Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 CGIA Awards!

CGIA annually recognizes outstanding achievements in various aspects of GIS within California through its awards program. Nominations are being accepted online now through February 27, 2010. The awards will be presented at the 2010 CalGIS Conference in Huntington Beach, April 18 - 21, 2010. For more details on award categories and a link to the online Nomination Form, see our CGIA Awards page.

2010 ESRI California/Hawaii/Nevada Regional User Group Conference:
GIS - Designing Our Future
February 3-4, 2010, Redlands, CA

The CA/HI/NV RUG Conference is a great way to maximize the opportunities geospatial technology holds for your organization. You will learn what’s new in ArcGIS software, collaborate with other GIS users, and connect with ESRI staff. The preconference workshops, technical sessions, and informative user presentations will help you launch and grow successful GIS projects.

Who Should Attend? Professionals from California, Hawaii, Nevada, and the Pacific Islands are encouraged to attend, whatever your industry, position, or level of experience with GIS.

Why Attend? See how to make the most of your GIS. Hear about GIS best practices, insight, and new strategies from the real world. Get updated on the latest GIS software. Go to presentations, demonstrations, and workshops focused on your most pressing needs. Pose questions to your peers and ESRI staff and meet with ESRI business partners.

We look forward to having you with us in Redlands. Follow conference information and announcements at http://www.esri.com/cahinvrug.

It's Time to Sign Up for the Next North Bay GIS User Group Meeting!
Feb. 10, 2010 from 9am-noon at the DHS Conference Center, Santa Rosa

We have two exciting presentations for this month’s meeting:

• GIS Applications from the Geysers Geothermal Field, Sonoma and Lake Counties, California by Mike Lane, GIS Specialist, EGS Inc.
• Think Globally, Act Regionally: GIS for Regional Planning in Portland, Oregon and the SF Bay Area by Bruce Maxwell, Architect and GIS certificate holder

Food donations are welcome. Coffee, tea & water will be served. Register for the meeting

Also check out the User Group’s Yahoo Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/northbaygis/

CalGIS 2010: 16th Annual California GIS Conference - April 18-21, 2010
Hyatt Huntington Beach, Huntington Beach, California

Every year, the four URISA chapters in California come together to present the CalGIS Conference, now in its 16th year. CalGIS is the place to be to learn about the Best in California GIS. A comprehensive educational program (for beginners and advanced professionals), networking events and an exhibit hall are all featured at CalGIS. Keynote speakers are:

• James Fee, GISP, Evangelist for WeoGeo
• Michael Byrne, GISP,  the State of California's Geographic Information Officer (GIO)

For more information or to register, visit the CalGIS website.

California Selects GIS as One of the Six Key Enterprise IT Strategies
By Michael Byrne, Geospatial Information Officer, State of California

California is the ninth largest economy in the world, the largest agricultural producer in the United States, one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet, and a leader in science and technology innovation. It is the nation's most populous state and is also home to floods, fires, and earthquakes. It covers more than 160,000 square miles and has temperate rainforests, deserts, mountains, and a spectacular coast. Recently, I was flying from San Diego in Southern California to San Jose (about halfway up the state) with a colleague from another state, and as we landed, he turned to me and said, "This is a big place."

California is indeed a big place, and its state government similarly needs solutions fitting its size and range of issues. In February 2009, State Chief Information Officer (CIO) Teri Takai released the State Information Technology Capital Plan. This plan outlines the solutions the state will invest in over the coming years. The plan aligns these solutions along business-driven priorities, maps them across the state's IT strategic goals, and subsequently identifies opportunities for collaboration.

In October 2008, the California Natural Resources Agency and ESRI developed the Web-based Flex Viewer application to support Golden Guardian. This allows streaming of services and using mobile devices. New and enhanced map services will serve high-resolution urban area imagery.
In the 2009 report, the CIO identified six of these opportunities: geographic information systems, business intelligence, transaction processing, enterprise content management, customer relationship management, and case management. What this effort really identifies is a set of unifying business examples that can be leveraged across agencies for increased economies of scale in technology service delivery. The fact that one of the technologies is GIS points to just how important GIS is as a solution for California needs. We need solutions that can tackle the large policy issues we face in this diverse state, and few technologies get us there—but GIS does.

Of the 39 state departments identifying capital investments in information technology in this plan, 10 of them are projecting investment in GIS technologies. These departments are diverse. California Emergency Management Agency, Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Department of Public Health, and State Water Resources Control Board are all planning on capital investments in GIS. The capital plan really gives the Office of the State Chief Information Officer the chance to analyze common business needs across departments and look for opportunities to align these investments. For instance, if we see a common thread of data, technology, or human resources need in these investments, we can allow partnerships to grow from these plans whereby infrastructure development or data can be shared. This collaborative approach allows us to save money, be more effective, and give the business units the best value gained.

So where has California succeeded to date in this approach? Two projects in particular are notable. Both housed at the California Natural Resources Agency, the CalAtlas effort and the Common Operating Picture effort have been very successful by identifying common need for collaboration across agencies.

CalAtlas (www.atlas.ca.gov) is the California central repository for geospatial data. CalAtlas embodies Web 2.0 technology and provides a framework for GIS data sharing. Users must first register. They then have the ability to catalog data they steward, push data for download at CalAtlas, develop services to be accessed, and publish basic maps. The real success of CalAtlas is that it is open and free to end users, which limits the need for duplicating publication infrastructure about spatial data in the state. Those agencies already with advanced infrastructures can use the services, as well as those with emerging GIS use. CalAtlas now has more than 11,000 registered datasets described and an estimated 200 terabytes of data to download. This data adds to the state's collective knowledge.

The second effort, the Common Operating Picture (COP), was born out of the collaboration required during the response to the 2007 firestorm. During that event, literally thousands of wildland fires were raging in California at one time. Through partnerships with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the California Emergency Management Agency, the Natural Resources Agency, and ESRI, the idea for the COP was born. The COP is a view of common geospatial data in California to be used for situational awareness. It contains common base, infrastructure, and critical asset type data, which is important for a common understanding of large-event response. Built on ESRI Flex Viewer technology, the COP was tested during the Golden Guardian exercise of fall 2008. Golden Guardian is a test of the emergency response community, in partnership with U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and others, usually held every other year in California. In 2008, the three-day exercise simulated a 7.8 earthquake along the San Andreas fault running from the Salton Sea to Los Angeles. During this exercise, many Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) around the state used the COP to view the spatial data. This collaborative approach allows us to assess large problems with an economy of scale that is most effective.

We don't plan on stopping there. The Office of the State Chief Information Officer has just released a comprehensive data strategy for the state. As an offshoot of one of the six strategic concepts (see www.itsp.ca.gov/Facing_the_Future/Strategic_Concepts/ default.asp), managing data as an asset is essential to more effective and efficient state government. The strategy identifies a common data approach to all data managed in state coffers. The data strategy identifies geographic data as core to nearly every data asset California owns. As such, developing a common, collaborative "data as a service" approach is essential to managing the scale of business and policy issues Californians face. This new strategy will lay the foundation for managing the spatial data component in all data and managing data as a service to benefit the most people. Pilot efforts for the data as a service approach are under way with Minimum Essential Datasets of imagery, roads, and landmarks.

While Californians face significant budget challenges, they also expect the highest degree of innovation from technology solutions. GIS is a core solution that California will continue to build sophisticated business processes around to increase government effectiveness.

About the Author: Michael Byrne, M.A., GISP, is the geospatial information officer for the State of California. He has 18 years of GIS experience in a wide variety of positions in California state government and academia. He has served as a GIS manager for the University of California, Davis's Information Center for the Environment, and as staff to the Secretary for Resources implementing special GIS projects. Byrne is a member of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee and a director for both the National States Geographic Information Council and GreenInfo. He holds a bachelor of science in environmental planning and a master of arts in geography, both from the University of California, Davis.

Bill to Expand Geospatial Imagery Passes House
Bill would provide grants to states, tribes, schools to expand mapping capabilities
By Ben Bain

Oct 28, 2009 -- The House has passed a bill that would provide $10 million a year for a national grant program designed to make geospatial imagery more available and usable.

The bill would give that money to the Interior Department through fiscal 2019 to spend on grants to support geospatial imagery mapping projects. The bill passed by a vote of 379-33 on Oct. 27.

The bill seeks to expand the use of remote sensing data by state, local and tribal governments, educational institutions and industry. The measure is also designed to help states and Indian tribes build infrastructure to increase access to geospatial imagery for research and educational purposes.

According to the bill, as part of the outreach program Interior would:

• Support education programs.
  
• Identify new geospatial imagery needs.
  
• Promote sharing of geospatial expertise between states.
  
• Encourage more geospatial mapping education.
  
• Provide a way for states and Indian tribes to transfer geospatial imagery and applications to the U.S. Geological Survey, which is part of Interior.

Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated this bill would cost $148 million through fiscal 2014.

About the Author: Ben Bain is a reporter for Federal Computer Week.

CGIA to Assist State GIO’s Initiatives to Strengthen the GIS Community

The Office of the State Chief Information Officer has developed a wiki technology that will let anyone with a .gov email register and edit content.  Michael Byrne, California State GIO, has created a series of pages for GIS, GIS activities and the Council.  With the help of others, Mike will be migrating content of of the old GIS Council page to the new location.  Since the GIS Council organization is highly collaborative, the wiki environment will provide an efficient way for the Council to manage content. The site is located athttp://www.cio.ca.gov/wiki; click on categories, then look for the GIS pages.  In addition, these pages are RSS enabled, so as content changes (like Council agenda and meeting announcements) Council members can stay easily connected.

Working with Kris Lynn-Patterson, CGIA Chair, Michael Byrne has asked that CCIA help develop the wiki site and make an assessment of the Regional Collaborative. He requests that CGIA take a look at the structure and content of the GIS material on the CIO wiki and make recommendations to ensure that the site is informational and vital to the GIS community. In addition, he requests that CGIA assess the status and function of the Regional Collaborative and to update the CGIA website as to current leadership and spatial extent.

CGIA is happy to assist Mike Byrne and has initiated strategies to address these timely and important requests from the GIO to strengthen the GIS community.

CGIA Board Member Election Results Posted

The votes have been cast for our 2009-10 board members! The new Board Roster is available. Vacancies will be filled as soon as possible. Thanks to all who participated!