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Draft Report Innovative Strategies for

Geospatial Programs and Partnerships

National Geospatial Advisory Committee

NGAC MeetingOctober 4 & 5, 2011

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INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES FOR GEOSPATIAL PROGRAMS AND PARTNERSHIPS

Subcommittee:

• Dave Cowen, Co-Chair • Tim Nyerges, Co-Chair • Mark Reichardt • Bob Austin

Subcommittee gratefully acknowledges contributions:John Mahoney, coordinationTricia Gibbons, summary notes and facilitationEsri, graphics staff

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FGDC Request to NGAC

“Provide feedback and recommendations on how FGDC partner agencies can take the use of geospatial data and technology to a new level in the future by: • Strategically leveraging and influencing technologies,

policies, & trends,• Fostering a data integration environment that facilitates

better decision-making and supports place-based policies, and

• Utilizing public-private partnerships and other innovative solutions to develop geospatial data, fill critical data gaps, and leverage scarce resources.”

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Outline of Report Presentation

1. Overarching Recommendations and Background 2. Challenges Facing the FGDC3. An Extended National Spatial Data Infrastructure4. Partnership Strategies5. Geoplatform Implementation and Use Process 6. Recommended Strategies (in three categories)

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1. Overarching Recommendations

• Focus on … Geospatial Information Services (GIServices) for the Nation

• New initiative should combine the current FGDC support for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure with the functions of the Managing Partner for the Geospatial Platform.

• Two roles should be combined under the direction of General Services Administration that has a central role in the procurement process.

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Background…Portfolio Management assists coordination…

“…a portfolio management approach, …to support GeoOneStop, place-based initiatives, and other potential future programs.” This transformation will be facilitated by improving the governance framework to address the requirements of State, local and tribal agencies.”

(http://www.cio.gov/pages.cfm/page/Chapter-19-Information-Technology-Page-3)

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Federal CIO’s office also emphasized the importance of portfolio management for enforcement of OMB

Circular A-16 …geospatial data-management is among essential components

for management of the business of government and for supporting the effective and economical use of tax dollars.

…however, [it is] susceptible to constant renewal, information quality, and information management challenges.

…a portfolio-centric model cures the single agency, stovepipe model by applying consistent policy, improved organization, better governance, and understanding of the public to deliver outstanding results.

(OMB Circular A-16 Supplemental Guidance Nov 2010)

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NGAC recognizes that…

• GSA has a history of providing common solutions and services across the government.

• GSA has a lead role in cloud computing for the Federal government.

• Benefits of cloud computing include: – faster acquisition and deployment of computing

resources, – economies of scale through easier sharing of IT

services across organizations, and – lower capital equipment expenditures.

(NGAC December 2010 Minutes)

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GIS for the Nationrecognized by Congressional Research Service

• In early 2009, several proposals were released calling for efforts to create a national Geospatial Information System (GIS).

• Language in the proposals attempted to make the case for considering such efforts part of the national investment in critical infrastructure.

(Congressional Research Service Issues and Challenges for Federal Geospatial Information 2011 p. 15)

• Interpret as Geospatial Information Services for Nation

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John Mayo, former president of Bell Labs, on a fundamental problem with innovations…

Forces operating at the social gate are … a "tollgate" in the gap between the push of technology and the pull of society.

(Mayo, The Evolution of Information Technologies in Information Technologies and Social Transformation National Academy of Engineering, 1985)

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2. Challenges Facing the FGDC Challenges to coordinating how geospatial data are acquired and

used —collecting duplicative data sets, for example — at the local, state, and Federal levels, in collaboration with the private sector, are not yet resolved. The CRS specifically questions …

• Are Federal agencies coordinating their programs that have geospatial assets under OMB circular A-16 requirements?

• Is FGDC effectively fulfilling its mission? • Has this organizational structure worked? • Can the Federal government account for the costs of acquiring, coordinating,

and managing geospatial information? • How well is the Federal government coordinating with the state and local

entities that have an increasing stake in geospatial information? • What is the role of the private sector?

(Congressional Research Service Issues and Challenges for Federal Geospatial Information 2011 p. 2)

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Positive Context for FGDC to Face the Challenges

• Executive branch interest and leadership – This includes the place-based policy initiative and budget support for the Geospatial Platform

• OMB support for enforcement of Circular A-16 • Renewed senior level support for the FGDC – This includes a new leadership dialog

with the NGAC• New powerful, agile and less expensive technology that can facilitate data sharing,

discovery, retrieval, analysis and communication. – This includes maximum use of the cloud and applications that can be utilized as services.

• Effective use of open standards and open application development environments that facilitate integration of data. – This allows developers to quickly create mash-ups and utilize crowd sourced data.

• Widespread acceptance and utilization of geospatial technology. – This includes web mapping systems, personal navigation systems and a host of local based services.

• Extraordinary commercial competition in building systems and content. – This includes Google Maps, Microsoft Bing, and Esri and other industry efforts to ingest and host data and develop free applications.

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Barriers to Success…big picture challenge

One of the reform areas we're pushing very, very hard -- but it's going to require an act of Congress -- is to change the way we budget for information technology. The budget cycle takes up to two years. So these CIOs are thinking about where they're going to spend their money two years from today. Steve Jobs develops an iPhone in less time than it takes average agencies to get their budget done -- and that's just the budget, not the spending.

Uncle Sam's first CIO, Vivek Kundra, Interviewed by Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large @FortuneMagazine July 13, 2011) http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/13/news/companies/vivek_kundra_leadership.fortune/index.htm

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Federal Barriers to FGDC Coordination…

1) Political discord that inhibits development of any new initiatives2) Lack of commitment for existing programs such as FGDC and The National

Map and even Geographic Information Officers 3) Protection of existing agency budgets 4) Lack of interest in common data buys and/or licenses 5) Absence of senior level commitment to the goals of the FGDC6) Absence of a specific congressional committee 7) Inability of the FGDC to effectively track current expenditures8) No plan or justification for funding framework layers – lack of champions 9) Lack of enforcement of OMB Circular A-16 responsibilities 10) Lack of Federal government regulatory authority to acquire geospatial data

from state, local and tribal partners11) Legal constraints such as Title 13 that inhibit data sharing between the

Census Bureau and local partners 12) Poorly structured programs that do not recognize the value of geospatial

data or linkages to the other programs (Broadband Mapping) 13) Lack of financial incentives to promote data creation partnerships such as

IFTN, TFTN or PFTN 14) FGDC structure that focuses on details rather than big picture issues

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Non-Federal Barriers to FGDC Coordination…

• Poorly organized state GIS coordination • Lack of understanding by governors and state CIOs • Local data restriction policies • Lack of staff • Poor digital data assets • Poor implementation of standards • Lack of incentives• Security issues• Privacy issues • Liability issues

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From Those Barriers EmergeCoordination Lessons …

• Successful environments cannot be driven solely by top-down approaches• Unfunded mandates and supposedly one-size-fits-all solutions are not

popular. • Success requires public/private partnerships in which government plays a

leading role that involves research, education, facilitation and support. • The Federal government’s role is to provide supportive policy advice,

commitments to institutional support, and fair service-level agreements that encourage reflect local and sub-national input.

• Coordinating bodies such as the FGDC should engage in a consultative process to learn stakeholder requirements, learn about stakeholder success stories, and encourage stakeholder cooperation.

• Should be designed as a service-oriented architecture including cloud-based solutions allows a small central team to manage the external infrastructure.

• Contributing agencies can deliver a service to an extended customer base without having to expend resources to build internal infrastructure.

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3. Moving the Nation forward to …an Extended National Spatial Data Infrastructure

• Definition of the… – contents of the city, county, or local extended Framework,– contents of the state or tribal nation extended Framework,– extended Framework hardware architecture,– coordination mechanisms, and – quality standards (collection and maintenance) and procedures for the

development of the extended Framework at all levels.• Assignments for layer responsibilities• Data generation in agreement with the corresponding

Framework• Data maintenance program• Budget allocation

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…havingFederal,State, andLocal PartnerResponsibility for portions of Extended NSDI Themes

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Strategic Issues for Extended NSDI • Adopt a funding formula that provides resources to all

participants on a non-competitive basis, coupled with grants of sufficient size and duration to achieve expected outcomes.

• Fund projects that are of a sufficient scale to provide well-designed empirical tests of the hypotheses underlying the NSDI goals, and should allow for adequate documentation and dissemination of results.

• Initiate future partnership programs by the FGDC conceived in the context of all relevant partnership programs, and should be designed to augment and leverage them to achieve maximum impact.

• Develop metrics that can be used to monitor long-term progress in the adoption of the principles and programs of the NSDI among agencies at all levels of government.

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4. Partnership Strategies…

• Develop explicit guidelines such as terms of service agreements that document shared interests in information.

• Articulate common goals and let the stakeholders comment to develop shared understanding of those goals.

• Encourage pilot projects and obtain serious feedback as early as possible.

• Examine potential user experiences by developing use cases that include scenarios.

• Document contributions of funds, time, and in-kind services etc. • Encourage and promote the willingness of the public to contribute

time and energy to reviewing publically contributed data. • Build a community of trust among the participants by sharing

outcomes as soon as something is available to share• Abide by social norms that enhance knowledge building rather than

knowledge destruction.

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5. Geoplatform Development Process Roadmap Goals…

• Provide the technology and organizational framework necessary to support missions and Administration priorities (e.g. Data.gov and Place-Based Policy initiatives) with timely and accurate geospatial data and spatial analytical capabilities (including new Location-Based Policies)

• Promote sustainable governance and collaboration by promoting sharing of geospatial assets and engaging and supporting communication across stakeholders

• Enhance interoperability• Ensure accountability and transparency of geospatial and related

investments through portfolio management• Attain cost-savings and economies of scale through collaborative

acquisition, development, and management of geospatial assets• Support and implement standards and processes that establish

data quality and information assurance as criteria for assets included in the Geospatial Platform portfolio

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Geoplatform Application Workflow Steps beginning to end…

• Creation and discovery• Sharing • Storage • Query and mapping• Analysis and Interpretation • Communication • Actions

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GeoPlatform Prototype App Example… Deep Water Horizon Gulf Oil Spill Response

A application that answers…• How can we best see, understand, track, and monitor the existing,

pending, and future impacts of this event?• Where do we mobilize and apply resources to provide the greatest

good, prevent the greatest harm, and protect the life, health, and welfare of citizens?

• How do we synthesize vast information assets of the Federal, State, regional, local, and Tribal governments, the private sector, academia, and citizens to provide the on-the-ground situational awareness required to make wise decisions?

• How do we determine where proactive steps can be taken to prevent or minimize future impact such as identifying Gulf Coastal communities where aid will be required?

(Modernization Roadmap for the Geospatial Platform Version 4.0 March 2011 p.4)

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6. NGAC RECOMMENDED STRATEGIES developed out of nine NRC Reports

for the original three categories

• Strategically leverage and influence technologies, policies, & trends (1-6)

• Foster a data integration environment that facilitates better decision-making and supports place-based policies (7-13)

• Utilize public-private partnerships and other innovative solutions to develop geospatial data, fill critical data gaps, and leverage scarce resources (14-22)

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Strategically Leverage and Influence Technologies, Policies, and Trends

(Barrier - B# - from slide 16)1) Measure and Monitor Progress with the

Geospatial Platform (B7,B14)2) Funding Formula (B8)3) Grant Funding for Geospatial Data (B8, B11)4) Broader Governance and Participation (B5)5) Geospatial Platform Managing Partner (B5)6) Proactive Staff

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Foster a Data Integration Environment that Facilitates Better Decision-Making and Supports

Place-Based Policies 7) Application to Track Common Data Interests

(B4) 8) National Map Data Integration (B12) 9) Hydro Data Integration (B12)10) Tools for Data Transformation and Integration

for Coastal Data (B12)11) A Single Web Portal (B9)12) Repurposing, Reconfiguration and Reuse (B12)13) Software Sharing (B12)

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Utilize Public-Private Partnerships and Other Innovative Solutions to Develop Geospatial Data, Fill Critical Data Gaps,

And Leverage Scarce Resources

14) Create an Urban Spatial Data Infrastructure (B13)15) Broader View of FGDC Partnership Programs (B1)16) Fifty States Initiative (B10)17) Use Partnerships to Promote Inclusion of Local

Data and Perspectives (B10)18) Partner with Universities (B2)

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19) Assessment of Federal Interagency Partnerships (B3)

20) Enable Identification of Shared Interests (B12)21) Innovative Procurement (B3)22) Support the Geospatial Extension Program (B2)

Utilize Public-Private Partnerships and Other Innovative Solutions to Develop Geospatial Data, Fill Critical Data

Gaps, And Leverage Scarce Resources - Continued

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Nine NRC Reports in Last Decade 2001 2003 2004 20042003

2007 2007 2007 2009

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Thank youComments/Questions/Discussion