Long Provides Blueprint for NGA Modernization #geoint2011

Letitia Long, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, provided a four-point plan for making her vision a reality. Last year at the GEOINT conference she emphasized that she wanted to put the power of geospatial intelligence in the hands of more users. This year she updated the GEOINT Symposium audience with the progress that the agency has made. The four elements of the plan are:

CONTENT - The goal is to expose 100% of the content within the agency and make it discoverable. Any source material,  commercial and NRO imagery; foundation data, whether it is spatial or aspatial in nature ... Whatever is in the analyst's shoebox and especially finished product she wants posted on NGA website.

OPEN IT ENVIRONMENT - Long wants an environment that is two way where users can contribute to the CONTENT environment as well.

CUSTOMER SERVICE - Long emphasized that it is all about the user experience.  "We are a full service organizations; we understand the user's footprint and can anticipate the needs of our customers; we need an open IT environment to expose all that content," she said. "We will always be embedded with our mission partner; but increasingly our mission partners are GIS-savvy. We encourage it. For users needing assisted service they can enter into a chat with an analyst that helps the mobile force in certain challenges, what Long calls proactive assisted service.

ANALYTICS DEPTH - Long emphasized that when content is easily accessible and the user is being served, then the NGA can get to the deeper analytics. Long said that over 100 applications for mobile use were being developed and she demonstrated an iPad app developed by NGA to help disaster response team.

UAV’s Fill the Skies: So Much Data, So Few Ways to Analyze It

At the Intergraph 2010 conference, the defense and intelligence group was demonstrating their Motion Video Analyst (MVA) solutions to help manage data from the growing usage of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in support of the warfighting efforts in the Middle East.

As a consequence of too much data, the need for analysts is likewise increasing.  Algorithms are being developed for pattern recognition but the data will be useful only so long as the data is handled correctly said Rob Mott of Intergraph. In addition, the establishment of persistent surveillance by UAVs is likely resulting in even greater volumes of data.

Data volumes of video are so massive they are now being described in terms of "Yottabytes."

Intergraph has brought to market Motion Video Exploitation, a combination of several technology convergences: Integrated flight plans; real time video enhancements; ground target indicators; geospatially referenced video, storage and search.

And even the gaming industry is being tapped for innovation. Intergraph is adopting an Xbox controller to be integrated into the MVA button assignments in hopes of helping the analysts to be more effective. The company believes it alone can take multiple video feeds and integrate them into a 2D mapping environment.

Podcast: BI and Web 2.0 and the Latest in Location Privacy Lawsuits

This week our editors revisit two themes that continue to pop up as geospatial technology, ideas, visualization and data move into the mainstream IT world and popular culture. First we look at two announcements regarding the integration of Business Intelligence or BI, with online mapping. Then, we’ll pick apart the latest data capture privacy lawsuit - where a couple is suing Google over StreetView images of their house.

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Podcast: Interview with Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, Director, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency

Last week, Editor-in-chief, Joe Francica had the opportunity to interview Vice Admiral Robert B. Murrett, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). Adm. Murrett was appointed director of the NGA on July 7, 2006 and leads one of the largest military organizations dedicated to geospatial information gathering and intelligence analysis. Murrett discusses the organization’s current mission and the use of geospatial standards within his organization.

His staff of highly trained geospatial technologists are deployed in domestic operations to support natural disasters as well as being deployed in combat zones to support the warfighter. Prior to his appointment, Murrett served as the Director of Naval Intelligence Murrett received his bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Buffalo and master’s degrees in government and strategic intelligence from Georgetown University and the Defense Intelligence College, respectively.
The interview was recorded on August 21, 2007 and is 28 minutes in length (10Mb).

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