Persons Attending:
Bruce Ambacher (National Archives), Gerry Barton (NOAA), Angela Bottom (State), Kim Burns-Braidlow (FGDC), Dave Catlin (EPA), Kathy Covert (FGDC), Mark DeMulder (USGS), Alan Gaines (National Science Foundation), Hank Gary (NSGIC), Charles Grymes (Fish and Wildlife), Richard Hogan (Standards Working Group), Millington Lockwood (NOAA), Win Lyday (NACo), Deidre McCarthy (National Park Service), M.K. Miles (Corp of Engineers), John Moeller (FGDC), David Morehouse (Energy), Maury Nyquist (Biologic Resource Division), Tom Palmerlee (UCGIS), Rick Pearsall (FGDC), Barbara Poore (FGDC), Milo Robinson (National Geodetic Survey), Bruce Spear (BTS)
Review of December Action Items:
Action 1: (Ms. Kuhlman will follow up on the survey results by analyzing the cross-correlation of the results and she will report her findings to the Coordination Group.) Status - Incomplete. FGDC Staff will coordinate with Ms. Kuhlman on her return to a Coordinatin Group meeting.
Action 2: (Coordination Group members are to review their agencies membership in the SWG to ensure they are fully represented and take steps to ensure the agency is well represented.) Status - Ongoing.
Action 4: (SWG provide Coordination Group with electronic copy of Status of Standards. Also consider placing the one page status document on the SWG home page.) Status - Complete. The electronic version is located at: http://www.fgdc.gov/Standards/Status/Textstatus.html
Action 5: (SWG will consider adding additional requirements to new proposals and standards to include the impact of the proposed standard and the groups that will be effected by the standard. The SWG will report back the changes at the February Coordination meeting.) Status - Ongoing.
Action 6: (Barbara Poore and Mr. Lockwood will meet and draft a charter for the proposed working group.) Status - Complete.
Action 7: (Subcommittees and Working Groups which have Framework category data ensure that there are standards in development that will address Framework needs.) Status - Ongoing.
Action 8: (Ms. Burns-Braidlow will notify participants for UCGIS Working Teams from the list submitted to Mr. Moeller.) Status - Complete.
Action 9: (Coordination Group review and comment on the Subcommittee on Cultural and Demographic Data Cultural Resources Work Group Charter to Deidre McCarthy, Deidre_McCarthy@nps.gov, by December 17th.) Status - Complete. Ms. McCarthy presented the final charter. She reported no comments were received from the Coordination Group during the review period.
Action 10: (Subcommittee and Working Group Chairs ensure the completion of 1997 and 1998 reports and plans.) Status - Incomplete.
Action 11: (Support the establishment of an FGDC and OGC co-sponsored group to be an OGC Federal Special Interest Group and FGDC liaison. This group would seek to provide broad involvement of FGDC agencies in technology issues with the OGC; would provide a forum for collective working activities among FGDC agencies and with OGC members; and would provide a mechanism for further development of this initial Testbed as a broader "federated" Testbed.) Status - Ongoing.
Action 12: (Schedule a second round of demos in a few months). Status - Incomplete.
Action 13: (USDA will define more specifically what tasks it wishes to accomplish through its agreement with MIT and when they will need to be completed. USDA has interest in collaborating with FGDC agencies in using the MIT agreement to meet the greater NSDI needs.)
Status - Ongoing.
New Agenda Items:
Win Lyday, NACo, distributed a notice of the Institute for Land Information, 1998 Brown Bag Lunch Series handout that lists topics and dates for lectures. Ms. Lyday encourages Coordination Group members to participate and support these lectures.
Angela Bottom, State Department, notified members the State Department will be hosting a Digital Map Expo, March 24. If anyone is interested in participating in the Expo, contact Angela Bottom, (202) 647-1205. More information will be forthcoming.
Action: State Department will send detailed information on the Digital Map Expo to Coordination Group members when available.
John Moeller, FGDC, distributed the announcement of Open Period for Transmittal of Applications - NSDI Partnership Funding Programs for Fiscal Year 1998. Mr. Moeller will send the Coordination Group this announcement in electronic form when available. Coordination Group members are invited to nominate "panelist" to review the funding proposal applications. All nominees should be submitted to Jennifer Fox, jafox@usgs.gov
Action: FGDC Staff will send Coordination Group members electronic copy of Funding Program Announcement.
Electronic Dissemination of Correspondence:
It was discussed whether or not to continue sending out minutes of the Coordination Group meetings in a multiple of word processing formats since the minutes are posted on the web. Decision: The Group agreed there currently is a need to continue sending the various formats, however, there will be a transition period of 4 months in which at the end of this time, members will access the minutes directly from the web when notified the minutes are available.
Communication Working Group:
Barbara Poore, FGDC, distributed the charter for the proposed Communications Working Group and asked that members review and provide comments on the charter and nominees for membership by the next Coordination Group meeting, February 3rd. The membership of the Communications Working Group will include representatives from Federal agencies, as well as non-federal organizations. Non-federal participants may seek limited funding assistance for travel from the FGDC by contacting Barbara Poore, (703) 648-5971.
Action: Coordination Group review Communication Charter and provide comments to Barbara Poore. Members are also asked to provide Ms. Poore nominees for representatives to this working group. Both are due February 3rd.
Ms. Poore also presented several FGDC produced documents including factsheets on various programs such as clearinghouse and metadata. The FGDC material has a professional look and content. Ms. Poore explained the FGDC material is available to members for distribution at workshops, conferences, etc. Anyone interested in obtaining FGDC material may call Jennifer Fox, (703) 648-5514.
The Winter FGDC newsletter will be available soon.
Action: Subcommittees and Working Groups should submit articles for the FGDC newsletter highlighting noteworthy NSDI activities to David Painter, dpainter@usgs.gov by February 3rd.
Redesign of the FGDC Web Page:
John Moeller discussed the redesign of the FGDC web pages and stated these pages are a reflection of the FGDC group. The FGDC Staff provide the design and access links for these pages, however, it is the responsibility of the Agencies/Subcommittees/Working Groups to provide the content for these pages and maintain the currentness. If anyone notices errors or broken web links contact Barbara Poore.
The group agreed they would like to see the FGDC on-line calendar contain the meeting dates of all the Subcommittee and Working Groups.
Action: Subcommittees and Working Groups provide Jennifer Fox, jafox@usgs.gov, with your scheduled meeting dates if you have not already done so.
Standards Working Group Status Report:
Richard Hogan presented the Status of Standards as of December 16, 1997. This document is now available on-line at http://www.fgdc.gov/Standards/Standards.html. Mr. Hogan reported the Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) is about to enter into the ANSI public review process.
Mr. Hogan reported membership in the Standards Working Group (SWG) consists of 8 agencies/organizations that consistently participate in the working group. These agencies are: NIMA, Census, NASA, NOAA, USGS, Corp of Engineers, FEMA, and Lockheed Martin. Mr. Hogan also explained many of these active agencies are also involved in international standards. The remaining agencies/organizations appear to participate only when there is development on a standard that they are interested in. A question was raised as to whether or not state or local governments can participate in the SWG. Mr. Hogan said there are non-federal participants currently on the SWG. Mr. Moeller commented FGDC has a limited amount of funding for non-federal agencies to assist in their participation in the SWG.
Rick Pearsall distributed an overview of a draft Standards Working Group directive document explaining the responsibilities of becoming the Maintenance Authority for a standard. The FGDC Metadata Standard is currently lacking a Maintenance Authority . Since Metadata is a cross cutting activity, the question of whether a specific agency should be assigned the responsibility of Maintenance Authority was raised. The group also discussed whether the FGDC Staff could be considered as the Maintenance Authority agency for this standard. This will be addressed along with the interests of other agencies at a future Coordination Group meeting.
Action: Rick Pearsall will prepare and distribute a letter that addresses the issues surrounding a Maintenance Authority for the Metadata standard.
January Steering Committee Meeting:
John Moeller discussed the agenda for the upcoming Steering Committee. The meeting will focus on items of importance to states and local governments. Twenty-four State Councils, NACo, NLC, and NSGIC will meet for a one day meeting prior to the Steering Committee meeting to capture and present their collective efforts to further the NSDI. There will also be a discussion of the NAPA Study and the opportunities the study presents for furthering the NSDI progress.
FGDC Privacy Policy Statement:
Kathy Covert, FGDC, presented the final draft of the Policy Statements on Access to Public Information and Protection of Personal Information Privacy in Federal Digital Geospatial Databases for Coordination Group endorsement. Decision: The Coordination Group endorsed the Privacy Policy Statement.
Next Coordination Group Meeting:
The next meeting is scheduled for:
February 3rd, 1998 from 9:00-12:00
US Army Corps of Engineers
Pulaski Building, 8th floor, Room 8222D
20 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
Directions:
2 Blocks west of Union Station
ACTION ITEMS
Date Issued Action
12/97 Action: (Ms. Kuhlman will follow up of the survey results by analyzing the cross-correlation of the results and she will report her findings to the Coordination Group.) Status - Incomplete. FGDC Staff will coordinate with Ms. Kuhlman on her return to a Coordinatin Group meeting.
12/97 Action: (Coordination Group members are to review their agencies membership in the SWG to ensure they are fully represented and take steps to ensure the agency is well represented.) Status - Ongoing.
12/97 Action: (SWG will consider adding additional requirements to new proposals and standards to include the impact of the proposed standard and the groups that will be effected by the standard. The SWG will report back the changes at the February Coordination meeting.) Status - Ongoing.
12/97 Action: (Subcommittees and Working Groups which have Framework category data ensure that there are standards in development that will address Framework needs.) Status - Ongoing.
12/97 Action: (Subcommittee and Working Group Chair ensure the completion of 1997 and 1998 reports and plans.) Status - Incomplete.
12/97 Action: (Support the establishment of an FGDC and OGC co-sponsored group to be an OGC Federal Special Interest Group and FGDC liaison. This group would seek to provide broad involvement of FGDC agencies in technology issues with the OGC; would provide a forum for collective working activities among FGDC agencies and with OGC members; and would provide a mechanism for further development of this initial Testbed as a broader "federated" Testbed.) Status - Ongoing.
12/97 Action: (Schedule a second round of demos in a few months). Status - Incomplete.
12/97 Action: (USDA will define more specifically what tasks it wishes to accomplish through its agreement with MIT and when they will need to be completed. USDA has interest in collaborating with FGDC agencies in using the MIT agreement to meet the greater NSDI needs.) Status - Ongoing.
01/98 Action: State Department will send detailed information on the Digital Map Expo to Coordination Group members when available.
01/98 Action: FGDC Staff will send Coordination Group members electronic copy of Funding Program Annoucement.
01/98 Action: Coordination Group review Communication Charter and provide comments to Barbara Poore. Members are also asked to provide Ms. Poore nominees for representatives to this working group. Both are due February 3rd.
01/98 Action: Subcommittees and Working Groups should submit articles for the FGDC newsletter highlighting noteworthy NSDI activities to David Painter, dpainter@usgs.gov by February 3rd.
01/98 Action: Subcommittees and Working Groups provide Jennifer Fox, jafox@usgs.gov, with your scheduled meeting dates if you have not already done so.
01/98 Action: Rick Pearsall will prepare and distribute a letter that addresses the issues surrounding a Maintenance Authority for the Metadata standard.