Action items.
Action 1: Please contact Milo Robinson (mrobinson@fgdc.gov) if you are interested in participating on the ROADIS Team.
Action 2: Milo will ask Sharon Shin if the items discussed today could be rolled into the Terms of Reference document for definition.
Action 3: Census, USGS, and FEMA should begin to document their data using the geospatial investments table.
Action 4: Milo will send out the definitions from the Table for Aligning Geospatial Investments for comments.
Action 5: Please provide Julie with edits for the FGDC Policy to Endorse External Standards.
Action 6: There is consensus on the value of the FGDC Policy to Endorse External Standards but it needs to be wordsmithed. FGDC endorsed the general approach and additional comments will be needed.
Action 7: Get in touch with Mike Domaratz (mdomarat@usgs.gov) if you would like to join the Homeland Security Working Group and work on the issue of public accessibility of data.
Action 8: Shell Sutton will email a soft copy of the TIGER Team questionnaire to the Coordination Group.
Host: Michael Sherman, NCPC
Attendees:
Milo Robinson, FGDC
Alison Kiernan, FGDC
Shelby Johnson, AGIO
John Clark, GSA
Charles Roswell, NIMA
Mark Bradford, BTS/DOT
Carol Brandt, USDOT/BTS
Myra Bambacus, NASA
Richard Pearsall, USGS
Julie Binder Maitra, FGDC
Norman C. Andersen, INCITS L1
Fred Broome, Census
Wendy Blake-Coleman, EPA
David Morhouse, DOE
Susan Hargrove, DOE
April Avnayim, Census
Anne O’Connor, Census
Shawn Silkenson, LMCO
George Percival, NASA/GST
John Evans, NASA/GST
Billy Tolar, USGS/National Atlas
Shel Sutton, MITRE/NIMA
David Stein, NOAA
Andrea Petro, OMB
Jason Freheige, OMB
Chuck Croner, CDC
Sam Bacharach, OGC
Mark Beichardt, OGC
Rick Yorczyk, NOAA
Kim Burns, ESRI
Bonnie Gallahan, FGDC
Hank Garie, GOS
Michael Domaratz, USGS
Jeff de La Beaujardiere, NASA
Rob Dollison, ORKAND/GOS
Chris Clarke, NRCS/USDA
Ed McKay, NOAA/NGS (retired)
Sherry Konigsberg, BLS
Jack E. Huntley, USACE
Barry Napier, FEMA/IGPT
Betsy Banas, USFS
Steve Slack, USFS
Robin Fegeas, USGS
Ann Sulkovsky, DHS
David Painter, FGDC
Leslie Wollack, GOS/NASA
Stan Ponce, USGS
Molly Singer, ICMA
Michelle Torreano, EPA
Theodore Hull, NARA
Shane Dettman, NCPC
On the Phone
Anne Miglarese, NOAA
Ivan DeLoatch, FGDC
Welcome – Milo Robinson, FGDC
Milo thanked the National Capital Planning Commission for hosting the meeting.
Geospatial Information Technology Association (GITA) is proposing that a Team visit Japan for the purpose of exchanging information with the Road Administrative Information System or ROADIS that provides the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 11 designated cities, and the utility companies responsible for gas, telephone, cable, electric, water, sewer, and subway train services with up-to-date and highly accurate information for managing and protecting infrastructure. The trip is in conjunction with the GITA – Japan Conference in November of 2003. It is estimated that will be cost approximately $2,500 for each Team member.
Action 1: Please contact Milo Robinson mrobinson@fgdc.gov if you are interested in participating on the Team.
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has asked agencies how much money they are spending on GIS software. If your agency has not yet received this survey, please be aware that it is being circulated.
The Open GIS Consortium (OGC) will be hosting an Emerging Technology Summit on June 5-6 in Tyson’s Corner, VA with speakers including Tim Berners-Lee, who is credited with the creation of the World Wide Web, and Gov. Jim Geringer. For more information visit: http://www.gita.org/events/ets/web_services/open.html
FCC Data Holdings – Don Campbell, FCC
Don Campbell works in the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology. His office creates maps detailing the extent of terrestrial, space, and broadcast services. These files have documentation and are available for download. In some situations the FCC does not have PCS towers listed, because anything over 200 feet must be registered with the FCC and therefore many towers are built just under that height. FCC does not have the locations of wireline facilities. FCC regulates all non-federal use of the radio spectrum because they cross State lines.
Q: How do PCS’s deal with 911 calls?
A: The PCS sends the operator the coordinates of the caller. The PCS phones transmit geospositional information to the 911 PCs.
Please contact Don Campell with any questions (Donald.Campbell@fcc.gov).
[ PPT 236 KB ]
Aligning Geospatial Investments – Milo Robinson, FGDC and Jason Freihage, OMB
An ad-hoc group reviewing geospatial investments has developed a table to identify where agencies have been making geospatial expenditures. Milo has circulated the table to the Coordination Group members for comments.
Q: What do the definitions on the table mean? For example: Data Acquisition, Data Integration, Data Archive, and Data Dissemination.
This table is meant to be a useful tool. It may be helpful for partnerships to be included in the definition for Data Acquisition. It was hoped that it could be kept to the four categories of data ownership, but perhaps we also need Data Reporting as a category. Some agencies, such as FCC, don’t have a Data Archive because the data is live/real-time.
The table allows you to put a cost on your data and show how valuable it is to you. Data derives meaning from analysis. Under the Data Collection bin – more and more data will come from State and locals in the future. We need more clarity on whether the data is off the shelf or a product of individual data collection. Both categories should fit in the Data Collection bin. Data Access includes maintaining servers to keep data available.
This will be used as a planning tool to show how data is being managed and accessed, as well as a tool to open communications with OMB so they understand what we are buying. This information could be integrated more in the Annual Report. The Geospatial One Stop will focus more on long-term data buys.
Q: EPA has millions of facilities that they don’t have lat/longs for. How do you get the locations that aren’t reported?
We need to come up with clear definitions that define the internal components of what we do. We also need clearer definitions for Module 3 regarding Data Acquisitions.
Sharon Shin is working on a Terms of Reference document.
Action 2: Milo will ask Sharon Shin if the items discussed today could be rolled into the Terms of Reference document for definition.
Action 3: Census, USGS, and FEMA should begin to document their data using the table.
Action 4: Milo will send out the definitions from the Table for Aligning Geospatial Investments for comments.
URISA Give and Take Summit – Kathy Covert, FGDC
The URISA Give and Take Summit will be held on May 21 at Jury’s Washington Hotel on Dupont Circle. It will help determine how all the geospatial programs fit together. For more information please visit: http://www.urisa.org/Summit.htm
FGDC Policy to Endorse External Standards – Julie Binder Maitra, FGDC
The objective of this policy is to provide a mechanism for FGDC to endorse or recommend non-Federal standards. Nothing in the policy will supercede the authority of an agency or organization.
Standards Categories: FGDC Standards; FIPS; American National Standards (ANSI); International Organization for Standardization (ISO); Consortium developed specifications; and other standards – those that don’t fall in the previously defined categories.
External standards must be reviewed through a standards process.
Comment: The document doesn’t flow and needs a wordsmithing job before it hits the street.
Action 5: Please provide Julie with edits for the FGDC Policy to Endorse External Standards.
Common standards are necessary to promote the NSDI and this policy is hoping to bring the Federal community around to using common standards through a formalized process. The intent is not to encourage agencies to accept standards as architecture. The Policy is not designed to be anything more than a mechanism that the FGDC can use to accept standards that the Federal government must abide by. It is a mechanism to bring in non-Federal standards that are of use to the Feds. We don’t want to be duplicative.
Action 6: There is consensus on the value of FGDC Policy to Endorse External Standards but it needs to be wordsmithed. FGDC endorsed the general approach and additional comments will be needed.
[ PPT 518KB ]
Public Accessibility of Data – Mike Domaratz, USGS
The FGDC Homeland Security Working Group is working on Principles and Guidance for the Evaluation of Homeland Security Implications of Public Access to Geospatial Data. The group will evaluate the need to reduce or eliminate public access to specific geospatial data for Homeland Security reasons. They plan to look at the costs and benefits of public access; provide criteria regarding the sensitivity of a particular data holding; and look to balance security concerns and public information access.
Mike Domaratz will work with Hank Garie to get States and locals involved in this discussion. The library community is also a big part of this issue and should be involved in the discussion.
Comment: Free access to information is an important part of our country and we need to fight for freedom of information.
Action 7: Get in touch with Mike Domaratz (mdomarat@usgs.gov) if you would like to join the Homeland Security Working Group and work on the issue of public accessibility of data.
NSGIC Perspective – Shelby Johnson, AGIO
NSGIC is happy to have a voice within FGDC. NSGIC is beginning to reach out and understand where they fit in the world. NSGIC is coordinating GIS data and policy. At the mid-year meeting in Denver, NSGIC created a State Model for Coordination to characterize States that have successful geospatial data programs and determine common characteristics for success. It was found that governors who have State GIS Coordinators tend to be more effective. The NSGIC Annual Conference will be in Nashville from September 15-18. To register: https://www.amrinc.net/nsgic/secure/2003annual.cfm
Comment: NSGIC is not stepping up with a resolution endorsing the Geospatial One Stop (GOS) Standards and Portal. NSGIC could come up with a policy to use these standards.
Reply: NSGIC is just realizing that they have influence on the GOS. And NSGIC does participate with the Standards Working Group.
GIRM Presentation – Myra Bambacus & John Evans, NASA
The Geospatial Applications and Interoperability (GAI) Working Group was chartered to develop and maintain a reference model to support development and interoperability of systems providing data and services. The Geospatial Interoperability Reference Model (GIRM) is not a standard, policy or mandate, but is a tool to enable geospatial interoperability. The GIRM draft was released for public comment at is available at: http://gai.fgdc.gov/girm/
The group partitioned the “standards space” into features, coverages, maps, metadata, reference systems, and services.
Purpose and benefits of the GIRM:
- Hyperlinks to open interface standards
- Fits technologies and applications into a “big picture”
- Guides software development
- Curriculum design; marketing and advocacy; etc.
- Informs technology decisions
Scope:
- Focused on interoperability among systems and services
- “Open” specifications defined and maintained by broad voluntary consensus
- Mature specifications (adopted or near final)
- “A tool, not a rule”
Q: After the collection of comments on the GIRM, does the person who made a comment get feedback?
A: They are in the process of getting comments back to people.
In the next month or two the GIRM will be posted to the GAI Working Group site as a proposed reference model.
[ PPT 235KB ]
Discussion/Wrap Up
The NIMA National Center for Geospatial Intelligence Standards has a TIGER Team that has a questionnaire that agencies are welcome to fill out. The final report is due in August.
Action 8: Shell Sutton will email a soft copy of the TIGER Team questionnaire to the Coordination Group.
The public review for the Address Data Content Standard is underway and will go through July 31. For more information on participating in the review please go to www.fgdc.gov.
Next Coordination Group meeting:
June 3, 2003
Hosted by FCC at their office on 12th & D Sts.
(An agenda with location info will be forwarded in late May)