The Geographic Information Coordinating Council adopted ten recommendations for geospatial data sharing at the November 7, 2007 meeting. The ad hoc Committee worked through several drafts, soliciting wide public comment, before presenting the final recommendations.
For a two-page summary of the recommendations and core best practices, click here. For the full report, click here.
The ten recommendations include:
- Avoid formal agreements between agencies
- Web access for data handling and distribution
- Establish secure access sites when necessary
- Free data exchange between government agencies
- Publish single point of contact for data within each organization
- Employ regional solutions for data collection and data sharing when appropriate
- Acquire data only from original sources and official outlets
- Establish archive and long term data access strategies
- Display NC OneMap brand on collaborative websites
- Outreach to local governments and state agencies
The attachments referenced in the recommendations, include:
- Attachment A: Requests by State Agencies for Geospatial Data Produced by Local Government
- Attachment B: Guidelines for Providing Appropriate Access to Geospatial Data in Response to Security Concerns
- Attachment C: NC OneMap Implementation: Initial Data Layers to Serve
- Attachment D: Data Sharing Committee Business Case Summaries
- Attachment D1: American Forests and CITYGreen, “Calculating the Value of Nature”
- Attachment D2: Parcel Data and Hurricane Isabel: A Case Study
Background on the ad hoc Committee
At the August 16, 2006 meeting of the Geographic Information Coordinating Council (GICC), the chair of the Local Government Committee (LGC) presented a report describing issues related to state government agencies’ requests to local governments for local government data, such as land ownership (parcel) data and orthophotography. The LGC report documented the problems; described the burden that these requests place on local governments with limited staff and resources; and summarized the major issues involved, including:
- Redistribution of Data by a State Agency—Local and state policies vary
- Data Currency
- Space Limitations
- Documentation
- Formal Agreements
The LGC initially recommended “…that the state designate a single state agency to serve as a clearinghouse for all data requests by state government agencies to local governments,” but acknowledged that “a mix of policy, process, and technology solutions will be required to solve the problem.”
The GICC established the ad hoc committee on February 7, 2007 to study the problem and develop specific recommendations. The committee, which includes local, state, and federal government representatives and others from the NC GIS community, first met on March 17. Chaired by GICC member Bill Holman, the group presented a draft set of recommendations at the GICC’s August 8 meeting. These were extensively reviewed by the Local Government Committee and other user committees. A final version incorporating that feedback was presented for adoption at the November 7, 2007 GICC meeting.
All parties involved acknowledge that there is a better way to handle data sharing. We are confident that together we can resolve this issue as the GIS community.
Members of the 2007 ad hoc committee on Data Sharing:
Bill Holman, Chair, Duke University Visiting Scholar
Anne Payne, Wake County GIS
Colleen Sharpe, City of Raleigh
Chris Koltyk, Moore County
John Spurrell, NC League of Municipalities
Rebecca Troutman, NC Association of County Commissioners
Jake Petrosky, Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization
Steve Strader, USGS National Geospatial Programs Office
Doug Newcomb, US Fish and Wildlife Service
John C. Farley, NC Department of Transportation
Allan Sandoval, NC Department of Commerce
Tim Johnson, Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
Zsolt Nagy, Center for Geographic Information and Analysis
Jim Dolan, NC Office of State Budget & Management
Richard Taylor, NC Wireless 911 Board
Steve Morris, NC State University Libraries