State and Local Government

Is it time for a global licensing framework for geospatial data? The GSDI Legal and Economic Working group thinks so and offered a presentation and a way forward at the GSDI 13 conference held in Quebec City in May. The effort aims to harmonize existing licensing without changing fundamental access policies and funding models and be compatible with the diferences in national legal systems. That's a tall order, but an important one as the world moves toward geodata sharing. Geoff Zeiss reports.

Non-government organization (NGO) activity in developing countries is difficult to track due to limited infrastructure. URISA’s GISCorps, which coordinates short-term, volunteer-based GIS services to underprivileged communities, was asked to assist the

Bike Score is the biking equivalent to Walk Score; it’s a measure of the bikeability of cities. 

In a well-shared article from May 7, the Atlantic Cities explores the work of Bruce Appleyard, who studied children’s mental maps (cognitive mapping a la Kevin Lynch) of their neighborhoods. The unfortunate headline is “Kids Who Get Driven Everywhere Don't Know Where They're Going.” Sadly, that's not what the uncited research, from 2005, concludes.

On Monday of this week, Detroit Works, the agency planning the future of that city, rolled out both a game and a social network to get its citizens involved in the planning process. 

It was just about 4:00 on April 26 when the GIS coordinator Greg Sullivan and a colleague began spreading the word that employees should evacuated. A staffer had found an envelope with white powder inside while cleaning up. She called the police, who made the decision to evacuate. The letter had apparently been “dropped off” at the GIS area of the Greenwich, CT Information Technology Department and not been routed from the mail room.

Last Friday's Chicago Sun Times article

As we continue to introduce you to some of your colleagues in GIS, this week we meet Kerry L. Wright, the city of Tampa's GIS supervisor for the Enterprise Applications Division of the Department of Technology and Innovation. 

State and local government users of geospatial technology are some of our most avid readers. In addition to caring for the day to day management and delivery of data, services and maps, they must keep up with local and national policy and trends. These offerings from the first quarter of 2012 highlight some challenges and opportunities that might be in store in the coming months and years.