The purpose of the Texas Fifty States project is to develop a statewide geospatial strategic plan that includes recommendations to support NSDI initiatives in the State of Texas. A legislative report is planned for submission to the Texas Legislature on September 1, 2006. A supporting companion report / plan to the legislative report will be a Texas geospatial strategic plan / base map plan that would be completed in early 2007. The Texas Geographic Information Council (TGIC) is the State GIS Coordinating Council for Texas and co-applicant for this project.
The Texas State Legislature meets every two years, starting again in January 2007 until June 2007. Within this time period, the legislature considers legislation and passes a biennial budget. Recommendations related to NSDI initiatives must be submitted within this time period, or earlier, or these recommendations would need to wait to be submitted for the January 2009 legislative session.
Funding for this project would be used to hire temporary staff to conduct a state-to-state peer review process, which would measure the progress of Texas toward implementation of NSDI objectives and recommend approaches to overcome shortcomings. This planning process would be used to assist the Council with the development of an effective strategic plan framework and best practices that can address governance issues, architecture strategies, funding models, and approaches to increase local and regional participation in the NSDI. It is thought that the planned state-to-state peer review process may provide a better measurement on NSDI progress than other metrics that have been used in Texas in the past.
Final Report -- Digital Texas 2008
2nd Interim Report (April 2007)
Texas Department of Information Resources
Contact:
Michael Ouimet, State GIS Coordinator
Texas Department of Information Resources
512.305.9076
michael.ouimet@dir.state.tx.us
Other key contact
Rob Aanstoos, Senior GIS Analyst Texas Department of Information
Resources Strategic
512.463.7314
rob.aanstoos@dir.state.tx.us
Link to more information about the 50 States Initiative