Senate Budget Committee Hearing on Data Driven Performance
TASK FORCE ON GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE HEARING
Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 608Data-Driven Performance: Using Technology to Deliver Results
Witness List:
Panel 1:
Panel 2:
For testimony and live broadcast, visit:
NAVTEQ Rejects County’s GIS Policy
GIS Policy Now in Question
By SAM SMITH
Source: SaukValley.com Date: November 12, 2009
MORRISON – Whiteside County may have to change the way it does business with companies seeking access to its online storehouse of real estate information. Chicago-based NAVTEQ, a company agreeing to pay for the county’s geographic information system computer database, has rejected the county’s standard nondisclosure agreement, which forbids it from sharing the information. The company wants license to use the information however it wants.
For full text of the article, visit: http://www.saukvalley.com/articles/2009/11/12/56854272/index.xml
Ordnance Survey Makes Data Public
Re-mapping the future for Ordnance Survey – making public data public
Published 17 November 2009
The Prime Minister and Communities Secretary John Denham will today announce that the public will have more access to Ordnance Survey maps from next year, as part of a Government drive to open up data to improve transparency. Speaking at a seminar on Smarter Government in Downing Street later today, attended by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, the Prime Minister will set out how the Government and Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency, will open up its data relating to electoral and local authority boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information. …
For full text, visit: http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1385429
Database creator appeals for counties’ land records
Author: Meghan Molloy, Kennebec Journal, November 11, 2009
Source: Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram
A Cumberland-based business owner who intends to create a statewide database of land records has gone to court in an effort to compel 13 Maine counties to provide the records he needs.
John Simpson, owner and general manager of MacImage of Maine LLC, said he filed 13 appeals after being denied access or not getting timely responses to Freedom of Access Act requests for the records. …
Devlin was a witness in a case involving MacImage and Hancock County after Simpson’s company alleged that the county violated the Freedom of Access Act by not allowing MacImage to obtain the records at a reasonable fee, which was determined to be the cost of printing electronic files.
A judge in Cumberland County Superior Court ruled in favor of MacImage on Sept. 1.
For full text of the article, visit: http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=295447&ac=PHnws
NRD Lawsuit over USDA GIS data Access
Central Platte NRD Sues USDA Over Information AccessBy Robert PorePublished: Tuesday, September 22, 2009 7:56 PM CDT…The NRD is trying to gain access to the USDA’s geographic information system, or GIS, data to help it provide guidance on irrigation practices, mapping of cropland and district decisions. … The district decided to file a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain the information from the USDA in an effort to “bring the issue to a head,” Bishop said. “At one point, they indicated that we were going to get it, but then the new Farm Bill changed the language on the privacy deal, and now they say we can’t have it,” he said. …Bishop said the information could be used to determine such practices as fertilizer and water use on private farmland that receives government farm benefits. For example, when it comes to the Central Platte NRD water quality program, having access to information about those growers who use nitrogen fertilizer would be helpful and cost effective.” …
Another example in which access to that USDA information would be helpful to the NRD is when the district had to certify all the irrigated acres in the Central Platte NRD. There are nearly 1 million acres of irrigated farmland in the district. The district had to certify all irrigated acres when the state mandated in 2004 a moratorium on all new irrigated acres and irrigation wells in districts that were deemed fully or overappropriated in their groundwater use. …But because the NRD was denied those records from the USDA, Bishop said, the district spent nearly two years at a cost of about $350,000. ….For full text of article, visit: http://www.theindependent.com/articles/2009/09/22/news/local/10658719.txt
For related posting on USDA GIS data access issues, visit the following link: http://geodatapolicy.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/farm-bill-restricts-access-to-clu-gis-data-part-iii/
GAO Reports on Federal Geospatial Investments and Coordination
Geospatial Information: Better Coordination and Oversight Could Help Reduce Duplicative Investments
GAO-04-824T June 23, 2004
The collection, maintenance, and use of location-based (geospatial) information are essential to federal agencies carrying out their missions. Geographic information systems (GIS) are critical elements used in the areas of homeland security, healthcare, natural resources conservation, and countless other applications. GAO was asked to review the extent to which the federal government is coordinating the efficient sharing of geospatial assets, including through Office of Management and Budget (OMB) oversight. GAO’s report on this matter, Geospatial Information: Better Coordination Needed to Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments (GAO-04-703), is being released today. GAO’s testimony focuses on the extent to which the federal government is coordinating the sharing of geospatial assets, including through oversight measures in place at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in order to identify and reduce redundancies in geospatial data and systems.
OMB, cross-government committees, and individual federal agencies have taken actions to coordinate geospatial investments across agencies and with state and local governments. However, these efforts have not been fully successful due to (1) a complete and up-to-date strategic plan is missing. The existing strategic plan for coordinating national geospatial resources and activities is out of date and lacks specific measures for identifying and reducing redundancies, (2) federal agencies are not consistently complying with OMB direction to coordinate their investments, and (3) OMB’s oversight methods have not been effective in identifying or eliminating instances of duplication. This has resulted from OMB not collecting consistent, key investment information from all agencies. Consequently, agencies continue to independently acquire and maintain potentially duplicative systems. This costly practice is likely to continue unless coordination is significantly improved. http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-04-824T
Geographic Information Systems: Challenges to Effective Data Sharing
GAO-03-874T June 10, 2003
Geographic information systems (GIS) manipulate, analyze, and graphically present an array of information associated with geographic locations, have been invaluable to all levels of government. Their usefulness in disaster response was recently demonstrated during the Space Shuttle Columbia recovery effort. GIS provided precise maps and search grids to guide crews to the debris that was strewn across 41 counties in Texas and Louisiana. The federal government has long been attempting to develop an integrated nationwide GIS network. The information available through such a network could significantly enhance decision–making in myriad public–service areas, including emergency response, national security, law enforcement, health care, and the environment. Among GAO’s objectives were to describe the federal government’s efforts to coordinate GIS activities, the long-standing challenges of adopting and implementing federal GIS standards, and the role of Geospatial One-Stop.
Mobility, Data Mining and Privacy
There’s a new European Union funded project called MODAP on privacy and moving object data.
MODAP (Mobility, Data Mining, and Privacy) is a Coordination Action type project funded by EU, FET OPEN, 2009-2012).
With GPS enabled devices and other positioning systems, mobility behavior of individuals is captured for online or historical data analysis. For example, car insurance companies have started to issue policies with respect to the driving behavior which is captured through a GPS device installed under a special agreement. Such applications are enabled by mobility data mining which aims to extract knowledge from mobility data with a lot of opportunities as well as risks. The risks arise from the fact that mobility data is mostly about people, where they have been, at what times, how often, and with whom. Therefore, privacy is a major concern for mobility data which needs to be addressed before the opportunities of mobility data mining can be fully harvested. A recently completed EU project, GeoPKDD (Geographic Privacy-aware Knowledge Discovery and Delivery, www.geopkdd.eu) was the pioneer in this field. MODAP project, which started as of September 2009 with nearly one million euro funding for three years, aims to continue the efforts of GeoPKDD by coordinating and boosting the research activities in the intersection of mobility, data mining, and privacy. MODAP is a timely project since privacy risks associated with the mobility behavior of people are still unclear, and it is not possible for mobility data mining technology to thrive without sound privacy measures and standards for data collection, and data/knowledge publishing. For that reason, MODAP aims to create a platform for technical as well as non-technical people who are interested in mobility data mining together with privacy issues. The site www.modap.org will be the main platform for all types of community activities and will be functional as of October 15, 2009. http://www.modap.org/
House Passes National Land Remote Sensing Outreach Act
H.R. 2489, The “National Land Remote Sensing Outreach Act” (version 2 of the AmericaView Geospatial Imagery Mapping Program Act), passed on the House floor with a Roll-Call vote of 379-33.
Here is the text of HR2489: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d111:H.R.2489:
Here is the roll-call vote: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll817.xml
House Subcommittee to Examine the 2010 Census Master Address File
On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, the Subcommittee on Information Policy, Census and National Archives held a hearing entitled: “The 2010 Census Master Address Files: Issues and Concerns.”
The hearing provided an opportunity for the Census Director to offer testimony on the status of the 2010 Census Master Address File.
The hearing took place at 2:00 p.m. in room 2154 Rayburn House Office Building
Witnesses: Dr. Robert Groves Director United States Census Bureau; Mr. Todd Zinser Inspector General Department of Commerce; Mr. Robert Goldenkoff Director, Strategic Issues Government Accountability Office; Ms. Ilene Jacobs Director, Litigation, Advocacy & Training California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc.
To view the webcast of this hearing, please click on the link below: http://informationpolicy.oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=2644
Revitalization of the NSDI
Will Craig, President of NSGIC, Governance of the NSDI, ESRI ArcNews Online, Fall 2009
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall09articles/governance-of-nsdi.html
