Dear Colleagues:
We are pleased to invite you, your peers, and your organizations to
provide comments and suggestions on the proposed Geospatial Platform
initiative.
The vision for the Platform was described in the President’s Fiscal
Year 2011 budget:
“In 2010 and 2011, Federal data managers for geospatial data will move to a portfolio management approach, creating a Geospatial Platform to support Geospatial One-Stop, 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, Administration policy, and agency mission objectives. Investments will be prioritized based on business needs. The Geospatial Platform will explore opportunities for increased collaboration with Data.gov, with an emphasis on reuse of architectural standards and technology, ultimately increasing access to geospatial data.”
The Geospatial Platform will become a managed portfolio of common
geospatial data, services, and applications contributed and
administered by authoritative sources and hosted on a shared
infrastructure, for use by government agencies and partners to meet
their mission needs and the broader needs of the Nation. The
Platform aims to deliver valuable geospatial services that can be
easily accessed by government organizations and used to provide
place-based products and services to the American public.
Over the past several months, the partner agencies of the Federal
Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) have developed a draft Modernization
Roadmap document that provides a high-level implementation plan for the
Platform. The Roadmap, which is posted on www.geoplatform.gov,
describes a future-state technology architecture that leverages
industry standards and best practices, identifies processes and
organizational elements needed to help ensure success, and proposes a
strategic path forward to implement the Platform vision.
The National Geospatial Advisory Committee, whose members recently
provided comments and suggestions on the Roadmap, has endorsed the
Geospatial Platform concept. We are entering a broader, 60-day
stakeholder review process and are seeking your input. I
encourage you to review the Roadmap and provide feedback utilizing one
of the following two approaches:
- On-line: The FGDC has launched an IdeaScale website, http://geoplatform.ideascale.com, providing an online venue where stakeholders can submit ideas and comments related to the Roadmap and the Platform. IdeaScale, which has been used successfully with Data.gov and other Open Government initiatives, also offers space for stakeholders to provide meaningful feedback and enter into dialogues on conceptual and specific elements of the Roadmap and the Platform. The FGDC will use these comments and communication threads to improve the Roadmap and refine the Platform.
- Via e-mail: You, or your organization, can submit written comments directly to the FGDC at geoplatformcomments@fgdc.gov through December 2010. Please use the attached Comment Form [Excel] if you submit your comments via e-mail. Comments will be used to improve the Roadmap and refine the Geospatial Platform.
Upon completion of the stakeholder review period, the FGDC member
agencies will incorporate ideas and suggestions into the next version
of the Roadmap and move into the next phase of the Platform. We
are committed to an ongoing process for interacting with the geospatial
stakeholder community and look forward to hearing your creative
ideas.
In the upcoming weeks, the FGDC Secretariat will host a webinar(s) for
stakeholders interested in learning more about the Platform, the
stakeholder engagement process, and IdeaScale. Information
regarding the webinar(s) will be posted on www.fgdc.gov, www.geoplatform.gov, and http://geoplatform.ideascale.com.
Regards,
Ivan B. DeLoatch, Executive Director
Federal Geographic Data Committee
U.S. Geological Survey
U.S.Department of the Interior