New Recommendations for Geospatial in U.S. Government

I read the article at GovExec.com twice, but am still not sure I get the point. Here’s the key quotes for those who want to try, too:

The task forces, launched by the Office of Management and Budget earlier this year, are recommending the adoption of uniform governmentwide standards in the three new areas, rather than the creation of more shared service centers, government officials close to the matter told Government Executive.

[The systems] being considered for consolidation. These are budget formulation and evaluation systems, geospatial information systems and IT infrastructure.

The new recommendations, released on Sept. 11 and subject to review by OMB’s deputy director for management in mid-October, will not be made public until the February release of the president’s fiscal 2008 budget request. Agencies will receive management and budget guidance around Thanksgiving. 

So, as I understand it, the thought at first was to develop shared service centers for these and have the whole government use those, instead of their own local implementations. Now, the recommendation is to simply keep those local implementations, but insure standards are used.