I had a chance to hear Ann Hale Miglarese, the newly minted chairperson of the National Geospatial Advisory Comittee (NGAC). She provided the nominal mission of NGAC as follows: The committee will provide advice and provide recommendations on federal geospatial policy and management issues and provide a forum to convey views representative of partners in the geospatial community. This committee will help provide advice and perspectives from a broad range of our partner orgs as we continue to develop new ways to utilize geospatial information for the benefit of the public.

But Ms. Miglarese had a very interesting observation: "In the future, we need to find a way to partner with companies that are spending $400 or $500 million dollars a year," referring to Microsoft, Google, and NAVTEQ. "What we have done for years and years are now coming down to the consumer. That casual consumer will drive many of our policies. The National Geospatial Advisory Committee is a place where that dialog can occur and about what we should be debating and how to grow the NSDI."

At the ESRI FedUC, it was discussed that version 2.0 of the Department of Homeland Security's geospatial data model (GDM) is a major rework of the model. It eliminates overlaps of the re-cast model into flattened more approachable form and incorporates hundreds of comments from users across the modeling community. Also ongoing is the development of version 2 of an Oracle 10g Spatial implementation model with an expected release in March 2008. More information can be found at the FGDC website.

In addition, DHS is developing an implementation model translation tool with the unusual name of GDM-O-Matic. GDM-O-Matic is a simple tool to construct format-compliant XML files and a standardized way to look at geospatial data to compel geospatial data sharing. It was designed to be a transformation tool that would understand intricacies of the DHS GDM. It also enables NGA-authorized users to load Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) data directly into a GDM-compliant geodatabase.

In speaking about having a common operating picture and an available imagery data store, Mark Eustis of the Department of Homelands Security’s Geospatial Management Office said during his presentation at the ESRI FED UC meeting that, "the most common operating pictures in the world are in Microsoft and Google."

Is there something a bit "off kilter" when federal agencies talk about using Google Earth (GE) or Microsoft Virtual Earth (VE) as their standard for a common operating picture (COP)? The reliance on a privately funded base map and imagery database for mission critical applications in homeland security and emergency management draws into question just how much Google or Microsoft have assumed the role of a public trust. In fact, the money that either company is investing in developing geospatial data for their mapping platforms runs into the tens of millions. If the market has spoken, in this case the federal government, then the market doesn't see any conflict using a system that is essentially funded by advertising. Are we not rendering The National Map as obsolete and do federal agencies differentiate the substance of each? Is the fact that GE or VE has become more accessible, easy to use, and more comprehensive drawn a comparison with federally-funded base maps that are sometimes bogged down with too many constituent requirements?

The idea that private companies have become a public trust is not new. Indeed, Microsoft Windows could be considered a public trust, or a world trust, since so many of the world’s computers run Windows. But is this case different? Agencies buy the Windows operating system software and assume a level of support from the vendor. In the case of GE or VE some federal agencies are relying on an open and free platform in which to ingest data. Licensing of APIs or enterprise editions was not mentioned and thus was not entirely clear from Eustis' remarks. But GE and VE are now so ingrained as providing one of the most widely used COPs that agencies may want to address some of the long-term ramifications.

Jim Geringer, former governor of Wyoming and ESRI's director of policy and public sector, and speaking at ESRI's FedUC, had a few pointed words for those in the public sector who think technology solves most problems: "Adding technology to a bad process only adds speed to a very bad process," said Geringer. Geringer, during his time in office, recognized overlaps and redundancies to processes that could have benefited from best practices. He proded the audience to understand the nation's processes as a system. "GIS must provide a 'simple' way to explain the system and grasp the issues, said Geringer.

As an example, Geringer told the story of how as governor he was asked to evaluate a particular environmental problem. He received several reports some coming from his health department, the EPA and others. He asked, "Why can’t we have one report for this project?" After not receiving the answer he expected, he said, "W-E-L-L G-E-T O-N-E!"

While GIS may not eliminate the number of reports we get from various constituencies, it should be an imperative of our government, federal, state or local, to provide a common picture, a common base map and a common set of criteria to decision makers.

Speaking at the opening plenary session of the ESRI Federal User's Conference at the Washington Convention Center (Wash. DC), Jack Dangermond expounded on the many applications his user's were employing at the federal level. But he also mentioned one key issue: lots of problems in the world, environmental, political, and health-related, create lots of opportunities for GIS. "I am certain that you and I will be fully employed for a long time."

This of course once again highlights the dearth of trained GIS professionals that many have alluded to recently, especially at the federal level and perhaps the expanding need be recognized as a GISP to provide a foundation for the required training.