBNx2hbcCaeFidQIACw-9ncKskc94udvdZ79w-5pIJXQUtH-PZZ3Yk9FP9lK69Jd4bLjW7wvU6X2VTydqcGYBkBoAu-PlgTa7af/s320/HamiltonCountyOH_Surveyor_Benjamin_Harrison.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 194px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrHBybDdx_hmXmBpzBke3eOOodazF08XWeCuBNx2hbcCaeFidQIACw-9ncKskc94udvdZ79w-5pIJXQUtH-PZZ3Yk9FP9lK69Jd4bLjW7wvU6X2VTydqcGYBkBoAu-PlgTa7af/s320/HamiltonCountyOH_Surveyor_Benjamin_Harrison.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a>In Pennsylvania, the position of County Surveyor was abolished decades ago. Elsewhere, some states do still have County Surveyors - yet where still in use, it has in some instances become politicized, or may have duties which are either murky, inconsistent from one place to another, or even a position without any duties. Many consider the position "antiquated".<br /><div><br /></div><div>I, however, think that perhaps the notion of County Surveyor needs to be revisited. Not just in a traditional sense of basic survey support functions, such as are performed by County Engineers, but also toward sound boundary data stewardship.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, many of my colleagues have struggled with finding accurate information about municipal boundaries, corners, information on annexations, and so on. These need sound stewardship. Here in Pennsylvania I have heard plenty of stories about vital records associated with municipal boundaries getting lost, falling into disrepair, and so on - without any sound stewardship or curation. I have heard plenty of stories about disputes and nebulous municipal boundary locations, with disparities into hundreds of feet, which in turn can impact property owners and a whole host of administrative bodies, with regard to taxation, school districts and so on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Further, with the emergence of GIS for tax assessment, there is also a role for county surveyors - in collaboratively developing a robust cadastral framework together with the county tax assessor, county GIS department, municipal counterparts, private sector surveyors and engineers, and so on. </div><div><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdd6cCUFwkAjxK5OcTOObcYqGr42gZVgaHisK6Gl4rVTGCQ8qajdmAfD76VOkjIR7Wcs7X1dJLEI9fgvWSpxqC1hJfMJPKvbru_BDMRvK_CUqpM65vcmKTPow0nAqGnZ6P4V2u/s1600-h/SurveyorCigarBox.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 142px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdd6cCUFwkAjxK5OcTOObcYqGr42gZVgaHisK6Gl4rVTGCQ8qajdmAfD76VOkjIR7Wcs7X1dJLEI9fgvWSpxqC1hJfMJPKvbru_BDMRvK_CUqpM65vcmKTPow0nAqGnZ6P4V2u/s320/SurveyorCigarBox.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424131247035652642" /></a>Here, the County Surveyor could be responsible for reviewing submitted plans, for working with other local surveyors toward getting surveyed parcels, subdivisions, rights-of-ways and so on tied to a consistent system of monumentation, via GPS and other means, and so on, tying deeds and land records data to GIS data - toward iteratively refining the cadastre toward providing ever-increasing degrees of accuracy and reliability. Similarly, the County Surveyor could work with his counterparts in adjoining counties collaboratively toward building and bolstering regional, and ultimately statewide partnerships such as <a href="http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/topogeo/pamap/data.aspx">PAMAP</a> here in Pennsylvania, which was a collaborative effort toward leveraging investments for obtaining aerial imagery - similar approaches can be taken toward gathering a host of other core datasets and mapping, such as LIDAR data, hydrology, roads, utilities, buildings and structures, and so on.</div><div><br /></div><div>This model exists in various forms, to varying degrees, in various locales - however generally in far more of a disconnected and ad-hoc fashion, with varying degrees of "antiquated" holdovers in culture, and varying degrees of forward-looking approach, such as those I advocate here. As to whether it should be an elected, appointed or other position - that's, however another matter which I don't particularly care to get into today.</div><div><br /></div><div>I for one think it's worth looking at again...</div><div><br /></div><div><i>(Photo: Benjamin W. Harrison, County Surveyor of Hamilton County, Ohio 1892-1902)</i></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-88128126900915156602009-11-27T22:20:00.007-05:002009-11-27T22:59:03.327-05:00OpenStreetMap<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVa1A4xfQAO6bMd7hnS15LzjtJTIuSFuBdIP1JtvGKeq4hwQd1ofuaEN5NoUE33ZwUPmDL9kbXXolMVZk05xuOp6yvaQEx81tUr6GDWmhtYNrzTz0b2tnHWYn3drnHShjQ4PRx/s1600/osm_logo.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 120px; height: 120px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVa1A4xfQAO6bMd7hnS15LzjtJTIuSFuBdIP1JtvGKeq4hwQd1ofuaEN5NoUE33ZwUPmDL9kbXXolMVZk05xuOp6yvaQEx81tUr6GDWmhtYNrzTz0b2tnHWYn3drnHShjQ4PRx/s400/osm_logo.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408992301040600306" /></a><br />Recently one of my little side pursuits has been playing with OpenStreetMap. I had tinkered with it a little bit some time ago, and decided to revisit it. <div><br /></div><div>For those who have not yet looked at OpenStreetMap, it is an open mapping framework, which utilizes public domain and crowdsourced data: <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">http://www.openstreetmap.org/</a></div><div><br /></div><div>Currently, there are a number of excellent tools available for working with OSM, such as the Potlatch web editing environment (within OSM, click on the 'edit' tab and away you go - it provides basic tools for adding points of interest, moving and deleting items, and adding attributes to existing points...</div><div><br /></div><div>For a quick start, help information is available via a wiki here: <a href="http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page">http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page</a></div><div><br /></div><div>With regard to other tools for editing OSM, I've been using Merkaartor in a Windows environment - <a href="http://www.merkaartor.org/">http://www.merkaartor.org/</a> - several other users use a Java tool, JOSM - <a href="http://josm.openstreetmap.de/">http://josm.openstreetmap.de/</a> - they both appear to have comparable feature sets.</div><div><br /></div><div>Potlatch also provides some basic aerial photos, however Merkaartor and JOSM also allow users to work with WMS services, ESRI shapefiles and other sources of data toward fast digitization and capture of data.</div><div><br /></div><div>On committing editing changes, new tiles are rendered rather quickly, allowing OSM to allow rapid development of base maps. Many people are also using GPS for track logs, which can then be uploaded to OSM as GPX to facilitate capture of trails and unmapped streets.</div><div><br /></div><div>In many places, OSM is being used to create maps where there previously were none, such as in developing countries - this might serve efforts such as Engineers Without Borders - and I plan to revisit some of the GIS data I've collected up for places like <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2007/03/cameroon-gis-data-and-benefits-of.html">Cameroon</a> and Rwanda on behalf of EWB and look at getting it posted to OSM where appropriate.</div><div><br /></div><div>Locally, I have been playing with the mapping for my own town - I found that it essentially just had some older TIGER data and Points of Interest (POIs) from USGS Geonames (GNIS). The road network came up jagged and inaccurate, many features missing, outdated and so on. Here's where local knowledge and feet on the ground comes into play in crowdsourcing.</div><div><br /></div><div>I essentially started out with something that looks like this:</div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PgQOB1HVuUdD5z6JxeDPrXMCeWyEGysv47gz_Q8zIaZDbCot6npfpi2cLdfDcEKpAGEFRCpBvC56Z_eZ1F4v5ierPv2Y9OBpjv70Mc4qF6DxhyuP61M2wlQkiGmMrbStlYAM/s1600/OSM-unfixed.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 220px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5PgQOB1HVuUdD5z6JxeDPrXMCeWyEGysv47gz_Q8zIaZDbCot6npfpi2cLdfDcEKpAGEFRCpBvC56Z_eZ1F4v5ierPv2Y9OBpjv70Mc4qF6DxhyuP61M2wlQkiGmMrbStlYAM/s400/OSM-unfixed.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408996919182978290" /></a>And have quickly been going to something that looks like this:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1I1b16SoNBdYUmD-BilhVay2v0XyaWHcjagof55wNxOPvXexhR-N_ApO5S8bthyphenhyphenkkdYpaT-Qze6nknojQoR3SQkNYihGHEhQPbAztUtY465pBXIdLpHULONI-awJ0MA_NTNx/s1600/OSM-Inprogress.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 229px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1I1b16SoNBdYUmD-BilhVay2v0XyaWHcjagof55wNxOPvXexhR-N_ApO5S8bthyphenhyphenkkdYpaT-Qze6nknojQoR3SQkNYihGHEhQPbAztUtY465pBXIdLpHULONI-awJ0MA_NTNx/s400/OSM-Inprogress.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408997205660177762" /></a>Here, I've been using orthophoto WMS services and other datasets for correcting streets and railroads, digitizing streams, putting in building footprints, parks, trails and amenities, and in just a short time am rapidly going to a useful and reasonably attractive map (note that this is still in progress). Further, the data can also be reused in a variety of ways, such as in Open Source routing services, using custom styling and symbology and so on.<div><br /></div><div>I would highly encourage others to take a look and play with it: <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">http://www.openstreetmap.org/</a> - however, with the caveat that it can be addicting... </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-23222493979760880412009-08-30T08:40:00.022-04:002009-08-31T08:56:31.900-04:00Building a Headless Linux GeoServer BoxI recently inherited some older machines and, to support some ongoing in-house experimentation I've been involved in, set them up as quick-and-dirty servers to help serve up geospatial data services - the approach I took was to build what are essentially minimal machines running linux in command-line mode, and then load GeoServer on them to serve the data - As I haven't blogged in a while, a friend suggested that posting a quick description of the mechanics of this might be a good thing to share for folks who haven't dipped their toes into Linux much.<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">As a disclaimer</span>, I do not claim to profess guruhood when it comes to Linux or the other packages, this is not necessarily warranted to be a "hardened-and-tweaked" system for production, it's just some very quick and dirty steps toward standing up a headless Linux-based GeoServer instance. Note that this uses the default Jetty install - some folks prefer to run it under Tomcat, which is a different path.<br /><br />So, I started out with the "minimal install CD" for Ubuntu 9.04, available here:<br /><br /><a href="https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD">https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation/MinimalCD</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4_TmdK6hEu4VqVzbig4QRr_GewNaZTRJjCuJTkeByUJSvnBkW6GwE8aw62jdRBIB8USBXZXUH6KCRJygdH4pUQwRK0GC8lC97XcrPtqjIFqMyh05YoJ3IeRCuht2tszOVmGJ/s1600-h/UbuntuMinimal.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg4_TmdK6hEu4VqVzbig4QRr_GewNaZTRJjCuJTkeByUJSvnBkW6GwE8aw62jdRBIB8USBXZXUH6KCRJygdH4pUQwRK0GC8lC97XcrPtqjIFqMyh05YoJ3IeRCuht2tszOVmGJ/s400/UbuntuMinimal.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375749021343575538" /></a><br /><br />Select a package appropriate for the CPU you are using - in my case, I chose Ubuntu 9.04 for 32-bit PC.<br /><br />Burn the ISO and follow the prompts to install from the text-based installer as command-line interface (CLI). I essentially went with the defaults. You will want to have the machine connected to the internet so that it can identify and set up the network connection and grab any files needed during install.<br /><br />Once you've installed a minimal version of Linux, you will be ready to configure and install the other goodies.<div><br /></div><div>For remote administration, you may want to install OpenSSH- <a href="http://www.openssh.com/">http://www.openssh.com/</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM5GNWbfCEGYHXXiV3zf31PbffDIZzOuuVGoEO1OWQ6VL9_l2zjb_EY-B4wgNyyyp3wyq32jYUgOHAnPAJiOBr_FF7ZUPzYz5VItBtIm832mKNdh3-HOcNWP3cl2A5PqweUle/s1600-h/OpenSSH.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWM5GNWbfCEGYHXXiV3zf31PbffDIZzOuuVGoEO1OWQ6VL9_l2zjb_EY-B4wgNyyyp3wyq32jYUgOHAnPAJiOBr_FF7ZUPzYz5VItBtIm832mKNdh3-HOcNWP3cl2A5PqweUle/s400/OpenSSH.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375749172549996850" /></a><br /><br />The step for doing this is simple:<br /><br />Log in to your Linux machine, and use the following command:<br /><br /><code>sudo apt-get install openssh-server</code><br /><br />This will download and install the OpenSSH package. For folks new to Linux, <code>sudo</code> tells it to use superuser privileges and permissions, and will ask for the root password used when you installed Linux. <code>apt-get install</code> uses the Advanced Package Tool to search for, retrieve and install software packages for Linux - this makes installation of much standard software in Linux easy.<br /><br />For remote administration, you'll want to know how to reach your machine on the network - you can get the IP address by using the <code>ifconfig</code> command, which will give results something like this:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwb-XgyZDz2AiPiGwpJiE_nFOrX6AkoVXyIisryX_sLqpGZXO1m_6W4J2zpuI9ktpeYUu9OGwsDpYmHwcEt218hBGyoVxWRGNpwZX2PhCbFYOIH8MP6n9tPt2o1sPvd9BscSrv/s1600-h/ifconfig.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 397px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwb-XgyZDz2AiPiGwpJiE_nFOrX6AkoVXyIisryX_sLqpGZXO1m_6W4J2zpuI9ktpeYUu9OGwsDpYmHwcEt218hBGyoVxWRGNpwZX2PhCbFYOIH8MP6n9tPt2o1sPvd9BscSrv/s400/ifconfig.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375749415563693378" /></a><br /><br />If you use Windows as a primary OS for your other work, you can then access the box from a Windows machine using an SSH client. I usually use PuTTY: <a href="http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html">http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVpjIv_9mh8g8Ly9fwiKGea_AZkj5n56WvCrlL9eGwT3frTO2C9Avs6IqerQaSvTASPsVDZoRt8_o225KCIsJn4w2ClInEQWZ_lNu1yXqWb2W2sf6FTqYQo51Q3D-jmm9ibL-r/s1600-h/PuTTY.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVpjIv_9mh8g8Ly9fwiKGea_AZkj5n56WvCrlL9eGwT3frTO2C9Avs6IqerQaSvTASPsVDZoRt8_o225KCIsJn4w2ClInEQWZ_lNu1yXqWb2W2sf6FTqYQo51Q3D-jmm9ibL-r/s400/PuTTY.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375750544122314386" /></a><br /><br />From there, you can install PuTTY on your windows machine and then access the Linux box via command-line interface remotely for administration.<br /><br />Plug in the IP address you got above:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LQiYmKtdrwo3GXLUfNVoYQOCU6vnvzRJauyXNym5ugACSlfGJyfli3sOJLxkn44q6xD5dFrGbDzXzZG_Kx4MphRBkSfhQLfEfAWJcJO0sekAw03A2Wi2Hh0EPIcdqkTKnU_u/s1600-h/PuTTYSession1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 383px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1LQiYmKtdrwo3GXLUfNVoYQOCU6vnvzRJauyXNym5ugACSlfGJyfli3sOJLxkn44q6xD5dFrGbDzXzZG_Kx4MphRBkSfhQLfEfAWJcJO0sekAw03A2Wi2Hh0EPIcdqkTKnU_u/s400/PuTTYSession1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375751525366566770" /></a><br /><br />and voila - you should be presented with a login screen for your linux box:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkG7CJQS4wP5IYxgmWfWzoTsMfw8-0PgS6XcBj3FH6Pwn4EpkqYnMVOKbzsIKE1er3jtnEO5pUDGTd1eRpoCP4gQrGq3hFG4SfT63VOCxtQnWKhhNFjAZ5z3yh6Zdm6laAWYQ/s1600-h/PuTTYSession2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVkG7CJQS4wP5IYxgmWfWzoTsMfw8-0PgS6XcBj3FH6Pwn4EpkqYnMVOKbzsIKE1er3jtnEO5pUDGTd1eRpoCP4gQrGq3hFG4SfT63VOCxtQnWKhhNFjAZ5z3yh6Zdm6laAWYQ/s400/PuTTYSession2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375752090589220370" /></a><br /><br />Tools like PuTTY are a great asset when it comes to administering boxes.<br /><br />Side trip into remote administration aside, on to the REAL stuff: Installing GeoServer.<br /><br />As a prerequisite, you will need to install the Java JDK - the GeoServer install page gives some recommendations, and here's how you would do it from the command line:<br /><br /><code>sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk</code><br /><br />Next, you will need to do some configuration of the JDK<br /><br />Define the default Java to use:<br /><code>sudo update-java-alternatives -s java-6-sun</code><br /><br />And set the JAVA_HOME directory - this is doable in a number of ways, you may or may not want to define it in /etc/environment. I really like 'nano' as an editor for command-line Linux environments and it comes pre-installed in the minimal Ubuntu 9.04 version.<br /><br /><code>sudo nano /etc/environment</code><br /><br />Again 'sudo' makes sure you have an appropriate privilege level to write the changes.<br /><br />In nano, you can navigate around in the file using your arrow keys. Insert the following:<br /><br /><code>JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/</code><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilPc3Mk0CTT-aEPiG2sTtsZ9Rd86yKqJBorTETNMupuBvZ2vZdEGq6hybonLgk0wtBOOWHnzvCYvY7k9PpnHPGwdeFk0Ulub6npvYejm0hAKkN1ALpRaRKaC4saxbDLvhDtW_/s1600-h/etc_environment.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhilPc3Mk0CTT-aEPiG2sTtsZ9Rd86yKqJBorTETNMupuBvZ2vZdEGq6hybonLgk0wtBOOWHnzvCYvY7k9PpnHPGwdeFk0Ulub6npvYejm0hAKkN1ALpRaRKaC4saxbDLvhDtW_/s400/etc_environment.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375755054832392098" /></a><br /></div><div>nano is intuitive and easy to use, following the commands along the bottom of the screen, e.g. ctrl-O to write changes, ctrl-X to exit.<br /><br />Now on to the fun stuff - installing GeoServer.<br /><br />GeoServer isn't available via apt - so you will need to download and unzip it to install it.<br /><br />To be able to use ZIP archives, <code>sudo apt-get install unzip</code> will provide that capability. Next, you can download GeoServer.</div><div><br /></div><div>Decide where you want to put it - some folks put it in /usr/local, or /usr/share, or if you are just experimenting, you could even leave it in your home directory - if putting it /usr/share in you would <code>cd /usr/share</code><br /><br />To download it, the download location given on the GeoServer page is <a href="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-1.7.6-bin.zip">http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-1.7.6-bin.zip</a></div><a href="http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-1.7.6-bin.zip"></a><div><br /></div>Thus, to download it, use <code>wget </code>-<br /><code><br /></code><div><code>sudo wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/geoserver/geoserver-1.7.6-bin.zip</code><br /><br /></div><div>Then, unzip it<div><br /></div><div><code>sudo unzip geoserver-1.7.6-bin.zip</code><br /></div></div>and you should see the files extracting into a geoserver-1.7.6 folder.<br /><br />Depending on where you put it and privileges held by the account you are using, you may also need to ensure you have ability to access and run GeoServer and that GeoServer can create any files it needs.<br /><br /><code>chown</code> will change ownership, using <code>-R</code> makes it recursive through subfolders and files:<br /><br /><code>sudo chown -R <i>geoserver_username</i> geoserver-1.7.6</code> would change all files and directories to be owned by the user specified (<code>geoserver_username</code> as a placeholder).<br /><br />You can list files using <code>ls</code> and navigate directories using <code>cd</code>.<br /><br />You may or may not also then want to configure directories, such as defining the location of your GeoServer installation directory, e.g. <code>GEOSERVER_HOME="/usr/share/geoserver-1.7.6"</code> - again, you could do this using <code>nano</code> to edit <code>/etc/environment</code> - and there are also plenty of other ways to do this. You could also define other parts of GeoServer, such as <code>GEOSERVER_DATA_DIR</code> at this point as well - consult the GeoServer docs for details there... <a href="http://docs.geoserver.org/1.7.x/en/user/">http://docs.geoserver.org/1.7.x/en/user/</a><div><br />Pretty much ready to run now... <code>cd</code> to the <code>/bin</code> directory under your geoserver install, e.g. <code>cd /usr/share/geoserver-1.7.6/bin"</code> and launch the startup script <code>sh startup.sh</code> and voila... You will see some program output scroll by,<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORdQ7gAUI9xJEFSwlbsZv4WlgCaqvnuyWaqDz4OKOlxGRQ6NIHF25Ao9U2E2EZ3wqJB7CSKj4orrUa5_s4VGYZLmxYu60AIJneW3ZKj5FU-8kByHUcVJ927Gi9mCi7G36Ep-c/s1600-h/GeoServer_bootup.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhORdQ7gAUI9xJEFSwlbsZv4WlgCaqvnuyWaqDz4OKOlxGRQ6NIHF25Ao9U2E2EZ3wqJB7CSKj4orrUa5_s4VGYZLmxYu60AIJneW3ZKj5FU-8kByHUcVJ927Gi9mCi7G36Ep-c/s400/GeoServer_bootup.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375824104643547426" /></a>ultimately resulting with an output line like<br /><br /><code>[main] INFO org.mortbay.log - Started SelectChannelConnector@0.0.0.0:8080</code> - this should tell you that the GeoServer Jetty container is up and listening for connections on 8080.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, open a browser, point it to your machine's IP address and enter it, pointing to port 8080 and the geoserver instance, e.g. <code>http://192.168.2.125:8080/geoserver/</code> and after an initial "loading" screen you should get the GeoServer web interface:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicw-JYrGdlpS2zP9kekz5QLaemVYPsoorPbz_Cau6COdIJ6NCQCVbgt-rCwjSyyASWT-yk-F1ILhggXqXGULxl0uU5M9Aiek2ptafKDWt7h0F8Nv9N4iZWSDstfsfTAuenfTyS/s1600-h/GeoServer_Web.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 282px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicw-JYrGdlpS2zP9kekz5QLaemVYPsoorPbz_Cau6COdIJ6NCQCVbgt-rCwjSyyASWT-yk-F1ILhggXqXGULxl0uU5M9Aiek2ptafKDWt7h0F8Nv9N4iZWSDstfsfTAuenfTyS/s400/GeoServer_Web.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375799164049330050" /></a><br /><br />And you are off to the races... Confirm that it works via the demos:<br /><br />OpenLayers NYC Tiger map<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lCSXXItagTkvd1RGRdFBZyy13MyYQsU5C7iR3-Hf_fwqhjwJPZkR_1w5EDr0nuptIZG6oY2dIpIhYcqfxB7fz0bNkqWP03qlBeumlnvkiHb86w3jzkgf_h8Gkb6kcuVIr_eI/s1600-h/GeoServer_OL_Tiger.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 285px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7lCSXXItagTkvd1RGRdFBZyy13MyYQsU5C7iR3-Hf_fwqhjwJPZkR_1w5EDr0nuptIZG6oY2dIpIhYcqfxB7fz0bNkqWP03qlBeumlnvkiHb86w3jzkgf_h8Gkb6kcuVIr_eI/s400/GeoServer_OL_Tiger.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5375800280696280130" /></a><br />Again, this is just meant to be a quick-and-dirty guide - enough to make even someone with minimal Linux experience armed and dangerous - and from here, there are many tweaks and customizations that can be made, such as optimizing performance, hardening and security and so on (there are plenty of discussions around the web and on listservs regarding this)- but I figured, I'd at least share this as a quick start for anyone looking to play with GeoServer in a minimal Linux environment...</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-8430931415576442302009-04-11T18:54:00.009-04:002009-04-13T09:40:28.256-04:00National Environmental Information Exchange Network<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 137px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwxLte1vt5YnPJPXa-PbhOaRZRDiBIVPmPp2HLH3d5-2Uk5h1wAwFBRjnn4eCyiYkyVa3N7VesNiiw38BRFccqlCQcSeY_I_HqJm7aKmX_uXuFGTkFCT54tseAiwbh-tkjNFQ7/s200/CDX1.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323576117428543842" />Here's another exiting bit of news - my firm is teamed with CGI Federal on USEPA's Software Engineering & Specialized Scientific Support (SES3) Contract, and we just got word that our team has won EPA's <a href="http://www.exchangenetwork.net/">Central Data Exchange</a> (CDX) task. This is very exciting news, CDX and the Exchange Network serve the community via facilitating exchange of a wide variety of environmental data between federal, state, tribal and other partnerships - it is a partnership that has proven itself to be tremendously effective and a great model for other types of data exchanges as well.<br /><br />What I am particularly excited about is in leveraging the infrastructure that has already been built toward more robustly supporting geodata services, and ultimately toward enhanced reporting, metrics, analytical capabilities, and other capabilities to support feds, states, tribes and others in informed decisionmaking toward environmental policy and stewardship.<br /><br /><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 93px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidv3aM-hi7WjkVjODh6t57K9Nzxo-5UTVw6Mk-PmJqbRmDwIAu8Aj6J4yCFU8EQ8K5xn-OsmjvhtPEN30brsOiu_Ys5Uyp5Q9awUCGbIHGH2WwRQvJ13v7rsR4P93Lja43epx_/s200/EN1.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323576331599857458" />As such - we also anticipate we will be looking to grow as a company, and will be looking to hire additional technical gurus with capabilities in data exchange, data management and data flows, particularly if you have prior capabilities and knowledge of EPA's Exchange Network and CDX, and/or geospatial technology.<br /><br />If you are interested, drop me a line at dsmith (at) synergist.tech.com<br/><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-19176081244154922792009-04-11T17:58:00.005-04:002009-04-11T18:50:56.386-04:00Microsoft Virtual Earth MVP<img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 128px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiingzj5ulyGMa-anq3yqHaKw1su3Sn1wQm05pX_QEIZnOPh5vwkTW_v-yCA3jNffn-QwgnMtjxKBEgA4gwYpsKmnAviGH4IvsSbqNMtVGZ6MQhaLA6IuxtvyymNZdmjfzqUGd8/s200/MVP.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323558239154312210" />The last several weeks have been quite hectic - busy on a number of fronts, which is a thankful thing, given the economy has slowed down a bit - but here is something quick that I wanted to share - I was awarded "<a href="http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/">Most Valuable Professional</a>" (MVP) status by Microsoft for some of my ongoing work in <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/virtualearth/">Virtual Earth</a>. Hierarchically, there isn't exactly a "VE MVP" program, but VE falls within Microsoft's broader Live Platform.<div><br /></div><div>While I am quite thrilled and honored to be recognized by Microsoft, this is not to toot my own horn - but rather to get the word out to fellow geospatial developers that this is a great program, and to encourage them to look into it if they are doing integration work with VE. Only a week into it, I am finding that the program provides a tremendous amount of outreach, technical resources and other things, such as teleconferences, message boards, newsletters and other great technical information (awardees are required to sign and comply with an NDA) and best of all, a complimentary subscription to <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx">Microsoft's Developer Network (MSDN)</a>. There are also other great nontechnical benefits, such as $150 in credit at the Microsoft store and others which I am only just beginning to explore.</div><div><br /></div><div>The way it works is that they receive nominations on a periodic basis - folks with talents in a given Microsoft technology can have friends nominate them - I would recommend putting together a portfolio of projects and related items, demonstrating innovation and engagement in the community, such as technical blog articles, engagement in online technical forums, any pro-bono work, and so on, and ask folks who are already MVPs to nominate you for your work. It's a great program, and a great idea from Microsoft toward promoting and evangelizing their platform that they are supporting their developer community so well. </div><div><br /></div><div>With ESRI now partnering so tightly with Microsoft and supporting VE and Silverlight integration and other MS-oriented capabilities, this type of program is something that would be fabulous to see from them as well... (hint to Jack Dangermond...)</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-42904179853707319752009-03-31T19:38:00.012-04:002009-03-31T20:45:11.465-04:00A Blast from the PastSome late night discussion with <a href="http://twitter.com/geobabbler">@GeoBabbler</a> (<a href="http://geobabble.wordpress.com/">Bill Dollins</a>) and others last night led to this little flight of fancy... Bill was wondering if there were still any old copies of ArcView 1.0 around. Being a GIS geezer and a bit of a technology packrat, it turns out I still had a copy. Scary. As <a href="http://twitter.com/fantomplanet">@FantomPlanet</a> suggested, I reckon I have a bit of a Museum of GIS Antiquity going on - I believe I actually still have ancient copies of MapInfo, Atlas, GeoMedia, AutoCAD Map 1.0 and others floating around, plus quite a bit of hand-coded stuff from the days when COTS GIS was not even widely available.<div><br /></div><div>Scarier yet, I still have copies of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 around. </div><div><br /></div><div>And... to top it off, I was actually able to lay my hands on them and try things out again.</div><div><br /></div><div>Actually, what I did was stand up a <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">VirtualBox</a> instance and load up Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (ArcView 1 does not run on Win95 and up) and lo and behold, I then got ArcView 1.0 loaded up.</div><div><br /></div><div>Prepare to enter the time machine and go back over 15 years into the past:</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHHoJO80Pqjd7B2oCmnRtt8RB13u5vyNFBab8NO24aaTCaqJ5rZzSmvUfyHlCYrftFCtCfyDR2T56isQbew_Vn6BSkpgysegi7iUT_hALlHprPI_f4mC5gX7e9EYGqdG3QOFLD/s400/AV1_1.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319503064347558898" /><div>Above: Note the MDI interface</div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgi9QJI2sz_2Tnc8sEvcGMDYB3TNIiX2Cjo8gv32BWzsl8lJ78dXBSKv5qySYJ-OdmMl9FG_Wb-tuxTHufTcpilgJJbE2Few18oMHRtPW69KjjME0rmdvyqhMsIzmpvG4ffSRci/s400/AV1_2.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319503359327437186" />Above: Supplied "neweng.av" Tutorial data with choropleth mapping of New England...<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikUHc8pa4A_EmLlAgByp-eyaBZ6e1-qNqGu4Ys8t5ErIKc30l8qn0s5rO89xjyEVNwb9pV0LqJrCuQ5pKwJ3zr72zNJv2Sa30_zdVhi3JrzPFfBJq4FYA9BeXP6RfucLF0xX5k/s400/AV1_3.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319503707631800914" /></div>Above: Version "1.0a"<br /><br /><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTcDl3sHMeo05bCDWsTpAPxx2khl90zJ1smly1cr7YxAVE5Ys9nqIYq2Uz7xROwP6UFnM7qufP72i-Oj4LFtvlPfSAk4yEJpz5cN78SHxXvzCVr0kHkW8OVmpYiqFsmBNaAXVt/s400/AV1_4.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319504541266023362" />Above: "maplewd.av" Tutorial data...<div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRNMSgfQ2hs1VrlUqHi97WNV7VmKiKTmkNzfdG7MtL-5nxIUE46p-1cLRXF5m4O2lPz2CAiLx434E0y90OKLPIxKy9VabwD4tHxzGt1iGWGjWiPNuU13bjx89YSF1hu961nwrb/s400/AV1_5.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319507123392730082" />Supported data types: Arc/Info coverages, workspaces images (note .bil image supplied as part of the AV1.0 tutorial data), address coverage... Note also that shapefiles are NOT supported.<div><br /></div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd5BsLb8TA-K6frAS7DO9lTtogm6j7p6f8gjEjmNlQa2Ow0PyT76qcpVAcGj1jAXvHffwmJ0428Tdmn7O12tZe7g5lIbOi3NdYHY7D5_63Mr1SiB3CS2LGl8xDiFG_uYV8gaU2/s400/AV1_7.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5319507587840956050" /><br />An interesting look at the past. A capable GIS viewing and querying tool, though no editing capability was supplied with 1.0. So... Why would one want to load up ArcView 1.0? You probably don't - probably best to live vicariously through my little adventure here. But... if you ever do, VirtualBox provides some dicey support for it (I did still get the <a href="http://www.ewug.org/blog/2006/07/arcview-10.html">divide By zero error</a> initially, but eventually it started working) - and, you can actually still download a copy of 1.0 here: <a href="ftp://download1.geocomm.com/sd2/ARCVIEW10.ZIP">ftp://download1.geocomm.com/sd2/ARCVIEW10.ZIP</a> and if you still have a copy of MS-DOS and Windows 3.1, you should be good to go.<div><br /></div><div>Fun stuff! Brought back some memories...</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">[edit - removed the hyperlinks from the images (and thereby the preview snapshots, per comment below)... not sure why blogger wants to insert them by default anyways...]</span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-71381433377267228432009-02-18T23:06:00.012-05:002009-02-18T23:23:22.041-05:00ESRI Federal User Conference 2009 - Wednesday Highlights<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tOYtFhsbhviEC0vRLfq7QFDagQ-XhrOhGyDv0w1I1MG7qTV9gSc3EeYJQstWCgtEABAaH7BZJJ28mHy34wovG8PuOkUDLdpi7cosnH4R2eJ0mRTIhmhCiPsBu9sVh9vjf1XN/s1600-h/IMAGE_900.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3tOYtFhsbhviEC0vRLfq7QFDagQ-XhrOhGyDv0w1I1MG7qTV9gSc3EeYJQstWCgtEABAaH7BZJJ28mHy34wovG8PuOkUDLdpi7cosnH4R2eJ0mRTIhmhCiPsBu9sVh9vjf1XN/s200/IMAGE_900.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304357696157421730" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">ESRI Federal User Conference Highlights</span><br /><br />My recently-retired EPA friend and colleague Dave Wolf was the recipient of the "Making a Difference" award. Dave was involved in pioneering efforts in web mapping at EPA, with EnviroMapper and other efforts.<br /><br />I unfortunately arrived a bit late, and missed the discussion of ArcGIS Explorer Build 900 - fortunately Jithen Singh has a good overview of it here: <a href="http://mandown.co.nz/esri/arcgis-explorer-build-900-showcased-at-the-esri-federal-user-conference-2009/">http://mandown.co.nz/esri/arcgis-explorer-build-900-showcased-at-the-esri-federal-user-conference-2009/</a><br /><br />As I arrived, I noted that there was a big focus being put on integration between ArcGIS and remote sensing imagery capability, specifically with ENVI and IDL: <a href="http://www.ittvis.com/ProductServices/ENVI.aspx">http://www.ittvis.com/ProductServices/ENVI.aspx</a>. Dan Zimble led into presentations showing some of this capability, particularly integration of IDL scripts with ModelBuilder<br /><br />Other highlights and demos:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vR6vReqIiwywX0vWPYzTbFvW6QlSPOSYHcLMvAMzWHJUdVO_PlkdGxjgWaFUwmADVEiLHMJl4qGbbxsTMW8xc6g2HC6oLvVIC0fh-5JLrrmFF8hqTnJiHYgTOftQCz-nEhPP/s1600-h/SolarBoston.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 136px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8vR6vReqIiwywX0vWPYzTbFvW6QlSPOSYHcLMvAMzWHJUdVO_PlkdGxjgWaFUwmADVEiLHMJl4qGbbxsTMW8xc6g2HC6oLvVIC0fh-5JLrrmFF8hqTnJiHYgTOftQCz-nEhPP/s200/SolarBoston.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304356574720413906" border="0" /></a><ul><li>Time Layer Animation</li><li>Keyless License Manager capability </li><li>Microsoft Virtual Earth data as a subscription service</li><li>APIs: Demonstration of ArcGIS Server Flex API via Solar Boston map: <a href="http://gis.cityofboston.gov/solarboston/">http://gis.cityofboston.gov/solarboston/</a></li></ul>In general, there seemed to be a big focus on themes mirroring very topical and current issues, particularly stimulus and infrastructure investment - in the case of Solar Boston, energy - another demonstrated "smart routing" for alternative-fuel vehicles, based on availability of CNG fuel.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgb9N0K1z2Rb7apQkwjOfUYFt_Td4OO3B66QvqvJgMqA2m26xdCskhYvMlNqfO-Nqk63bZOSU0Bkq-BZxzd3Gc24TYLff7anQCbzotYqhLgNLxA7UW3JCCKR_9v5AXhK6aat7/s1600-h/ChesBay.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 118px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTgb9N0K1z2Rb7apQkwjOfUYFt_Td4OO3B66QvqvJgMqA2m26xdCskhYvMlNqfO-Nqk63bZOSU0Bkq-BZxzd3Gc24TYLff7anQCbzotYqhLgNLxA7UW3JCCKR_9v5AXhK6aat7/s200/ChesBay.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304356413554131010" border="0" /></a>Relating to water issues, another demonstration featuring the Flex API was for the Chesapeake Bay Program: <a href="http://wdcb10.esri.com/cbprl/">http://wdcb10.esri.com/cbprl/</a><br /><br />This showed use of federated assets, such as USGS stream gauges, USEPA STORET water quality data, and so on, and provides many tools for assessment, management and best practices for improving water quality for the Chesapeake Bay.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4imwH5Cr5V1iMuYV3lICkp5bJVUmsg2YjfYCaxUoMWzOk4HjAaZdXFKFAZk-2EQfBPVQv57jo4tbCq_9Fkh4Mqj_u7MLuNrPcTWCCQYoGwzZVKJlIL_a6pbM7UcsmXtzTTet8/s1600-h/3D_DecisionSpace.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 131px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4imwH5Cr5V1iMuYV3lICkp5bJVUmsg2YjfYCaxUoMWzOk4HjAaZdXFKFAZk-2EQfBPVQv57jo4tbCq_9Fkh4Mqj_u7MLuNrPcTWCCQYoGwzZVKJlIL_a6pbM7UcsmXtzTTet8/s200/3D_DecisionSpace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304356902982574322" border="0" /></a>Colonel Alex Dornstauder of the US Army Corps of Engineers gave a good presentation on what USACE is doing relating to watersheds and water quality, using an approach of "3D decision space" and cross-agency "lenses". The approach utilized several different datasets and attributes with ModelBuilder to get a baseline assessment, which can then be utilized to in the target, with a collaborative vision to triage risk and prioritize investments to water quality.<br /><br />(3d Decision Space image gleaned from a related presentation by Col. Dornstauder: <a href="http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/ieug08/papers/watershed_dornstauder.pdf">http://gis.esri.com/library/userconf/ieug08/papers/watershed_dornstauder.pdf</a>)<br /><br />The Colonel closed with an excellent quote from George Washington, "<span style="font-style: italic;">Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair</span>"<br /><br />There was also discussion and demos of<br /><ul><li>Situational Awareness tools built on the Flex API in the code gallery (<a href="http://resources.esri.com/">http://resources.esri.com</a>)</li><li>ArcGIS Mobile SDK, with a demonstration, showing field data collection, domains, subtypes, dropdown list support.</li><li>3D and network analysis - modeling of movement within a building in 3d (pedestrian egress via stairs, et cetera) - 3D proximity analysis</li><li>There was discussion of food safety, with a case study of the Hawaii Food Safety Center</li><li>Economic security and urban growth</li><li>Demonstration of ordinary least squares analysis vs. geographically weighted regression</li></ul><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4G1Ay6YxZK1cBrjfTsptW1c-MCedrfhvKuS6Vl6rzEQJC1Eurqe8X0YtW3LRTm9hMi0wuZQWGSJ-cdZ2KRU1cumlQPVz8q7VPtrb27VM3MdAQf4iUS0aP0liOGGsUyxqiT0Ul/s1600-h/O'Malley.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 113px; height: 141px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4G1Ay6YxZK1cBrjfTsptW1c-MCedrfhvKuS6Vl6rzEQJC1Eurqe8X0YtW3LRTm9hMi0wuZQWGSJ-cdZ2KRU1cumlQPVz8q7VPtrb27VM3MdAQf4iUS0aP0liOGGsUyxqiT0Ul/s200/O'Malley.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304357404933895442" border="0" /></a>Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gave an excellent discussion, hitting many excellent notes - with many things that resonated: "can you show me my house" - which he tied in well in how "show me my house" repeatedly resonated in context of geography with the many case studies he presented. Other highlights "Maryland is ESRI Customer #008" -<br />He discussed trying to remedy many of the issues facing Baltimore, "hopeless & vacant hearts" and how CityStat <a href="http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/citistat/">http://www.baltimorecity.gov/government/citistat/</a> and iMap <a href="http://maps.baltimorecity.gov/imap/">http://maps.baltimorecity.gov/imap/</a> have provided far more performance-oriented approaches - he touched on how previously, information had been collected in such a way as to not make it to management in any meaningful way, with emphasis on measurement of inputs, but not of outputs and outcomes - and the new paradigm of viewing outcomes against the map, tells where challenges lie. These types of geospatial approaches allow relentless followup and assessment, and drive the effort to move the graphs in right direction, with improvements in city services, reductions in shootings and homicides, improved response times - cleaning out and boarding of vacant houses, mapping service problems and opportunities for daily review. "The map does not care if neighborhood is white/black, rich/poor, republican/democrat"<br /><br />As Governor now, he has taken this mapping-oriented and performance-oriented approach to the next level on a statewide level, with StateStat <a href="http://www.statestat.maryland.gov/">http://www.statestat.maryland.gov/</a> and BayStat <a href="http://www.baystat.maryland.gov/">http://www.baystat.maryland.gov/</a>, and GreenPrint, which provides an ecological assessment of every single parcel in Maryland, along with ecological measures being put in force: <a href="http://www.greenprint.maryland.gov/">http://www.greenprint.maryland.gov/</a> - and tie-in of stakeholders at all levels - "if it's not about the relationship, it's not about anything".<br /><br />Governor O'Malley left the audience with a Native American proverb, "<span style="font-style: italic;">how we treat one another is reflected in how we treat the earth</span>"<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx6AIysa29a75Vc1GzJxZJJIq_yTe6rmN7HlauKKytC_ryYq4BtWqY3jtxB4KqNVc-rISYMtEEkZMpzkFm_8RDcS2RC7BvpYnPHeduJe0e24jtx_wMRaPCgQvtKcTUG4o9HbOh/s1600-h/IMAGE_902.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx6AIysa29a75Vc1GzJxZJJIq_yTe6rmN7HlauKKytC_ryYq4BtWqY3jtxB4KqNVc-rISYMtEEkZMpzkFm_8RDcS2RC7BvpYnPHeduJe0e24jtx_wMRaPCgQvtKcTUG4o9HbOh/s200/IMAGE_902.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304357884938887618" border="0" /></a>I did visit the EXPO floor and looked at some of the maps - the floor was definitely quite crowded. By one account, there were 2800 registrants this year for the ESRI Federal User Conference.<br /><br />Some of the ESRI schwag:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9gtKdb-4BzFTa6pSTQYaXLUr9DHJnLNKtKq2vGk2NnoBzvdlbSYcI8gr3zERucZIeLc0DluJn8dsa34syq98xBHSwmg9fAiRYPShAqHNg4CqLbb4JcU9fnjV9h2xrOmgU8k0/s1600-h/IMAGE_899.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm9gtKdb-4BzFTa6pSTQYaXLUr9DHJnLNKtKq2vGk2NnoBzvdlbSYcI8gr3zERucZIeLc0DluJn8dsa34syq98xBHSwmg9fAiRYPShAqHNg4CqLbb4JcU9fnjV9h2xrOmgU8k0/s200/IMAGE_899.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304358171143534786" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMRu4cuT9buy7s2Z4Xliwsske7_6xP7FA5x5WBO64L8oB2gDwy6KtvSQ4U9NM9-hB278SvcxK0yOM-_QLXWCSznDEnJhrJC-IavdZSxwxfM-C4osaRi2KKIbvo0jnkGexRjZ4/s1600-h/IMAGE_903.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPMRu4cuT9buy7s2Z4Xliwsske7_6xP7FA5x5WBO64L8oB2gDwy6KtvSQ4U9NM9-hB278SvcxK0yOM-_QLXWCSznDEnJhrJC-IavdZSxwxfM-C4osaRi2KKIbvo0jnkGexRjZ4/s200/IMAGE_903.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5304358343170043346" border="0" /></a><br />(I don't think the DevSummit attendees will be getting ESRI umbrellas to go with their weather...)<br /><br />As <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/02/esri-federal-user-conference.html">posted previously</a>, I will try to live tweet more coverage tomorrow, using hashtag #feduc<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;" class="rss:item">If you are also attending and want to meet up, by all means, drop a line - dsmith (at) synergist-tech.com - while I have a few meetings, both inside, during FedUC, and a few outside meetings in the DC area next week, I will generally try to make FedUC my base of operations and will blog wherever conditions permit (if conference WiFi is available and/or my AT&T 3G service cooperates).<br /><br />Also, I will try to post updates from my phone and laptop via Twitter - <a href="http://twitter.com/DruidSmith">http://twitter.com/DruidSmith</a> using the hashtag #feduc - if others are attending, I'd suggest using #feduc as well, tools such as TweetGrid will be helpful for tracking twitter traffic in realtime - here's a sample 1x1 TweetGrid already set up for tracking #feduc: <a href="http://tweetgrid.com/grid?l=0&q1=%23feduc">http://tweetgrid.com/grid?l=0&q1=%23feduc</a></span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-87821742090919354192009-02-13T20:09:00.006-05:002009-02-13T21:26:04.912-05:00ESRI Federal User Conference<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwP-7fj9FuCq6pTfemV_lkmNQ8re9PY4mK6k3VTDqF2kQCtJukagY31Me207cbXJyG0Uioh_eDFicqconWN3WUC-E-gOoS4ZFJXFxJv40otH0LKBZKgpHBwSM7jWzUaQzz6xrc/s1600-h/logo_feduc09.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwP-7fj9FuCq6pTfemV_lkmNQ8re9PY4mK6k3VTDqF2kQCtJukagY31Me207cbXJyG0Uioh_eDFicqconWN3WUC-E-gOoS4ZFJXFxJv40otH0LKBZKgpHBwSM7jWzUaQzz6xrc/s200/logo_feduc09.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5302455495875259538" border="0" /></a>I'm planning on attending at least part of the <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/">ESRI Federal User Conference</a> next week - it's always good to get together with others working in the Federal community, to cross-pollinate ideas, talk, and see all the great things going on...<br /><br />The details, from: <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/">http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/</a><br /><br /><blockquote><h3>GIS: The Geographic Approach for the Nation</h3>Explore what geographic information system (GIS) technology can do for your agency at the largest geospatial conference dedicated to federal government. Whatever your GIS experience, the FedUC will give you the knowledge and resources you need to apply geography to problem solving, decision making, and accomplishing your missions. <p>Join other leaders, decision makers, and GIS professionals <b>February 18–20, 2009,</b> in <b>Washington, D.C.</b></p><p>February 18–20, 2009<br />Walter E. Washington Convention Center<br />Washington, D.C.</p><h3>Agenda-at-a-Glance</h3> <a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/docs/agenda09.pdf" target="_blank">2009 Agenda</a><span class="pdf"> [PDF]</span> <table style="width: 600px; height: 491px;" class="content" border="0"><tbody><tr> <td colspan="2"><h3>Wednesday, February 18</h3></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top" width="30%">9:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m.</td> <td valign="top" width="70%"><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/plenary.html">Plenary Session</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>2:30 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/welcome/keynote.html">Keynote Speaker</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>3:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/exhibits/expo_maps.html">GIS Solutions EXPO and Map Gallery Reception</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><h3>Thursday, February 19</h3></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="top">8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/concept_gis.html">Concepts of GIS Sessions</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/paper_sessions.html">Paper Sessions</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/tech_workshops.html">Technical Workshops</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>8:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/exhibits/expo_maps.html">Map Gallery</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>8:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/exhibits/learning_center.html">Hands-On Learning Center</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/exhibits/expo_maps.html">GIS Solutions EXPO</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>4:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/industry_focus.html">Industry Focus Session</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>5:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/activities/social.html">Thursday Night Social</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><h3>Friday, February 20</h3></td> </tr> <tr> <td>8:30 a.m.–noon</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/paper_sessions.html">Paper Sessions</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/tech_workshops.html">Technical Workshops</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><br /></td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/industry_focus.html">Industry Focus Sessions</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>9:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/user_group_mtgs.html">User Group Meetings</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td>Noon–2:00 p.m.</td> <td><a href="http://www.esri.com/events/feduc/sessions/closing.html">Closing Session</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><h3>Who Should Attend and Why</h3> <h3>Take the Geographic Approach</h3> <p>The FedUC is the ultimate resource when it comes to using geospatial technology in government. The conference offers presentations from technical and industry experts, valuable insight from your colleagues, and the latest solutions that fit your agency. Professionals across organizations are invited to discover effective and efficient ways to meet goals, overcome challenges, and address issues.</p> <h3>What You'll Experience</h3> <ul><li><b>Hear from Jack</b><br />Explore the future of GIS in government with ESRI president Jack Dangermond during the Plenary Session. Listen to him and a team of experts share what you can do with ArcGIS 9.3 in your organization. Plus, watch real-world demonstrations of ways government agencies are leveraging GIS.</li><li><b>Stay up-to-date</b><br />Learn about the newest ArcGIS tools and capabilities. Hear firsthand from ESRI staff, your peers, solution providers, and consultants as you attend paper sessions, technical workshops, and the GIS Solutions EXPO.</li><li><b>Network with your colleagues and ESRI staff</b><br />Build relationships with government and GIS professionals from both the public and private sectors as well as ESRI staff and business partners. Connect during sessions, exhibit times, and the evening reception.</li><li><b>Increase your knowledge of GIS</b><br />Discover more about how GIS works and what it can do for your team and agency. See ways GIS is being used—from data sharing to security to budget control. Attend presentations given by professionals from across the nation and learn about successful implementations, best practices, tips, and tricks.</li><li><b>Learn how to meet your agency’s needs</b><br />From compliance and accountability to visualizing patterns and trends, find out how taking the geographic approach improves your operations and decisions. Whether you work in federal, state, or local government, see how GIS can meet your organization’s unique needs.</li><li><b>Examine the most advanced technology</b><br />Experiment with state-of-the-art tools you can use right away. Learn about recent developments for geotechnologies in your fields, from hardware, software, and data solutions to innovative applications and services.</li><li><b>Get your questions answered</b><br />Pose your questions about GIS software, data, and implementation to ESRI staff members. Meet for a quick one-on-one discussion or set up a meeting to brainstorm and discuss project plans.</li></ul> <p><b>See geography in action.</b><br /></p></blockquote>If you are also attending and want to meet up, by all means, drop a line - dsmith (at) synergist-tech.com - while I have a few meetings, both inside, during FedUC, and a few outside meetings in the DC area next week, I will generally try to make FedUC my base of operations and will blog wherever conditions permit (if conference WiFi is available and/or my AT&T 3G service cooperates).<br /><br />Also, I will try to post updates from my phone and laptop via Twitter - <a href="http://twitter.com/DruidSmith">http://twitter.com/DruidSmith</a> using the hashtag #feduc - if others are attending, I'd suggest using #feduc as well, tools such as TweetGrid will be helpful for tracking twitter traffic in realtime - here's a sample 1x1 TweetGrid already set up for tracking #feduc: <a href="http://tweetgrid.com/grid?l=0&q1=%23feduc">http://tweetgrid.com/grid?l=0&q1=%23feduc</a><br /><br />I am hoping to catch the Plenary, and am hoping to see what discussion ensues relating to the passage of the <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/stimulus-and-infrastructure-planning.html">Stimulus bill</a>, <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/02/need-for-integrated-physical-and.html">infrastructure investment and planning</a> and <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/national-spatial-data-infrastructure-20.html">National Spatial Data Infrastructure</a> - I also hope to see old friends, and am looking forward to it...<div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-12474205895670810322009-02-07T15:13:00.013-05:002009-02-09T12:11:41.084-05:00NSDI for Democracy<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3lESEqKgD-Cwc6b603QwZAJsekIZsDK8ArETCFIg2gsWVc3PJyUnv7Fv4k15cdNuacrZbg3c9LBsAxTruXO2CTq9Qq5eLCmleozkGIzhPa7S8o-nCr3TZ_Pj7J5aXwPP29bZM/s1600-h/photo-Vivek_Kundra.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300152749480342786" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 120px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 160px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3lESEqKgD-Cwc6b603QwZAJsekIZsDK8ArETCFIg2gsWVc3PJyUnv7Fv4k15cdNuacrZbg3c9LBsAxTruXO2CTq9Qq5eLCmleozkGIzhPa7S8o-nCr3TZ_Pj7J5aXwPP29bZM/s200/photo-Vivek_Kundra.jpg" border="0" /></a>With <a href="http://fcw.com/articles/2009/02/05/kundra-to-be-named.aspx">news</a> of <a href="http://octo.dc.gov/octo/cwp/view,a,3,q,579512,octoNav,%7C32786%7C.asp">Vivek Kundra</a> joining the Obama administration to serve the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as their top IT visionary, it brings me great encouragement. Vivek Kundra has been serving as the <a href="http://octo.dc.gov/octo/site/default.asp">District of Columbia’s Chief Technology Officer</a>, and he recently created some excitement through his <a href="http://www.appsfordemocracy.org/">Apps for Democracy</a> initiative, where he pursued development of an <a href="http://data.octo.dc.gov/">“Open Data Catalog”</a> containing over 250 data assets of various flavors (e.g. XML, Text/CSV, KML, ATOM/GeoRSS and ESRI Shapefile formats), and then promoted a contest wrapped around the Open Data Catalog, for development of innovative mashup-oriented applications. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxiKajkVWNTYSlVstR5u9wbFkvgcbgYEJWuq2JEzrojS-xG2g8z5B6HsGsou4Pm53FDbahyrD89zBUuHm7EPxMW1Bcjds0gaftEmrBQNWfYwctO86nQdaB2Ie6Rj-9zhYKjKDG/s1600-h/apps-for-democracy-tm.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300152916482792162" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 41px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxiKajkVWNTYSlVstR5u9wbFkvgcbgYEJWuq2JEzrojS-xG2g8z5B6HsGsou4Pm53FDbahyrD89zBUuHm7EPxMW1Bcjds0gaftEmrBQNWfYwctO86nQdaB2Ie6Rj-9zhYKjKDG/s200/apps-for-democracy-tm.jpg" border="0" /></a>In just a short amount of time, 47 excellent applications were submitted, dealing with a broad range of topics and providing many innovative solutions, a <a href="http://octo.dc.gov/octo/site/default.asp?octoNav_GID=1634#slide">great success</a>.<br /><br /><div>So what is OMB all about – and what might Kundra’s joining OMB mean?<br />From Wikipedia, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_management_and_budget">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_management_and_budget</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLKy0QDcKP3cSNw1YdCW-kmXipwsWer4wiHo7SeTXsCZ43SPDXOGvTrmecUbWxgQhVhYvN-diW7h7ZtKPAz3iMaux53m8hI_pRevFIqVDeyvrEaJsAbuTLib21wrPkXxqYJ1qs/s1600-h/omb-seal-med.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300153215839091618" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLKy0QDcKP3cSNw1YdCW-kmXipwsWer4wiHo7SeTXsCZ43SPDXOGvTrmecUbWxgQhVhYvN-diW7h7ZtKPAz3iMaux53m8hI_pRevFIqVDeyvrEaJsAbuTLib21wrPkXxqYJ1qs/s200/omb-seal-med.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is a Cabinet-level office, and is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). It is an important conduit by which the White House oversees the activities of federal agencies. OMB is tasked with giving expert advice to senior White House officials on a range of topics relating to federal policy, management, legislative, regulatory, and budgetary issues. The bulk of OMB's 500 employees are charged with monitoring the adherence of their assigned federal programs to presidential policies. OMB performs its coordination role by gathering, filtering, and promulgating the President's annual budget request, by issuing bulletins, memoranda and circulars dictating agency management practices, by overseeing the "President's Management Agenda", and by reviewing agency regulations.</span></blockquote><br /></div><div>Executive oversight of federal agencies – via expert advice on federal policy, management, legislative, regulatory, and budgetary issues, to be implemented and monitored for adherence via the President’s Management Agenda. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">That’s quite powerful.</span></span> And under the Bush administration, OMB has already begun engaging in some basic monitoring activities relating to geospatial technology and investments, under the <a href="http://www.fgdc.gov/geospatial-lob">Geospatial Line of Business (GeoLoB)</a>.<br /><br /></div><div>So where do we go from here? And what does Kundra’s selection mean in this mix? Only Kundra really has the answer to this, at present - however I do believe that we can make some informed guesses as to what may be on his mind, based on his past track record and accomplishments. District of Columbia’s Open Data Catalog? Think in terms of doing this across all of Federal government. Strengthen and bolster the existing <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/a016/a016_rev.html">OMB A-16 mandate</a>, and drive publishing of open data. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">That certainly forms some excellent pieces of the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/national-spatial-data-infrastructure-20.html">National Spatial Data Infrastructure</a></span>. </span></div><div><br /></div><div>Foster partnership-building and collaboration, ala the Apps for Democracy effort. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZX1j7B8g9qec42oQBR14QQljr8Rq6YVDWEZ_6D5p8svEFgBIShnRZYZctRVsb-_f2unAIFhyLARgUrNVlJvVJ2Q9baa4bod0N3pXd4hqJOczcklOjsJXOlK_GfsSg_FYcTVo9/s1600-h/Forge_Mil.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300154447551527970" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 155px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZX1j7B8g9qec42oQBR14QQljr8Rq6YVDWEZ_6D5p8svEFgBIShnRZYZctRVsb-_f2unAIFhyLARgUrNVlJvVJ2Q9baa4bod0N3pXd4hqJOczcklOjsJXOlK_GfsSg_FYcTVo9/s200/Forge_Mil.jpg" border="0" /></a>Perhaps, on a cross-government level, we should also be looking at approaches such as <a href="http://fcw.com/articles/2009/01/30/dod-launches-site-to-develop-open-source-software.aspx">Forge.mil</a>, where agencies can collaborate and share GOTS technology investments, and work together to enhance and expand technology and capability, as opposed to continually reinventing the wheel.<br /><br /></div><div>Other things for Kundra to look at? Alignment of efforts across government. Currently USGS and EPA collaborate on efforts to build and densify hydrology data, as the National Hydrology Dataset (NHD), and are working with states to get this to a 1:4,800 level. Meanwhile, FEMA is developing DFIRMs for flood mapping, based on county and other types of data for stream centerlines. How do we align such things as linear referencing between USGS stream gauges and FEMA for looking at flooding issues? Coordinate between NOAA and NWS for realtime storm tracking, and have models available, using all best-possible data, toward stream flood prediction? What if a truck tumbles off of a bridge and ends up in a river, releasing hazardous waste into the river – is the information flow adequate to deal with hazardous waste cleanup even where that river crosses the border into the next state downstream? Pieces and parts of these types of things are starting to happen, but where they do, it is typically only in an ad-hoc, reactive fashion, with very limited coordination or common framework. Where does one thing end and the next begin? What are the gaps? Overlaps?<br /><br /></div><div>Or, consider a military convoy, heading across multiple states to an exercise. Due to an emergency bridge closure, they are diverted off of the main highway and onto local roads. They may be carrying sensitive and/or high value goods, such as weapons systems. Who knows? Who SHOULD know? Perhaps local bridge weight restrictions restrict their travel even further. How do we handle this in any coordinated fashion? Who’s doing what, and who’s able to supply what data to smoothly deal with these types of situations? Federal government places some mandates on states to collect roadway data, but again, <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/02/need-for-integrated-physical-and.html">is there any mechanism for establishing data capture, transparent access and flow</a>? What’s covered, and what isn’t? State-to-state, if there is a serious roadway closure issue just inside one state’s border, will the adjacent state know this and be able to notify motorists via VMS boards and other means?<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbgva6ch6C5FiuNKr8tQBfsZeZqXrSPrkLvc4scJqCNJWSqt1BH4HW7NCdgVeAzULtwZ0fFEW0kkwoHPFrJOo0ED3KtqdyHE1xwuVspLkE6rKgt3vT9KYLTqQIHHr6eYnwLz4F/s1600-h/edge_of_the_world2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300156826226061570" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 158px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbgva6ch6C5FiuNKr8tQBfsZeZqXrSPrkLvc4scJqCNJWSqt1BH4HW7NCdgVeAzULtwZ0fFEW0kkwoHPFrJOo0ED3KtqdyHE1xwuVspLkE6rKgt3vT9KYLTqQIHHr6eYnwLz4F/s200/edge_of_the_world2.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div>Although there are a few exceptions here and there, more often than not, the answer to these types of questions and scenarios is “no/had no idea/what am I supposed to do about it” accompanied by shrugs. Streams do not care about political boundaries, they only understand watersheds. Roads are networks. Cars and trucks do not just reach the <span class="Apple-style-span" style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Edge of the Knowne Worlde</span> and drift off into space when they cross the state line. Information access and flows must be able to bridge these gaps.<br /><br /></div><div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7BieO0-pGp21E1ce2vzmJfUJhIvYwXAupxg6vM9T5pfeiB92ef7R6-7foK2htwxv77EUVvbz2nHTGu6eizFnkJJnTkAee1TQv-Gz7V7cLVFOCXVLSTGt_ip5tUlAlgK1oSJj/s1600-h/light_bulb_gold.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300158578666744450" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 100px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK7BieO0-pGp21E1ce2vzmJfUJhIvYwXAupxg6vM9T5pfeiB92ef7R6-7foK2htwxv77EUVvbz2nHTGu6eizFnkJJnTkAee1TQv-Gz7V7cLVFOCXVLSTGt_ip5tUlAlgK1oSJj/s200/light_bulb_gold.jpg" border="0" /></a>It’s pretty much a given that 90% of most business processes in Federal government touch on or deal with location in some form or fashion. Where are assets, where are people, who’s being served, and so on. Through implementation of best practices and through making data access and exchange more timely, transparent, and complete, through better alignment of technology investments and reduction of gaps and overlaps, these *shrug* moments start to vanish, and the *AHA* moments start to happen. I am hoping that Mr. Kundra is thinking the same way. If what lies ahead of us is anything like his efforts to date, we indeed have a bright future ahead of us. </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-29485186527669271912009-02-01T23:09:00.011-05:002009-02-02T14:31:13.473-05:00The Need for Integrated Physical and Information Infrastructure<p class="MsoNormal">As pressures of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">economics and tightening budgets</span>, <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">increasing population and infrastructure demands</span>, and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">limited resources</span> continue to confront states, municipalities, and the nation as a whole, some harsh realities begin to emerge, of how much we can actually, pragmatically accomplish.</p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">As just one example of this, studies of number of vehicle lane miles traveled, compared to number of vehicle lane miles constructed and maintained shows a clear divergence, and sends the message that demand by far has been outstripping supply:<br /></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKnLXKJA1DY6AHW5Eic3raEl59Cbj87z2iwXR44efaEIn9pCvuaM01ElZafb7S4NMgmjOpAz1-BZ7wRYCGgs9nwrj6E9BuXZLEybakU808pd55wiGLwtIsI1KIxBQM6kCranV/s1600-h/VMT_LM.gif"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 291px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKnLXKJA1DY6AHW5Eic3raEl59Cbj87z2iwXR44efaEIn9pCvuaM01ElZafb7S4NMgmjOpAz1-BZ7wRYCGgs9nwrj6E9BuXZLEybakU808pd55wiGLwtIsI1KIxBQM6kCranV/s400/VMT_LM.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298048339237636434" /></a><p class="MsoNormal">One solution to this would be to just try and keep building roads everywhere – however this is a simplistic, and ultimately unsustainable solution.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Certainly, we DO need to stabilize current infrastructure and address some critical physical issues of capacity bottlenecks, and in some instances we do need to improve circulation and flow in existing transportation networks.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But we also need to change our thinking, in terms of how we assess, monitor and manage traffic and congestion.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun:yes">Here, approaches such as use of <a href="http://www.its.dot.gov/index.htm">Intelligent Transportation Systems</a> can provide better visibility into traffic issues and offer solutions toward better management of the transportation network.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjAsdAGtXFYW41SFG7lJOe2Wv-Gv21bHkHo2UUd6iLzOmf768VHLNir9VKHiIC0jxkrCbAsoKG44d_MUayWmVGB8oD6RJs9VlrURdLykEC1mphfRgjMXIJoXs0vnIVt6HxCIH/s1600-h/HighwayCongestion2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 323px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOjAsdAGtXFYW41SFG7lJOe2Wv-Gv21bHkHo2UUd6iLzOmf768VHLNir9VKHiIC0jxkrCbAsoKG44d_MUayWmVGB8oD6RJs9VlrURdLykEC1mphfRgjMXIJoXs0vnIVt6HxCIH/s400/HighwayCongestion2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298055899321766786" /></a>Via any number of technologies, such as embedded sensors, cameras, on-board systems and GPS, message boards and other forms of providing traffic advisory data, and hazards monitoring, traffic crises can be averted, congestion can be managed, and traffic rerouted to make optimal use of existing transportation networks.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The use cases for embedded technology are numerous – while repairing or replacing our crumbling bridges, we can consider technologies to monitor bridge decks for icing conditions, and so on.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>We can utilize available traffic data along with spatial, temporal and predictive analysis, e.g. virtual origin-destination studies and other approaches to recognize patterns and trends, toward avoiding traffic jams or even conditions which may be prone to promoting accidents.</p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">As another example, decades of poor, unsustainable planning, zoning, and land development practices have promoted suburban sprawl, pedestrian-unfriendly areas, dependence on cars for even the most mundane of errands, particularly as residential and commercial areas have become separated from each other in artificial models.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In some areas, this has been recognized, as we see a return in some locales to “town center” concepts, where residents can find amenities within walking distance.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here again, proper tools and geospatial data are required by planners to correct these planning paradigms on a macro scale to recognize these bedroom community relationships, as well as on a micro scale, for example to best maximize pedestrian travel and optimize these local networks.</p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Additionally, we need to continue to promote mass transit options, aligned to serve core needs – commuters, shopping, and similar needs, based on observation of current traffic flows.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>If mass transit becomes enough of a convenience factor, it will continue to be utilized.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Similarly, other mass-transit-related infrastructure needs to be examined.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here, spatial and temporal analysis of the network can reap great benefit toward maximizing mass transit networks and flows, their alignment to need (supply and demand for transit) and their efficiency. </p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsci2QMVO7JjqA0AMnUPBpEwT5Ua8kxYj5r0IVOyxPQgJ-9rJg4Fac-aoaB1a3E_FF0hMy3OvXtPvAsYcgRWzpGYQ6PkwmgdLSEIFkKHkoVQVMmRLnKJm1HkaKNiQsnkhR-4K/s1600-h/MetroLogo.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 81px; height: 104px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsci2QMVO7JjqA0AMnUPBpEwT5Ua8kxYj5r0IVOyxPQgJ-9rJg4Fac-aoaB1a3E_FF0hMy3OvXtPvAsYcgRWzpGYQ6PkwmgdLSEIFkKHkoVQVMmRLnKJm1HkaKNiQsnkhR-4K/s200/MetroLogo.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5298058733117334530" /></a>These types of solutions are in need all around us - for example, as a regular visitor to the Washington, DC area, I often use their otherwise-excellent <a href="http://www.wmata.com/">WMATA Metro system</a> – however many demand issues and patterns rapidly become evident to even the casual eye– in out-lying areas served by the Metro, most of the parking lots and garages fill immediately in the AM and become deserted after work hours – a sign that commuters from outlying areas.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>To anyone arriving at, say, 10AM, there’s a good likelihood that some of these parking facilities will be long filled, forcing potential users to travel further before being able to avail themselves of mass transit.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Here again, in even just expanding parking capacity, exists opportunity lost to get traffic off of the streets.</p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Even these types of things relating to commuting via Metro can also tie into Intelligent Transportation Systems, by providing parking advisories (e.g. saving commuters the grief of trying to find a space in a particular lot when parking may already be full) or by advising pedestrians right at street-level when the next train is arriving or of capacity issues (particularly when it may actually be worthwhile to just walk a few blocks to a different station); or by allowing better means of assessing travel options via web and/or location-aware mobile devices. Here, geospatial approaches can even allow users to get custom travel directions and planning via walking, mass transit, or for handicapped persons, routing via ADA curb cuts, avoidance of stairs, steep inclines, and other useful information toward ensuring safe and reasonable travel, even delivered directly to their phone or other mobile devices.</p><br /><br /><p class="MsoNormal">With <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/stimulus-and-infrastructure-planning.html">HR1 and discussion of massive infrastructure investments on the horizon</a>, we strongly need to consider an <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/national-spatial-data-infrastructure-20.html">integrated strategy</a> and investment for integrated data and analysis, to include remote sensing, geospatial, temporal and others -<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>to go hand-in-hand with hard, bricks-and-mortar infrastructure investments – such that we may better manage the assets.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And yes, this could be done independently in dozens of disparate efforts, but would be best leveraged through discourse and technical coordination and information sharing on a broader scale to leverage planning capabilities, modeling, and much more; again, it points up the need for a national vision and strategy for spatial data infrastructure.</p><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">If we are going to do this at all, we need to get it right.</span></span></p><br /><p class="MsoNormal">While efforts remain local, we need a paradigm shift on many levels- to think beyond our traditional project-by-project approach, and think on a bigger level, to integrate IT into our planning process, as well as integrating it directly into our bricks-and-mortar infrastructure investments, and to better coordinate and leverage investments and efforts to provide this long-term benefit.</p>< ><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-79999853054492511402009-02-01T00:43:00.009-05:002009-02-01T16:25:24.854-05:00Landscape of National GIS...In considering the current state of geospatial data in the nation, it runs the gamut. A substantial amount of data is collected and developed at the local level. Some is collected and developed at the state and federal level, some by tribes, some by academia, some by non-profits, and some by private sector. Some of this data is generated on a regular basis, as part of an established program; some is purely on an ad-hoc basis. Some is mandated, such as some of the data collected on environmental data through the <a href="http://www.exchangenetwork.net/">National Environmental Information Exchange Network</a>, some is collected, purely incidental to other activities.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqqQYkaFiJBaxMHld_dz4T06qTnPemLoiK2IEpdKahYVOdkmzETjEcg4wjmsDcRWh1uHBz1RvI4UhdRFRMVOxXqGJv4BSmrXIFq48_iqMnvuLjiBI1loRyhOCeRJxdM_tSdUR/s1600-h/Patchwork1.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCqqQYkaFiJBaxMHld_dz4T06qTnPemLoiK2IEpdKahYVOdkmzETjEcg4wjmsDcRWh1uHBz1RvI4UhdRFRMVOxXqGJv4BSmrXIFq48_iqMnvuLjiBI1loRyhOCeRJxdM_tSdUR/s320/Patchwork1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297701049321418466" /></a>Some datasets exist on a national basis, some do not. And all throughout, there are myriad overlapping use cases, which may additionally place differing requirements on datasets. For example, in some cases, a roadway GIS dataset may be geared to roadway maintenance needs; in others, toward network and traffic analysis. In some cases, the requirements, dataset characteristics and attributes can converge and be accommodated in a single dataset. In others, they may not be able to converge, but the needed datasets can be developed by means of value-added attributes or joins. In some cases, derivative data is required. In many cases, there is tremendous need for consistency and authoritative datasets.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrVoK0o77ckGKw8JbLK9ZLVpKWakjkDWgpgPmRgw7mngJWsLFkTBn4AvNYYn0XRp5CzGsfxJTHZabUcNDFJxVyyOt-zAsAzFeR5arRzj9nz9FqFvKUrT7jrbC5sTT69gh_hbQD/s1600-h/Patchwork2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 175px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrVoK0o77ckGKw8JbLK9ZLVpKWakjkDWgpgPmRgw7mngJWsLFkTBn4AvNYYn0XRp5CzGsfxJTHZabUcNDFJxVyyOt-zAsAzFeR5arRzj9nz9FqFvKUrT7jrbC5sTT69gh_hbQD/s320/Patchwork2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297701206991771362" /></a>The landscape that quickly begins to emerge is one which is a patchwork, full of seams, overlaps, disjoints, gaps and disconnects- but- also one <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">which holds much potential</span></span> for leveraging disparate investments, and providing economies of scale, along with increasing richness of data, increased update frequency, increased accuracy and completeness.<br /><br />How can these gaps and disjoints be bridged? Through a framework, forum and national dialogue, bringing together stakeholders at all levels – federal, state, local, tribal, academia, non-profit, and industry; through partnerships; through collaboration - organizations like <a href="http://www.nsgic.org/">NSGIC</a>, like Federal and other agency GIS workgroups, like <a href="http://www.cuahsi.org/">CUAHSI</a> and many others. This is what holds a <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/national-spatial-data-infrastructure-20.html">National Spatial Data Infrastructure</a> together and brings success. <div><br /></div><div>The first step is in considering the concept.</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">Act Locally, Think Globally.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
target=_blank><FONT size=1><I><B>Surveying, Mapping and GIS Blog</B>
</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18725424.post-86919535342317828772009-01-31T10:32:00.008-05:002009-01-31T11:20:46.851-05:00Stimulus and Infrastructure Planning<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFvd53SImUV6kZyJQjWIlPosET1fxE4zDgRHHFW74WNcOg-3EeO4Z4oNR5GfEbCPe8YBVv2fCcnkFxepMLoKJI9YVcXh_kngKfjig6K1cy-MlNRiT43w1MoJ7fwZLOpPaA2rY/s1600-h/capitol.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 189px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGFvd53SImUV6kZyJQjWIlPosET1fxE4zDgRHHFW74WNcOg-3EeO4Z4oNR5GfEbCPe8YBVv2fCcnkFxepMLoKJI9YVcXh_kngKfjig6K1cy-MlNRiT43w1MoJ7fwZLOpPaA2rY/s320/capitol.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297487061634552834" /></a>With considerable debate and controversy, HR 1, the Stimulus bill has passed in the House of Representatives and has moved on to the Senate for additional debate and deliberation.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:h.r.00001:">Current Bill Status</a><br /><div><br /></div><div>The full HR 1 text and various summaries are posted below:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/111_hr1_text.pdf" target="_blank">The House Bill, HR 1</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/PressSummary01-21-09.pdf" target="_blank">Summary of Spending</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://waysandmeans.house.gov/MoreInfo.asp?section=50" target="_blank">Summary of Tax Cuts</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/99xx/doc9968/hr1.pdf" target="_blank">Congressional Budget Office report, 1/26/09</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?p=1660" target="_blank">Summaries of the bill posted on the speaker’s Web site.</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.rules.house.gov/amendment_details.aspx?NewsID=4133" target="_blank">Proposed Amendments</a><br /></li></ul><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">(note: these may change as HR 1 works its way through the Senate)</span></div><div><br /></div>Additional Supporting Documentation:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2009/index.htm" target="_blank">ASCE Report Card on US Infrastructure</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://transportation.house.gov/Media/File/Full%20Committee/Stimulus/HR%201%20Infrastructure%20Investment%20Tables.pdf" target="_blank">State-by-state Transporation Infrastructure breakdown</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.newamerica.net/education_budget_project/#example1-1" target="_blank">New America Foundation Summary of Educational Needs</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/2009StimulusLeasfinal.pdf" target="_blank">Schools Spending Plan</a><br /></li><li><a href="http://www.cbpp.org/1-22-09bud.pdf" target="_blank">State-by-state breakdown of low-income programs by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities</a><br /></li></ul><div>There are also a few additional sites discussing the Stimulus, such as the GOP-driven <a href="http://readthestimulus.org/">http://readthestimulus.org/</a> which nonetheless provide useful resources.</div><div><br /></div>Within the Stimulus bill, there are a number of investments proposed, e.g. transportation funding, mass transit, broadband infrastructure and much more.<br /><br />Question is, how do we intend to properly assess, triage and plan how and where best, geographically, to make these investments to provide maximal benefit without spatial data on a national level? How can these investments be expended without an adequately informed decisionmaking process?<br /><br />This need points toward <a href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/2009/01/national-spatial-data-infrastructure-20.html">NSDI</a>, <a href="http://nationalmap.gov/">the National Map</a> and the related pieces that serve it, and a core need for geospatial data and analysis, which should be an integral part of any of these planning and investment processes, as well as embedding geo-enabled technologies within the investments themselves.</div><div><br /></div><div>Investment in infrastructure without <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">also</span> investing in the underlying planning process and supporting data and decisionmaking tools represents tremendous opportunity lost, in terms of making adequately informed decisions, leveraging efforts, and properly targeting infrastructure improvements to where they provide the greatest good to the American people as a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><A href="http://surveying-mapping-gis.blogspot.com/"
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</I></FONT></A></div>Dave Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12289664763849295219noreply@blogger.com1