To better serve the California geospatial community, we have restructured our Hot News page into four areas: Feature News, General News, Training Opportunities, and Employment Opportunities. The Statewide Events Calendar is a quick way to see the major events that have come to our attention. Please email George White, CGIA Chair ( ) regarding any news items that you would like to see included in any of our news categories so that we can serve you better.

Hot News Items - October 2006
FEATURE NEWS

Geospatial Data Draft Plan Report Published
In October 2006, Michael Baker, Inc. published the California Geospatial Data Draft Plan report in partnership with the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA), the California GIS Council, USGS, and the California Resources Agency. The report was the key deliverable for an institution building CAP Grant Program, culminating a six-month process of interactive meetings in regional settings and an interactive web survey. The report identifies core and California-centric geospatial framework data and presents an implementation strategy. The report contains both short-term and long-term implementation actions that the California GIS Council, CGIA, and Regional Groups can take to move this critical initiative forward.

• The four-page executive summary and 80-page report can downloaded here: http://www.cgia.org/CA_GeoFrame_DDP_FINAL_for_Publication.pdf.
• You can provide your feedback on the report’s contents to George White ( ), CGIA Vice Chair, and also let George know if you will be participating in any of the recommended implementation actions.

Santa Clara County Suit Over Digital Mapping Data - Oct. 12 (AP)- An open-government group sued Santa Clara County on Wednesday seeking to break up what it called a "government monopoly" on the county's digital mapping data.

The California First Amendment Coalition accuses the county of violating the state Public Records Act by charging hefty fees to access the so-called "base map" of the county's geographic information system, or GIS. Santa Clara claims the data is copyrighted and proprietary.
The map is comprised of digital files showing all county land including property boundaries and tax assessor's parcel numbers, and can be expanded to include data such as earthquake fault lines, flood zones and soil quality information.

The technology can be used much like the popular Google Earth tool, which allows users to examine detailed maps based on satellite images.
The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, argues there is an increasing demand for this type of data by property owners and news organizations, but that the county's hefty licensing fees prohibit all but real estate developers, utility companies and insurance companies and other deep-pocketed customers from accessing it. The fees can go into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the countywide map.

The group claims that the county refuses to make the data more affordable and readily available to the public, said Peter Scheer, the coalition's executive director. "Santa Clara has so far been the least flexible and has stood by the position, which we think is not legally sustainable, that they have complete control over this data," he said.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sectionfiltered=nation_world&id=4653577

Grant Opportunity: ESRI, the National Vacant Properties Campaign, and Magellan National Vacant and Abandoned Properties Grant Program

Applications are due December 1, 2006. ESRI, the National Vacant Properties Campaign, and Magellan have announced that funding is available for the National Vacant and Abandoned Properties Grant Program. Fifty thousand dollars in grants of software, hardware, and training will be provided to 10 state or local governments to foster innovative approaches to solving government and community problems through the combined use of geographic information system (GIS) and GPS technology.

Application guidelines for this grant are accessible at http://www.esri.com/grants/esri/econ_dev.html. For additional information, please contact Shelley Christensen, ESRI Industry Marketing at Shelley_christiansen@esri.com.

Army Corp GIS Standard Now Maintained by Northrup-Grumman, Budget Tripled

September 29, 2006 -- The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Standard for Geographic Information Systems data awarded maintenance of the Standard to Northrup-Grumman, and tripled the federal budget for the project, according to a recent interview with Nancy Towne, Supervisor for the program. This is the first internationally recognized standard for Geographic Information Systems data and includes standardized layer names, schemas, domains, table relates and relational database models.

The standard is compatible with AutoCAD, ESRI, Intergraph software platforms and features a MS Access standalone browser available free for download. The latest version (2.5) of the browser for the standard is currently available to download from https://tsc.wes.army.mil/products/TSSDS-TSFMS/tssds/html/ under the "Download Standards" menu item on the left. The new website for the standard will be www.sdsfie.org.

The standard was developed in collaboration with the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) as the Spatial Data Standard for Facilities, Infrastructure and the Environment (SDSFIE) the standard is known by the International Standards Organization as ISO/TC 211 Geographic Information Standard. The standard is also a recognized as an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard and is required to be used by all branches of the military for facilities management and simulation technology.

More than 20 civilian agencies, such as airports, water districts and local governments have used or are using locally adapted versions of the standard. The U.S. Army Corp has accepted additions to the standard from some of these civilian users. It is not clear if the new maintainer of the standard will continue to accept additions from outside sources.

The South Florida Water Management District began implementing the SDSFIE in 2000, and discovered an even greater need to create a gazetteer to standardize place names, recognizing then even with a common data standard you still need a standardized place name geography. They have since completed a statewide gazetteer that is regularly maintained.

Kern Council of Governments and the City of Bakersfield continue to use adapted versions of the standard's schema to for standard directory structure for organizing spatial data on the GIS server and possibly easing transition to the standard schema when a geodatabase standard is fully implemented. San Jose International Airport retained a consultant that adapted the standard for an enterprise wide facility management geodatabase.

The complexities of implementing an enterprise-wide geodatabase combined with the military focus of the standards schema are major obstacles for full implementation by civilian agencies. The past willingness of the Army Corp to accept additions to the standard from outside agencies combined harmonization efforts with FGDC has provided a good base for development of the international standard. The increase in civilian agencies' interest in homeland security may eventually result in greater use of the standard outside the military.

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CGIA Membership Drive 2006-2007
It's time to renew your membership to CGIA; or, if you are not a current member, to join CGIA. There are three levels of membership: student ($20), regular ($40), and sustaining ($200).

CGIA will create a special sponsor's web page to list Sustaining Members which will link to their organization's website. Sustaining members can also have up to seven (7) members of their organization as members in good standing of CGIA. And finally, CGIA will partner with Sustaining Members to communicate messages that are consistent with CGIA's mission and strategic initiatives, using the CGIA NewsFlash and the CGIA website as appropriate.

CGIA is the only statewide non-profit organization that facilitates coordination, collaboration, and council for California's GIS community. There are many reasons to join CGIA, as expressed in the Chair's Letter to Members of April 3, 2006. You can now join CGIA using PayPal via the links on the CGIA web site, aking it easier for you to become a CGIA member. Of course, you may still download the CGIA Membership Form/Invoice and mail it in with the appropriate check payment.

CGIA extends a special "Thank You" to the California Resources Agency for their hosting of our web site. This special arrangement reflects the close working relationship that exists between our two organizations and our mutual interests in using geospatial technologies to improve government services.