OSTP FY 2011 Budget Briefing

Office of Science & Technology Policy (OSTP) FY 2011 Budget Briefing

Date: February 1, 2010,  Time: 1:00pm to 2:00pm, AAAS Auditorium

Speakers:

• John P. Holdren – Director and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
• Aneesh Chopra – Chief Technology Officer and Associate
• Director, Technology Shere Abbott – OSTP Associate Director, Energy & Environment
• Arden Bement – NSF Director
• Jane Lubchenco – NOAA Administrator
• Lori Garver – NASA Deputy Administrator

Briefing Memos can be found at: http://www.ostp.gov/cs/rd_budgets/fy_2009_budget/2011_budget

OMB President’s Budget for Fiscal Year 2011: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/

Agency FY 2011 Budget Briefing Schedule

The schedule of other agency FY 2011 budget briefings can be found at http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/fy2011/

Stay on top of the FY 2011 budget process with Twitter updates from the AAAS R&D Budget and Policy Program: http://twitter.com/AAAS_RDBudget

Highlights:

• “The Obama Administration’s FY2011 Budget calls for $66 billion investment in nondefense research and development (R&D) – an increase of $3.7 billion or 5.9 percent above the FY2010 enacted level – reflecting the Administration’s firm belief that investment in science, technology, and innovation is the key to building the American Economy of the future.”
• “The President’s Budget maintains, as promised, a path to double the budgets of three key science agencies – the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) laboratories – by providing them a combined $13.3 billion, an increase of $824 million or 6.6 percent above the 2010 enacted total;”
• “The Presiden’ts Budget provides almost $1 billion t the R&D budget of the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration – a substantial increase over 2010 – and also calls for $2.6 billion – an increase of $439 million or 21 percent – to multi-agency U.S. Global change Research Program (USGCRP), affirming the Administration’s commitment to understanding the risks posed by climate change and developing appropriate strategices to mitigate and adapt to those risks.”
• “The President’s Budget provides $679 million for the Interior Department’s U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).”

 

New Ocean Biogeographic Information System Website

 

Technical Announcement: New one stop source for scientific Information about U.S. oceans and waters: A one-stop source for biogeographic information collected from U.S. waters and oceanic regions is now available from the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) Programme. The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)-USA website offers a unique combination of tools, resources and biodiversity information to aide scientists, resource managers and decision makers in the research and analyses critical to sustaining the nation’s valued marine ecosystems. …

OBIS-USA data holdings comprise millions of individual records supplied by marine data sponsors from across the nation. The site provides a work space for visitors to search and manipulate that data. This is accomplished in collaboration with data providers to produce a compilation of data in a common format. Data are interoperable and can be consistently viewed and applied by researchers, decision makers and resource managers. …

 Source: USGS, January 28, 2010

For the full text, visit:  http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2397

Building a National Spatial Data Infrastructure 2.0

In the United States, a lively discussion is emerging on the next generation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure, with a  focus on its governance and coordination. Below are links to articles, reports and editorials on this topic:

National Geospatial Advisory Council Reports

• NGAC Report: The Changing Geospatial Landscape [PDF 4.38 MB]
• NGAC Transition Recommendations [PDF]
• Summary of Key Recommendations [PDF]
• Proposal to Measure Progress Toward Realizing the NSDI Vision [PDF]

 

Federal Geographic Data Committee Reports and Presentations

• NSDI 2.0: Implementing Change, Challenges and Opportunities [Ivan Deloatch, October 2009]
• A History of Spatial Data Coordination [Milo Robinson, May 2008]
• National Spatial Data Infrastructure Webpage

 

2009 Proposals for a “National GIS”

• A Proposal for National Economic Recovery: An Investment in Geospatial Information Infrastructure Building a National GIS [Jack Dangermond, ESRI]
• A Concept for American Recovery and Reinvestment - NSDI 2.0: Powering our National Economy, Renewing our Infrastructure, Protecting our Environment [Jeff Harrison, John Moeller, Julia Harvell and others]
• A Proposal for Reinvigorating the American Economy Through Investment in the US National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) [Autodesk, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, Intergraph]
• Stimulus Proposal #4 – Funding the National Map [John Palatiello]
• A Strategic Framework for a National Spatial Data Infrastructure [NSGIC]
• Governance of the NSDI [Will Craig, President of NSGIC]

 

Related Commentary

• Obama Should Finish What Nixon Failed to Do (Christopher Tucker, Directions Magazine, Oct 2, 2009)
• Is a National GIS on the map? (GCN, July 13, 2009)Update 9: ESRI Invites Support for GIS for the Nation as Part of Stimulus Bill
• Three Geospatial Proposals and U.S. Economic Stimulus: Background and Status (Directions Magazine, Feb 5, 2009)
• Landscape of National GIS (David G. Smith, February 1, 2009)
• A Second Proposal Regarding Geo and the Stimulus: NSDI 2.0 (All Points Blog, Directions Magazine, Jan 24, 2009)
• Grassroots Group Releases NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper (GISCafe, January 23, 2009)
• Fueling National Economic Development Through Investments in GIS (MapDotNet, January 14, 2009)
• A Rebuttal to “Building a National GIS” (Sean Gorman, January 13, 2009)
• Economic Recovery with GIS (James Fee, January 13, 2009)

 

Congressional Oversight Hearings

• House Committee on Natural Resources, Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources Oversight Hearing “Federal Geospatial Data Management and Legislative Hearing on H.R. 2489″ (July 23, 2009)
•  House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census (June 23, 2004) See GAO Testimony – “Geospatial Information: Better Coordination and Oversight Could Help Reduce Duplicative Investments“ 
• House Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations and the Census  (June 10, 2003) See GAO Testimony – “Geographic Information Systems: Challenges to Effective Data Sharing“

 

Related Documents

Executive Orders:

• Executive Order 12906: Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infastructure

OMB Circulars and Memos:

• OMB Circular A-16 Revised Coordination of Geographic Information and Related Spatial Data Activities
• OMB Circular A-130: Management of Federal Information Resources
• OMB Memo M-06-07: Designation of a Senior Agency Official for Geospatial Information
• OMB Memo M-09-28: Developing Effective Place-Based Policies for the FY2011 Budget

Legislation:

• E-Government Act of 2002 (PL 107-347) See Section 216 – Common Protocols for Geographic Information Systems, as well as Hearing Transcript, House Report No. 107-787 , Part 1 (H.R. 2458), and Senate Reports No. 107-174 (S. 803)

Congressional Research Service Reports:

• Geospatial Information and Geogrpahic Information Systems (GIS): Current Issues and Future Challenges (CRS, June 2009) 
• Issues Regarding a National Land Parcel Database (CRS, July 2009)

Government Accountability Office Testimony and Reports:

• Geographic Information Systems : Challenges to Effective Data Sharing (GAO-03-874T, June 2003) [Testimony]
• Geospatial Information: Better Coordination Needed To Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments (GAO-04-743, June 2004) [Testimony]
• Geospatial Informaiton: Better Coordination Needed to Identify and Reduce Duplicative Investments (GAO-04-703, June 2004) [Report to Congressional Requesters]

National Academy of Public Administration Reports:

• Legal Limits on Access to and Disclosure of Disaster Information (NAPA 99-09S, May 1999)
• Geographic Information for the 21st Century: Building a Strategy for the Nation (NAPA 98-01, January 1998)

National Academy of Sciences Reports:

• Weaving a National Map: A Review of the U.S. Geological Survey Concept of the National Map (NAS 2003)
• National Spatial Data Infrastructure Partnership Programs: Rethinking the Focus (NAS 2001)
• A Data Foundation for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NAS 1995)
• Promoting the National Spatial Data Infrastructure Through Partnerships (NAS 1994)
• Toward a Coordinated  Spatial Data Infrastructure for the Nation (NAS 1993)
• Federal Surveying and Mapping: An Organizaitonal Review (NAS 1981), including a summary of the Federal Mapping Task Force Report (OMB 1973).

Academic Studies:

• A Policy Appraisal of the National Map, A Federal Program to Provide Basic Geospatial Data For the Nation (Maeve A. Boland, PhD Dissertation, 2005) 

Earth Observation Governance, Priorities and Benefit to Society:

• Earth Observations and Global Change: Why? Where are we? What Next? (CSIS 2008)
• Earth Observation, Risk Assessment and Global Change (CSIS 2008)
• A Plan for a U.S. National Land Imaging Program (OSTP 2007)
• Dr. Holdren, Director of OSTP, Remarks to the Plenary Session of GEO-VI
• U.S. Group on Earth Observations (US GEO) Website

 

If you know of additional related documents or commentaries, please email us the links!

DISCLAIMER: The opinions expressed in the links and resources listed above are not necessarily those of this blog site.

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 608

Data-Driven Performance: Using Technology to Deliver Results

Witness List:

Panel 1:

• The Honorable Aneesh Chopra — Assistant to the President and Chief Technology Officer, Associate Director for Technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy
• Mr. Vivek Kundra — Federal Chief Information Officer, Administrator for Electronic Government and Information Technology, Office of Management and Budget

Panel 2:

• The Honorable Roger W. Baker — Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology and Chief Information Officer, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
• Mr. Brad Douglas — Commissioner, Department of Administrative Services, State of Georgia

For testimony and live broadcast, visit:

• http://budget.senate.gov/democratic/hearingstate.html
• http://budget.senate.gov/republican/NewHearings&Testi.htm

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 Access

 

By Robert Pore

Published: 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/