FGDC Standards Working Group 1997 Accomplishments

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Goal 1 - Increase awareness of the NSDI
Objective 1 - Promote development, maintenance, and management of NSDI standards.
    Action 1 - Provide educational sessions on various topics to FGDC membership. - PARTIAL
  • Feature registry project briefings to most subcommittees.
  • Several briefings to Coordination Group.
    Action 2 - Increase the use of the Internet for reporting activities and distributing documents. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • New Web page designed and implemented.
  • All standards proposals on Web page and linked to standards.
  • Implemented use of PDF for standards documents.
Objective 2 - Assist the FGDC in facilitating the implementation of FGDC standards.
    Action 1 - Develop directives for FGDC standards proposals, development and maintenance. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Directive for proposals completed and implemented.
  • Directive for formatting completed and implemented.
  • Directive for maintenance drafted.
  • Directive for conformance drafted.
  • Directive for definition of guidelines, standards, and policy drafted.
    Action 2 - Coordinated approval of FGDC developed profiles of the SDTS among the FGDC, the development group, and the maintenance agency. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Coordinated approval of the Point Profile, Part 6, among the FGDC
  • Geodetic Subcommittee, NOAA and the USGS.
  • Coordinated draft proposal of the Raster Profile, Part 5, among the FGDC
  • Base Cartographic Subcommittee, NIMA, and the USGS.
  • Coordinated draft proposal of the CADD Profile, among FGDC Facilities
  • Working Group, the USACE, and the USGS.
    Action 3 - Assist the FGDC Secretariat with review and evaluation of CCAP and Framework projects relating to geospatial data standards. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Standards Working Group subgroup met and pre-evaluated standards related proposals.
  • Standards Working Group members participated in the final evaluation of proposals.

GOAL 2 - Develop common solutions for discovery, access, and use of geospatial data.
Objective 1 - Continue development of the FGDC standards process.

    Action 1 - Complete the Integrated Features Registry Project - IN PROGRESS
  • Task and target completion date redefined.
  • Prototype database developed.
  • Database population tools developed.
  • All but one subcommittee briefed.
  • Limited contribution of feature content data from subcommittees.
    Action 2 - Continue to develop the FGDC Standards Reference Model. - PARTIAL
  • FGDC Reference Model compared to the ISO/TC 211 (international technical committee on geographic information/geomatics) Reference Model.
  • Briefing was given to the Standards Working Group recommending next steps for continued development of the FGDC Standards Reference Model.
  • Editorial changes made to the Reference Model and issued in 1997.
    Action 3 - Identify areas where Department of Defense and FGDC standards can be harmonized. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • FGDC sponsored SDTS Raster Profile and NIMA sponsored Basic Image Interchange Format activities brought together.
  • DOD requirements added to the FGDC Digital Orthoimagery standard.
  • DOD requirements added to the FGDC Digital Elevation Data standard.
    Action 4 - Coordinate the revision of the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) with the development of the NSDI Clearinghouse. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Brought the CSDGM revision into the formal FGDC standards process.
  • Brought the Digital Geospatial Metadata Implementation Standard proposal into the formal FGDC standards process.
  • Recommended and gained support for an independent metadata standards subgroup to coordinate the CSDGM revision, the implementation standards for Clearinghouse, and the international metadata standard activity (ISO 15046-15).
    Action 5 - Coordinate FGDC standards activities with State and local governments, the private sector, and the academic community. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Attempts to gain Nation States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) and National Association of Counties (NACo) representation in standards activities through use of open meetings and teleconferencing, though producing limited results for the Standards Working Group directly, has produced significant increased participation for other subcommittees and working groups.
  • Attempts to gain more State and local government participation in standards activities by including NSGIC and NACo in mailings and announcements has produced results when accompanied by funding.
  • Private sector participation in the Standards Working Group was granted to Blue Angel Technologies, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, and the OpenGIS Consortium with Lockheed becoming an active, contributing member.
  • A contract with the University Consortium for Geographic Information Sciences was established to provide basic research in support of geospatial data standards.
    Action 6 - Support the development of the data model for the NSDI Framework Data. - PARTIAL
  • A better understanding of the relationship between the framework data model activity and other FGDC standards activities was reached.
  • Results of the UCGIS contract is expected to benefit the Framework data model activity.
  • The Standards Working Group contributed to the revision of the Framework Handbook specifically for standards issues.

GOAL 3 - Use community-based approaches to develop and maintain geospatial data.
Objective 1 - Assure that the standards developed are coordinated with State and local governments, the private sector, and interested societies and associations.
    Action 1 - Facilitate non-federal participation in FGDC standards development - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Opened the Standards Working Group to all outside groups and individuals.
  • Improved Web pages to facilitate easy access to the Standards Working Group information and standards process.
  • Improved document distribution to facilitate easy access to standards proposals and draft documents.
  • Revised standards process to facilitate outside community awareness of FGDC standards activities early in the process, for example, public review of proposals.
  • Monitored the FGDC grant processes.
Objective 2 - Support the transfer of responsibility for the SDTS to the American National Standards Institute GIS Subcommittee X3L1.
    Action 1 - In cooperation with ANSI X3L1 ad hoc Working Group 1, develop a process for ANSI approval of SDTS profiles. - PARTIAL
  • The National Committee for Information Technology Standards (NCITS) L1, formerly X3L1, was briefed on alternatives for maintenance of SDTS profiles, tentative agreement has been reached but not documented. Action 2 - Support and participate in the ISO/TC 211 metadata standard activity and coordinate that activity with the FGDC metadata revision. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Under the Standards Working Group initiative an independent working group was established to coordinate FGDC metadata revision with ISO/TC 211.
  • Metadata Working Group Chair is an FGDC-sponsored U.S. Expert to the ISO/TC 211 metadata project.
  • The NIMA representative to the Standards Working Group continues to lead the ISO/TC 211 metadata project.

GOAL 4 - Build relationships among organizations to support the continuing development of the NSDI.
Objective 1 - Coordinate the standards activities of the subcommittees and working groups of the FGDC.
    Action 1 - Conduct review of the standards and standard proposals for their readiness to advance to the next stage in the standards process. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Completed the final review of the Vegetation, Soils, and SDTS Point Profile standards.
  • Completed review for public comment of the Digital Orthoimagery, Digital Elevation Data, Digital Geospatial Metadata (version 2), Utility Data, Facility ID, and the Geospatial Positioning Accuracy (Parts 1, 2, and 3) standards.
  • Completed new standards proposal reviews for Address Content, Environmental Hazards, Swath Data Model, Geologic Data Model, Geologic Symbology, Metadata Encoding, Metadata Profile for Cultural and Demographic Data, Metadata Profile for Biological Resources Data, Shoreline, and Geospatial Positioning Accuracy (Part 4) standards.
    Action 2 - Continue to refine the process and criteria the Standards Working Group will use to evaluate standards being developed. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • New process for public review of proposals added to gain more awareness at the beginning of the process.
  • Streamlined process by making Coordination Group approval coincide with the Standards Working Group approvals.
  • Added requirements for "boilerplate" section for FGDC standards, which includes a section on maintenance.
Objective 2 - Coordinate the development of NSDI standards with national and international standards bodies.
    Action 1 - Promote and coordinate the completion of the Geospatial Accuracy Standard - ACCOMPLISHED
  • An integrated multi-part standard was created with contribution from the Geodetic, Base Cartographic, Facilities and Bathymetric Subcommittees, with initial parts having completed public review.
    Action 2 - Continue to encourage the FGDC member participation in the American National Standard Institute (ANSI) and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) quality standards activities. - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Drafts of the ISO Quality standard have been distributed for comment to the Standards Working Group membership.
    Action 3 - Maintain awareness of the activities of the OpenGIS Consortium - PARTIAL
  • OpenGIS was welcomed as a Standards Working Group member but participation by the OpenGIS Consortium has been minimal.
  • Standards Working Group members continue to participate in OpenGIS activities.
    Action 4 - Share information with NIMA IPT - ACCOMPLISHED
  • Information was shared through NIMA representation on the Standards Working Group and through contributions of the FGDC to the IPT final report.

OTHER ACCOMPLISHMENTS
  • Standards Working Group members participated in workshops and draft report reviews of the National Academy of Public Administration's study which addressed, in part, FGDC standards activities.
  • Standards Working Group members participated in the National Sciences Committee's study which addressed, in part, geospatial data standards.
  • Standards Working Group members continue to participate as members of the American National Standards Institute accredited subcommittee on Geographic Information System standards and the International Organization for Standardization's technical committee for Geographic information/Geomatics.