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USGS in 2007: Moving Forward
by Adena
Schutzberg, Executive Editor
 The USGS
had a significant presence at ESRI's Federal User
Group Meeting a few weeks ago in Washington. I was invited to meet with
some
of both the new and seasoned staffers for an update on that agency.
Overall, I'd describe the situation as unsettled, but moving forward.
Bill Carswell is now the director of the National Geospatial Program
Office (NGPO), a
team that heads up many national initiatives including The National
Atlas, The National Map, Geospatial One-Stop, and the FGDC
(Federal Geographic Data Committee) Executive Directorate, among
others. Bill Carswell is the first director of the office, which was
created in 2005. He took the job officially on September 3rd of
last year. He has 41 years of federal service, much of it in the water discipline of
USGS. That means he's worked with GIS (though he admits it was a while
ago) but more importantly, he has experience as a manager and leader.
That came through as we spoke. So, too, did the fact that as an
"outsider" he brings objectivity to the position. He noted that Karen
Siderelis, the USGS associate director of geospatial information and
chief information officer, determined this objectivity to be important
in his selection.
Liaisons
In exploring the projects that sit under the NGPO, Carswell was
impressed at how USGS staffers continued to get work done during the
"fluidness" of the last year or so. He pointed to the USGS Geospatial Liaisons,
a team of USGS staffers in the field who work on partnerships with
state and local players, as a growing team. Its current 35 staffers
will be joined by six others in the coming months. That covers "most"
states; some large states like California may have two liaisons. I know
that the state coordinators I met at the National States Geographic
Information Council (NSGIC) could
not say enough good things about their respective USGS liaisons. ... Read
more 
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February's Brooks Act Litigation: What
Geospatial Practitioners Need to Know
by Joe
Francica, Editor-in-Chief, and Adena
Schutzberg, Executive Editor
Authors' Note:
This article has been
updated since it was first
published on the website on January 19th. Errors of fact have been
corrected.
Responses
to Directions Magazine's request for statement from
professional
organizations are compiled the article below this one.
Litigation
On February 2nd of this year the Management Association for Private
Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS), American Society of Civil Engineers
(ASCE), National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) and Council
on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services
(COFPAES) will face the United States of America in Federal Court. The
litigation seeks to change how the Brooks Act,
a law concerning how federal contractors are selected in the
procurement process, is implemented with regard to "mapping" services.
The outcome may change how procurements are done at some federal
agencies. This article attempts to lay out in plain English our best
understanding of laws in question, the players, the lawsuit and the
potential outcomes of the suit.
The
Brooks Act Today
The Brooks Act dates back to 1972 and puts forward a framework for
contracting architecture and engineering related work for the federal
government. It says, in broad stroke, that instead of selecting
contractors based on price, these contracts should use what's called
"Qualifications-Based Selection" or "QBS." QBS bases selection on
professional qualifications and experience, followed by negotiation
with the most qualified firm of a price that is fair and reasonable to
the government. Amendments to the Brooks Act since 1972 have added
surveying and mapping to the list, so that now, architecture,
engineering, surveying and mapping activities are contracted using this
QBS process from licensed individuals in accordance with the adopted
state law in which the project is located, if applicable, in those
professions. ... Read
more
Responses on the Brooks Act Litigation
by Joe
Francica, Editor-in-Chief, and Adena
Schutzberg, Executive Editor
Directions Media contacted several professional
organizations to
request their position or opinion on the current litigation regarding
the Brooks Act. We present the responses here.
Stu Davis, President of the National States
Geographic Information Council offered this statement on January
22, 2007.
The National States Geographic
Information Council
(NSGIC) has
worked for many years with other organizations to represent and educate
its members on the issues surrounding Qualifications Based Selection
(QBS), certification for the geospatial profession/industry, and
implementation of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and
Surveying (NCEES) Model Law and Rules. Due to the diversity of our
membership and the complexity of these issues it is difficult for NSGIC
to support only one position. We feel the political or legal battling
over these issues is not healthy for the industry that we all rely on,
and that it reduces geospatial business development. Nor is it healthy
for government agencies, because it causes government contracts to be
delayed, government and private business reengineering to be delayed or
cancelled, and significant technological solutions to be moved to
secondary considerations. The cumulative effect of these impacts is
that less work gets done. ... Read
more
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OGC Demonstrates Sensor Web Decision
Support Services
by Sam
Bacharach, executive director, Outreach and Community Adoption, The
Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
 Cities and
major facilities such as ports and airports
are full of isolated sensors and security cameras. Many are accessible
or can be made accessible via the Web. How can disaster managers make
use of them in a crisis?
At a December 7 and 8, 2006 demonstration, OGC members showed how
multiple interoperable technologies, including sensor webs, could be
used together to respond to a major emergency event.
This demonstration concluded the OGC's fourth OGC Web Services testbed
activity, "OWS-4," which ran from June through December. The
demonstration was held, appropriately, at an Emergency Operations
Center (EOC) in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area. Most of
those attending were high level disaster managers from state, federal
and local agencies. OGC members participating in the demonstration used
live, off-the-shelf, standards-based systems to show how decision
makers can quickly find, access and integrate diverse geospatial
resources on the Web. ... Read
more
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Capture, Create, Manage
and Distribute the Digital 3D World!
The most important
event of the year for the LIDAR mapping industry will take place in
Baltimore, Maryland - February 12-13, 2007. The
International LIDAR Mapping Forum - ILMF
2007 has become the "Summit" for LIDAR professionals as well as those
wanting to expand their knowledge base of the technology and its
applications. For
more info, visit www.lidarmap.org
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Map World Forum
Map World Forum wraps up
today in
Hyderabad, India. Directions Magazine's Editor-in-Chief
attended and
offers these blog posts.
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Excerpts from
letters and comments
from the previous week (or so) will appear on Thursdays. Follow the
links provided to read the full comments. If you missed
an
article referenced below, it might be because you are not subscribed to
all our newsletters. You can change your preferences here.
We
welcome
your praise and
criticism via our comments tools provided along with articles on the
website, or via e-mail.
Podcasts
Our Directions
on the News podcast from Jan 16, which touched on new tools to
create 3D models, prompted this
reply.
"Every tool has a purpose in mind and the new ones noted at the end of
this podcast for authoring '3-D location knowledgeable models' are good
upgrades to already solid software, however I am not sure they are the
tipping point worthy of saying that 'until now' it was out of reach.
True many are saying, 'we want to be able to visualize our city.' You
still get what you pay for. Using 'minimally trained' labor such as
'high school students' to build anything beyond sketches has its risks
and costs. Both of the products mentioned are professional tools, and
organizations wanting to produce 3-D models from them should also
invest in the trained labor it takes to use them for professional
activities." - Tim Case
"I love the podcasts - great info &
format. Can you please try to improve the quality of the production? I
have to turn my iPod up to top volume to hear them well. Any noise
tends to cause distortion and sometimes painful spikes particularly in
the high frequencies." - Jeffrey Fiore,
deCarta
Our audio engineer (Adena Schutzberg) replies: We've
tried to fix the volume issue in the most
recent podcast by using some new tools. Did that help? Please let
us know!
Data Quality
Dr. Michael Sanderson's Data
Quality Challenges in 2007 got many thinking
about quality in their own organizations.
"We battle data quality issue on a daily basis, sometimes hourly. ...
It's really depressing that although our office harps on these issues
all the time. To our colleagues, to our end users, to our suppliers, no
one seems to 'get it.' ...I applaud any effort which attempts to
bring attention to matters of data quality, how to measure it, how to
assess it, how to apply it. I'm skeptical of automated systems, and
systems which require due diligence on the part of more than a few
players. I think there is something fundamental to the human mind which
moves akimbo this kind of thinking and understanding. It can be done,
but it's work so most won't." - Matt Wilkie, Environment Yukon Geomatics
"Like Matt we struggle with data quality issues on pretty much a daily
basis. One method of assessing quality involves using a feature
catalogue. And/Or a data dictionary. They provide a simple means of
checking common (but not all, not even close) errors within even
spatial datasets. You can at least check that spatial data is within
certain bounds or that dataset attribute values are within a predefined
set of allowed values, where possible. Having said that, both you and
Dave are completely correct - SOAs are becoming more mature and data
quality is lagging behind. How we define 'quality' is yet to be
determined, but will probably differ across domains. Yep, 'fit for
purpose' is a toughy." -Miles Jordan, AGAD
One
more comment came in on the first
article in the series, by David Sonnen.
"With respect to who will make sure that data quality is sufficient for
a particular use, it will become incumbent upon spatial data users to
carefully spell out their data quality requirements in their contracts
with data providers. Similarly, a data provider should ensure that its
standard contract details how the data can and will be used. Finally,
such a contract should include provisions that allocate the risk in the
event a third party uses the data for unintended purposes." - Kevin
Pomfret, Cantor Arkema P.C.
Brooks Act
Our discussion on the podcasts and article
on the litigation related to the Brooks Act posted late last week
brought a few
thoughts on the law and licensure.
"I used to be the biggest "P" Line surveying contractor in Montana. My
10 employees did work better and faster and at a lower price than any
engineering firm. After implementing brooks act for surveying I was
told I would never get another government contract. My firm folded and
10 employees [were] laid off. Prices immediately doubled for the
surveys and the work was done by people with marginal competence.
Expect the same here." - Terry Johnson,
Montanatrail
"What ever happened to the Best Value for the American Taxpayer? If you
can't innovate...legislate. Brooks Act = Protectionism" - Archie
Belaney, GreyOwl Analytics
"South Carolina is one state that is in the midst of licensing GIS
professionals. Time will tell whether or not this improves the quality
of work that is produced by GIS practitioners in the State. As long as
long-standing practitioners with a wealth of knowledge in the field can
obtain licensing, it would not seem to exclude anyone from continuing
their career or from qualifying for jobs. The positive aspect of
licensing is that it provides some practice guidelines and standards
and some credibility to the field. Success in establishing appropriate
standards and guidelines for licensure is essential, I think, to
ensuring that the process achieves its intended goal; to improve
quality of the services provided." - Amy Daniels, a non-licensed GIS
professional, Greenville Technical College, Geomatics
Dept.
"The GIS 'P' licensing/certificate will have no effect on the quality
of work produced by contractors. Most top level GIS work is done by
people without the 'P' after their name to begin with, ie. gamers,
programmers, geographers, and statisticians. GIS is a new (relatively)
industry, still too young to be corralled by the GIS 'P'
Certifying/Licensing board. The only thing that a 'P' after the acronym
GIS proves is that the certifying board is another $250.00 richer! Keep
the Science in GIS and get rid of the "P". Every Federal and State
Contract should be based on ability, end of sentence." - Franklin
Danke, New England GIS Professional
Adena Schutzberg notes: The article that prompted these statements has
been update since it was first published to correct some factual
errors.
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Jotle - A Google
Maps/Flickr/YouTube Mashup
compiled by Nora
Parker, Senior Managing Editor
Jotle
is a new Google mashup that combines
Google Maps with Flickr and
YouTube. According to a posting at the Directions Magazine's
Web Map
Gallery by Mikhail Novikov:
 Google Maps + Wikimapia
+ Placeopedia + Flickr
+ YouTube = Jotle! Jotle is an new Flickr photo and YouTube video
explorer that takes
Google Maps and mashes it up with Wikimapia and Placeopedia placemarks.
Jotle lets you zoom into various parts of the world and see map
points for Wikimapia and Placeopedia. Jotle then uses the tags for
these locations to pull in photos from Flickr and videos from YouTube.
Though it's definitely not the first Flickr + YouTube Google Maps
mashup it is the first that uses this clever location-plotting as a way
to suggest photos and videos for the areas of the map you're looking
at. It's also a great compliment to the immense value both Wikimapia
and Placeopedia offer in the area of travel and tourism. Now in
addition to researching areas you are about to visit using Wikimapia
and Placeopedia you can also use Jotle to get a visual feel for the
immediate area.
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