Volunteered Geographic

Information (VGI) – More than

just dots on a map…

NWGIS User Conference

Spokane, Washington

September 17, 2010

Chris Bellusci

Scot McQueen

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Something that

represents the

industry/market

this solution

address

Agenda

Introduction

GeoEngineers Overview

What is VGI?

VGI – Gathering Public Input

VGI – Transparency in Government

VGI - Framework for Collaboration

Questions/Answers

GeoEngineers - Earth Sciences + Technology

Energy

Water & Natural

Resources

Development &

Redevelopment

Transportation

Federal

4

Market

Industries:

Agriculture,

Tribes, Forestry,

Mining,

Environmental

Management,

Conservation

· Emergency

Management

· Executive

Dashboards

· Land

Management

Systems

· Asset

Management

· Predictive

Modeling

Market

Industries:

Banking/Financial

Services, Real

Estate,

Developers,

· Land

Management

· Demographic

Studies

· Asset

Management

· Predictive

Modeling

Market

Industries:

· Marine Ports

· Railroads

· DOTS

· Port Enviro

Remediation

Solution

· Asset Mgmt

System

· Corridor

Routing

systems

Market

Industries:

BLM, HLS,

Defense, Public

Safety, Law

Enforcement

· Emergency

Management

· COP

Dashboards

· Computer

Aided Dispatch

· Asset

Management

· Predictive

Modeling

Market

Industries:

· Electric Utilities

· Oil and Gas

· Pipelines

· Renewable

Energy

· Corridor

Routing

· Smart Grid

· Incident

Management

· Vegetation

Managment

Market

Industries:

Information

Technology,

Business

Infrastructure,

System

Integration/

Implementation

· GIS/IT

Strategic Plans

· System

Integration

· Data

Management

· Planning/

Analysis

· Operational

Awareness

Transportation

Market

Energy

Market

Applied

Technology

Water &

Natural

Resources

Development &

Redevelopment

Federal

Market

GeoEngineers - Earth Sciences + Technology

Applied Technology – Solutions

GeoPredict

Watershed

Prioritization

Environmental Remediation

Mobile

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) is the

harnessing of tools to create, assemble, and disseminate

geographic data provided voluntarily by individuals

(Goodchild, 2007).

Geotagging

Geosocial networking

Collaborative mapping

Spatial Crowdsourcing

…all made feasible within the last 5 years by web

technologies

VGI – What is it?

VGI – Is it good or evil?

Better question:How can we leverage this to get important work done?

VGI – Gathering information from the public…

Budget cuts

Staff reductions

Increased Public awareness

and/or frustration

Transparency in Government

…And a “Google Generation”

VGI – Gathering

Public InputDepartment of Archaeology and

Historic Preservation

Historic Property Inventory (HPI) – Project Problem

Historic Property Inventory – Our Approach

Manage data from historic property inventory surveys

conducted by private and public entities and citizens.

Leverage “volunteer” GIS or data management concept

Over 60,000 properties in system

400 registered users (other agencies, partners,

neighborhood assoc., etc.)

Historic Property Inventory – Integration

• Text SAW is a single entry portal for applications owned/hosted by Washington State DIS

HPI is the first ArcGISServer application integrated with SAW

Historic Property Inventory – Spatial Editing

Create an inventory – look for

existing properties or add new one

Performs spatial queries to pull in

attribute data like county, PLSS,

and quad names

Historic Property Inventory – Query and Report Data

User sees “dashboard” of

their respective surveys

Each survey contains 1 or

even thousands of individual

properties or inventories.

Historic Property Inventory – Rich User Experience

It’s all about the data -

capturing rich information

supplied and maintained

by the public.

VGI – Transparency in

Government

City of Seattle

Spatial Data Sharing

City of Seattle – Project Problem

• Seattle home to multiple technology companies

• Seattle Mayor McGinn Open Data Initiative -mandates sharing all City data

• Wants to engage potential collaborators to utilize them to meet public needs

• Releases http://data.seattle.gov for tabular data but no geospatial component

City of Seattle – Project Problem

How do we best integrate the City’s GIS data into this framework to meet the Mayor’s initiative?

OneBusAway – Poster child for Mayor’s Goals

Data Sharing Workshops - Findings

1. Inadequate metadata existed for spatial data

2. Vision for data sharing “why and how” not clear to public

or internally

3. Clear path to collaboration not established – public

outreach and support needed

4. Existing data.seattle.gov lacked GIS integration

capabilities

5. No mechanism to share GIS data internally or to the

public

Data Sharing - Recommendations

1. Develop a Communication Plan for data sharing

a) Clear public communication and outreach

b) Stewardship approach of online GIS data sharing

c) Identification of intended Users (public,

expert/scientific users, developers, internal

departments)

d) Collaboration Framework – lays groundwork for

partnerships

e) Public Contests – intent and timelines

Open Data - Communication Plan

Communication Plan Embodied

Open data advertised

on initial web page

Expand concept for each user type

Example of structuring the communication of the data/ resources available

Clear communication about data maintenance and enhancements

as well as Governance issues

GIS/Spatial Data - Recommendations

1. Prioritize, consolidate, and archive GIS data

2. Develop a Role-based User access management Plan

3. Complete a minimum level of metadata – 11 key

elements

4. Optimize risk assessment process and utilize for GIS

datasets

5. Implement near- and long-term data update plans

6. Establish Hosting Capacity Requirements

Infrastructure - Recommendations

1. Utilize ESRI’s GeoPortal Extension to Extend

data.seattle.gov

a) City has ELA with ESRI

b) Extension has been implemented widely

c) Full integration with ArcGIS desktop speeding data and metadata

latency

2. Host a “Data Sharing Platform Integration” workshop

a) Include appropriate City, ESRI, and Socrata staff

b) Require software partners to participate to retain role in data

sharing at the City

c) Goal: Develop integration points between the two platforms

Make it easier to findSeattle based apps. Particularly those that are in alignment with the vision for the city.

Develop User Group Specificcommunication

Data Sharing - Platform Integration Workshop

VGI – Framework for

CollaborationIdaho Office of Species

Consvervation

Idaho Office of Species Conservation (OSC)

Business Problem – Watershed Project Prioritization

OSC – Business Problem

Prioritization Score/Report Possible Grant

Funding

Public Support through visibility

OSC – Solution Framework

•Designed to work with both hosted and cloud environments

Scalable Architecture

•Built on top of DotNetNuke Web Content Management Framework

•Open Source Framework

Web Frameworks

•Built using ESRI’s new Feature Server Editing Capabilities

ArcGIS Server 10

•Leverages DotNetNuke Security Model

•Active Directory or SQL AuthenticationSecurity

OSC – End User Involvement and Collaboration

ArcGIS Server 10 – REST Editing Framework and ArcGIS Server Silverlight API

Registered users create, modify, and report spatial content in a collaborative framework

VGI – Lessons Learned

• Have a plan and dynamic way of delivering it • Why you’re doing it,

• What you want

• How collaboration happens

• Get your data in order• Metadata – 11 key elements

• “Templates” and Design overcome “authoritative data” problems

• Engage the lawyers…

• Solid Technology Framework• Allows interaction at different levels (public, expert, developer, internal)

• Allows different solutions to come together (ESRI, Google, Socrata, etc)

• Understand Total Cost of Ownership

• Path to funding mechanisms

Discussion/Questions

Chris Bellusci

Email: cbellusci@geoengineers.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisbellusci

Scot McQueen

Email: smcqueen@geoengineers.com

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/scotmcqueen

Recommendations - Elements of Metadata as Applied to City of Seattle GIS Data Management

Standard Metadata Elements SPU Considerations Recommended Metadata attributes and elements.

1. Content Description (abstract, purpose)

2. Content Keywords (theme and place keywords)

3. Time Period of Content (beginning/end dates)

4. Distribution Information

User Group Identification ( which user group/s will be able to view/access the data)

5. Publishing Identification Information

Metadata management Meta management tools

Planning for strategic content keywords

Categorize content keywords

6. Currentness Reference (publication date, revision date)

7. Content Status (complete, in work, planned)

Identify update requirements and set schedule

Maintenance and Update Frequency

Metadata management tool to track, sort, update data, and to alert time-incremental data update requirements (annual updates, etc)

8. Spatial Domain(geographic domain of the data set)

Bounding Coordinates

West, East, North, South

Metadata management tools to track and manage domain information.

9. Spatial Data Information Data Projection

Data Type (vector, grid)

Data Format (Shapefile, geodatabase, etc.)

Meta data attributes

Management tool

10. Access Constraints(limits on data accessibility)

Restrictions and legal prerequisites for accessing the data set.

Implement or leverage tool components which allow for user authentication within a specified user group.

User accountability.

User contact information.

11. Use Constraints (limits on data use)

Restrictions and legal prerequisites for using the data set after access is granted.

Implement or leverage tool components which allow for user authentication within a specified user group.

User accountability.

User contact information.