[gis_info] Expectations of the Government GIS Community

[Greg and Ericka Newkirk]

We need to get Jim off this listserv. His comments are unhelpful and he fails to respect the needs and purposes of this forum.

Sent from my Windows Phone
________________________________
From: Jim
Sent: 10/16/2012 11:33 PM
To: Rachel Smith; gis_info at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: Re: [gis_info] Expectations of the Government GIS Community

See below on a citizen d submission that was not posted.

Jim
On Oct 15, 2012 9:48 AM, "Jim" <mrnewdaddy at gmail.com> wrote:

> The thing is that, this has been happening for 10 years.  We have
> committees, meetings, task forces.  We have policy makers pushing frame
> works and standards.  We have confrences where attendees are constantly
> asking where GIS is going.  We have software makers leading this pack of
> sheep!  And biggest of all there is no enforcement.  Folks should be mad as
> hell at all of the waste. Over and over both in groups as well as
> individual agencies this stuff gets hashed out time and time again with
> massive waste streams happening concurrently.  Even a better picture is how
> each agency has has the ability to charge what they think is appropriate
> which is greatly different from one agency to the next and often times not
> in the correct coordinate system for Oregon.  So they charge me, the
> citizen twice, for a service that I already pay for and then it's not
> interoperable.  That's like buying a TV with only half of the channels
> working.  Furious and you should be too...
>  On Oct 15, 2012 8:37 AM, "Rachel Smith" <rachel.smith at dogami.state.or.us>
> wrote:
>
>> Jim,****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Lucky for GIS practitioners, engineers aren't the only group of
>> individuals we support. I don't think I need to explain how and why GIS is
>> needed, and all of the individuals or groups that need and use GIS and the
>> data we create.  But if so, then I'm sure there will be plenty of people
>> who are on this list to add to that discussion.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Your points are good ones and they are exactly what many of us discuss on
>> a regular basis.  Distribution and sharing of data, duplication of data
>> creation, authoritative sets of data, etc... are all issues that we're
>> trying to work out and are indeed a struggle for all of the agencies.  But
>> even though we haven't found a solution to these issues, that does not mean
>> that we have no professional ethics. There are no easy solutions otherwise
>> we would have implemented them by now.  ****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> I certainly don't have all of the answers, but I can tell you that we're
>> well aware of these problems and are continually working to find better
>> avenues/platforms/portals for distributing and sharing data, and working to
>> increase the awareness of GIS related activities that are happening across
>> the agencies to prevent duplication of effort.****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Rachel****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Rachel Lyles Smith, GISP****
>>
>> Project Operations Manager****
>>
>> Geologic Survey & Services****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> Oregon Department of Geology & Mineral Industries****
>>
>> 800 NE Oregon St. #28, Suite 965****
>>
>> Portland, OR 97232****
>>
>> 971-673-0481 direct****
>>
>> 971-673-1555 main****
>>
>> 971-673-1562 fax****
>>
>> http://www.oregongeology.org/sub/default.htm****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> *From:* gis_info-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us [mailto:
>> gis_info-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us] *On Behalf Of *Jim
>> *Sent:* Sunday, October 14, 2012 7:06 PM
>> *To:* gis_info at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
>> *Subject:* [gis_info] Expectations of the Government GIS Community****
>>
>> ** **
>>
>> How many times are each agency: City, County, State, and Federal
>> processing, creating, storing, backing up, generating and purchasing
>> maintenance contracts on software while working on the same geospatial
>> data?  Building footprints is a simple example.  Another more relevant
>> issue is Lidar.  How many times is a DEM, DTM, or DSM is being generated
>> from the very same players and why, it just needs to get built once.  If I
>> procured a DEM from each level of government and compared the similarities
>> and differences between them what would the standard deviations, if any.*
>> ***
>>
>> Citizens, like members of this list, expect that the geospatial community
>> is following professional ethics and following good judgement when it comes
>> to expending taxpayer funds.****
>>
>> I talk with the IT folks and they tell me that a position (a Gee Spot)
>> they call it, is something that never changes but what does is the
>> complexity of the software that is supposed to organize it.  Sure they say,
>> over beers, that there is relatively minor changes to the built
>> environment, sure there are some.  The changes to the 5% of the total
>> inventory does not warrent 95% of the business strategy including support.
>> They site that the cost to serve geospatial is the most costly of most of
>> the data IT is responsable for and because of that cost and the complexitys
>> really warrants a different approach, they said paper maps were not such a
>> bad idea, and prior to GIS engineers were doing just fine.****
>>
>> Jim****
>>
>
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