Site: Library of Congress, 101 Independence Ave. SE, Madison Building
Welcome by John Moeller and John Hebert, Chief of the Geography and Map Division at the Library of Congress
Recorder: Katie Ryan
Facility ID Standard Discussion:
Julie Binder Maitra briefed the Coordination Group on the Facility ID Standard. The Standard Working Group has voted to approve the standard provided that developer answer criticism, on the issue of cost and implementability. Julie requested that the group not vote today.
M.K. Miles is concerned that the Department of Defense may not use the standard because they have one and the cost of changing may prohibit this. He asked if agencies are required to use the standard?
John Moeller replied that the EO requires the use of the standard, but that we don=t want to formalize a standard if we are aware that a problem exists.
Bruce Spear from the Department of Transportation raised the issue that airports already have two ID's and no requirement for cross-walking between different ID's.
Fred Broome from Census spoke on the difficulty of any cross agency standard to describe a facility. He believes this may be beyond the scope of the FGDC, and stated it is perhaps a bureaucratic issue, currently there is no independent agency with authority. Authority, similar to that of the BGN needs to be agreed upon.
John Moeller suggested that the Standard go back to the working group, and Julie concurred. The standard will have a two week review period. Julie said much of the concern comes out of the experience with the GRID Standard.
David Morehouse asked if USGS could maintain the registry as a part of the names work???
- ACTION: Back to the Standards Working Group, Presentation at the next Coordination Group in February. Dave Catlin from EPA will take the lead.
Review of National Shoreline Data Content Standard:
Anne Hale Miglarese reported that she has taken over the Bathymetric Standards Group and has Hydrographic Metadata and other standards coming forward. She then reported on the National Shoreline Data Content Standard. The objectives of the standard are to provide shoreline specific metadata elements for comprehensive documentation of shoreline and related data sets, and to provide a basis for understanding the complexities of shoreline data. The scope of the standard provides the format and contents for describing and understanding shoreline data. The standard development process was explained in detail beginning with a Workshop at NOAA CSC in the fall of 1997, and ending at the public review period. On December 15, 1999 the SWG approved the Shoreline Metadata Profile for Public Review. The public review plan was disclosed, several reviewers have been identified from NOAA, FMRI and the State of North Carolina, the Standard will be accessible from the NOAA CSC web page and from the FGDC web page (http://www.csc.noaa.gov/shoreline/ or http://www.fgdc.gov/standards/). Mass email will be sent to a Coastal GIS list server maintained by the NOAA CSC. The Standard was endorsed to go for public review for 90-120 days.
Briefing from the National Response Center
Captain Dennis Eagan was slated to give this presentation but was absent. Chuck Croner from the CDC gave a brief report. The National Response Center was established in 1974 to review reports of hazardous oil spills anywhere in the U.S. Captain Dennis Eagan was going to propose to from a coalition for studying methods for data collection. For more information look at http://www.nrc.uscg.mil.
This brief explanation brought to the forefront the overlapping responsibilities of many agencies. It was overwhelming decided that the Coordinating group of the FGDC needs to hear from Captain Eagan on the status of his proposal. It was also largely acknowledged that the FGDC needs to be interacting on a wider basis even within active agencies.
- ACTION: Chuck will invite Captain Dennis Eagan to report on his proposal. The coordinating group will receive a briefing on his work before his appearance.
Subcommittee on Base Cartographic Data
Jim Jancaitis was not available to do this presentation
FGDC Policies Discussion
John Moeller reviewed possible issues that FGDC needs to consider for policy development:
- Data Sharing
Privacy and access
Cooperating groups
International Cooperation.
Other possible topics:
- Pricing
Licensing
Copyright
Standards Implementation
Comments on the possible issues to work on:
David Morehouse - federal GIS procurement is an existing policy issue that has sort of Adied@. There is a task force on this, but the group has not been active.
M.K. Miles and Fred Broome - more coordination between federal agencies is very important, this cannot be understated.
Bruce Spear - are we trying to redefine the FGDC mission? This is the mission of the Design Team to give new direction and focus to the FGDC.
Marilyn Buford - some real negative incentives for procuring and cooperating can develop, we must be aware of this.
Fred - the coordination of agencies does not mean the sharing of dollars.
Chuck - agrees with coordination needs, example... an NSF proposal for GIS data storage that was not reviewed by the FGDC, and would have benefitted from review.
M.K. - why is pricing on your list?
John - some agencies have expressed interest in working on this, i.e. NOAA.
Bruce Spear - the FGDC is not a policy making body, discussion should be in the spirit of data sharing. Unless agencies want our input it reinforces our irrelevance.
John - if member agencies say it is useful then policy discussion is relevant. Procurement is an example.
Bruce Ambacher - creating best-practices models will be useful.
Ann Hale Miglarese- agree, with Bruce. An informational session on agency agreements would be useful, i.e. CRADA=s etc...
- Conclusion: Continue to work on current relevant issues.
ACTION: Will wait to hear from the Design Study Team.
Old or New Business:
Julie - response to the Spatial Data Transfer Standard part 7 has been weak, please contact me if you need another copy. Jmaitra@usgs.gov
Katie Ryan - passed out information on the International Geographical Union (IGU) 29th International Congress in Seoul, Korea from August 14 - 18, 2000. The Library of Congress is submitting all digital products, maps, atlases, books and periodicals that they receive. Trying to get federal agencies to participate. Information will be sent to all FGDC members.
Attendees:
David Morehouse DOE Anne Hale Miglarese NOAA Gilbert J. Mitchell NOAA, NOS, NGS Moody K. Miles Army Corps. Of Engineers Margarette Shovlin EPA Dave Catlin EPA Ivan DeLoatch EPA Bruce Ambacher NARA Wendy Blake-Coleman EPA Jan Morton USGS Gary Fitzpatrick LOC Bert Jarreau NACO Leslie Weiner-Leandro FEMA Fred Broome Census Chris Ray Census Chuck Croner DHHS Bruce Spear DOT John Moeller FGDC Marilyn Buford USDA/FS Julie Binder Maitra FGDC John Hebert LOC Katie Ryan LOC George Cross USDA/NRCS Sylvia Graff NOAA/NESDIS David Vercelli NOAA/NESDIS