Thank you Joe, for opening this thread. Commercial sources have reshaped the geospatial landscape, and they’re certainly worthy of discussion. I appreciate your coverage of the subject, but there are two core themes in your article that I must address.

Worth noting:
Firstly, and most importantly, the presentation was my own. I spoke as an individual (Mark Eustis) and not on behalf of the Federal Government or the DHS Geospatial Management Office. That is a very important and unequivocal distinction that must be corrected immediately.

Only a Federal employee may speak on Federal policy, and I am not one, nor did I portray myself as such. Yes, in the past I have contributed to the evolution of the geospatial data model, but I do not now work in the DHS geospatial office, nor do I speak on behalf of the Federal government.

Now to restate the position I presented yesterday, which in fact is very different from the conclusion presented in the article:

Without question Google, VE and Mapquest are the most common operating pictures, if you look at user statistics. We’re talking billions of eyeballs versus thousands here. And the geoportals are assuming a much larger role in the dissemination of information, as was evident in Katrina and the California wildfires. Commercial sources are allies to the Federal mission, and excellent vehicles on which to communicate to the public. But they are not a replacement for the public-trust systems in place at USGS and in other areas. Just as commercial street-data companies rely on Census TIGER for foundation data, the commercial geoportals rely on The National Map, GOS, and programs such as NAIP for their baseline content. The Federal government adopting a commercial geoportal as the standard reference would be akin to sitting out on the limb as you saw it away from the tree.

In my discussion, I spoke on behalf of the need for adopting a common operating picture across the homeland security community, and how a standards-based geospatial data model is moving the geospatial community in what (I think) is EXACTLY the right direction.

I shared a graphic that described a potential vision for the evolution of a Common Operating Picture, based on community-wide adoption of common data model and presentation standards. The graphic showed geospatial operations within the Federal and "professional" user communities at the State & Local level. Each of these user communities are potential users of the homeland security geospatial data model, and each would benefit from the shared view and common standard.

My graphic also placed the commercial geoportals in a prominent role. However, when it comes to their present integration to the homeland security community, my graphic included a big "question mark" over the role of the commercial sector. They COULD BE an excellent vehicle for the Federal government to publish authoritative information, if agencies chose to establish formal processes to do so. Today, commercial geoportals are passive mirrors. They are the focus point for an emerging nexus of citizen geographers to express their opinions, and occasionally the geoportals might receive situation-specific products from the Federal community. However, these companies have not as yet taken an active and participatory role at the Federal level in building to the common standard. I (me, Mark Eustis) think they SHOULD take a more active role, but hey, that’s just me.

My PERSONAL view is the ‘professional’ cadre of geospatial professionals within the homeland security community should adopt the homeland security geospatial data model as their common standard for content, attribution and presentation format. But hey, that’s just me speaking.

My PERSONAL view is the commercial vendors would provide an inestimable service to the citizens of this country if they, too, integrated relevant content and presentation standards from the homeland security geospatial data model. In the event of an event, and the Federal government chose to disseminate information through the geoportals, and the public saw maps that aligned with the data used by professionals in the emergency services community, communication would be clearer, shared information would be more relevant, and the entire community would benefit greatly.

Thanks again for raising this discussion. I hope my notes have helped clarify my position.

JOD, the standard we're discussing is what forms of data to aggregate and how to display the content.

There's no restriction implied here; on the contrary, my hope is to encourage and expand their investment.

If the Googles and Virtual Earths of the world were to include the data content emergency services people wanted (and was meaningful in a car navigation system), and used their user base to help set the common presentation standards, the commercial sector would be working with the Federal government to help drive the agenda. And they should, because the Feds are ill-prepared to drive it themselves.

An accurate location for the nearest shelter, the correct street address for the emergency room entrance, or the best route away from a flood is what we're talking about here. These are things that would require but a single-digit percentage of the investment these companies are already making as they build their map base and create features in their software.

Quite frankly, the level of investment within the Federal government on geospatial systems for civil applications is dwarfed (order of magnitude) by this new world of private geoportals. It's only in the milspec world that mapping budgets approach their investments. And the milspec folks can't (for oh, so many reasons) reach out and serve the civil sector. Ask any (any) state GIS coordinator about that...

JOD, my hope is the commercial sector takes a more proactive role in serving the American public and the emergency services community by building maps that align more closely with the maps "inside the Beltway". They've completely changed the landscape, and they have the capital to move the needle in the right direction.

BTW - a map is a map is a map. It's the same streets, rivers, buildings, airports, coastlines and train tracks for the Feds as it is for everyone else. It's the same world, let's just make it look the same on "both sides" of the equation.

Jeremy,

Pity you weren't in my talk. The primary intent of the homeland security geospatial data model that DHS and the FGDC have been developing is to fit precisely into this space.

With access to grants from DHS, a State gov't entity should consider assembling a data center to host and house 'continuity of operations' copies of the data within their area of interest. These data could/should be left as "uncooked" data for backup purposes...and modeled for wider consumption using the model's standard template.

If there's a standard model in place at the State level, and they're publishing services that are useful across many domains...why aggregate the data into some Mother Of All Databases and lose the essential connection between the data and the data owner?

The idea of a Federal program that collects every map and munges the data into a MOAD view is last-century thinking.

Let's think sharing and federated access through standards.

Excellent point, Jeremy. I addressed this in my presentation, but for those who may not have been there...

The single-point failure scenario can be overcome if the owners of data stores leverage the common model for content aggregation, and follow a common presentation standard for these products. In ESRI-speak, that's building geodatabases and using a standard MXD file to represent features in a standard way. This does NOT preclude the aggregation and use of other products, but with proper labeling the "common core" can co-exist peacefully with the locally-specific requirements. Set up your application correctly, and when disaster strikes your content will look just like everyone else that’s using the modeled approach. In the event there's an event and the network is down, the local system will look like, and access, the same content as are used at the Federal level.

The larger picture here is the idea that the Federal government can build an effective Mother Of All Databases. For historical and academic reference, yes. For emergency services, such data are usually stale by the time they’re entered and presented. At the local level (where search and rescue and infrastructure rebuilding really happens) Federal content are used for backdrop and briefing materials, but the true preference is always for current, detailed data straight from the source.

My personal belief is pushing, or pulling, data from the originator (the town, city, or county) to the Federal MOAD is ultimately an impossible task. It MAY BE possible to establish a network of State-level aggregation sites, but the MOAD approach doesn't work for the emergency services community. The emergency services folks require the most current and accurate picture possible, and a “hot copy” of the original data are the grail. Sure, Nat'l Map and NSDI might aggregate data, but how often are they refreshed? What is the percentage of data that are (or would be) actually contributed?

Daratech has stated there are 89,000 geospatial programs in the USA alone. Can the Federal government be expected to negotiate an MOU or data sharing agreement with each of these? Where is the incentive for the originator to share? Does the USGS have the budget or human capital to execute on this approach?

My position is the community should focus our efforts on building a network of systems that are relevant and useful, and provide a service in return to the data creators. Federal efforts should be leveraged to support a network of State-level aggregation sites. Allow the data creators to store a “hot copy” of their data for Continuity Of OPerations in a data warehouse at a secure location. Use a common model for baseline data content and presentation views to establish standard views...and occasionally share extracted products up to long-term reference centers at the Federal level.

But hey, that’s just me.

It's a great app, but it's not using Google Earth as you may think.

The CG folks bought a Google appliance three+ years ago, which they hosted in their own data center. They loaded their own imagery and reference data onto the standard 15-meter Landsat 'blue marble' image map that's shipped in the box with every Google appliance. This was a 'behind the firewall' solution, and did not leverage the image base that's available from the Google public site. [Google also markets a "hybrid" solution, where your data can be fused onto their dynamic globe, but the CG elected not to cross the firewall with the application they built.]