GSDI – From Concepts to Practical Reality Preetha Pulusani President Intergraph Mapping & GIS Solutions

Topics The State of Our Community today The Importance of Industry Standards GSDI - A Practical Reality  Getting Down to the Business of Implementing GSDI…one step at a time  The Technology Perspective  The Importance of Getting Started Now

The State of Our Community Today

Geospatial Data – Still a Greatly Undervalued Asset The potential to be a true treasure chest for the organization

 Many formats, different data models  Several databases, tiles, files  Distributed The Reality of Geospatial Data Today

An Organization and its Data Polic y Planning Operations Customers GIS Specialists

A Major Challenge to the Industry Data Availability The right information At the right time In the right form

Common Data Model Policy Planning Operations Customers GIS Specialists Custom View of Data The Vision Enterprise spatial data Enterprise Non-spatial data

Critical Metadata! Critical Metadata includes answers to these questions  What is contained in the data?  Who owns it?  Who created it?  For what purpose?  When? Metadata describes your geospatial data and… More importantly, it protects your investments and data assets Once metadata exists, it needs to be  Readily accessible  Easy to query, view and share Thereby, adding great value to the data itself

Interoperability Data interoperability Application interoperability …critical to information sharing and collaboration…

wmsviewer.com Public site for anyone’s use, built by Intergraph Providing a viewer to OGC-defined WMS standard interfaces Signifying our commitment to open standards and OGC Putting a face and use to data interoperability Demonstrating the power of open access through the web

DEPHA data from Nairobi Relief and roads from USA Tanzania Districts from USA Tanzania Land Cover from Dar es Salaam

Interoperability Underpins New Grant The Intergraph Open Interoperability Grant Program Announced this week to coincide with GSDI 6 $5.5 million pledged to GSDI development Harnessing OGC industry standards Enabling development of open Web services Making GI available through GML Enterprise-wide Benefits:  Expanded interoperability  Improved information and communication

The Importance of Industry Standards GeoSpatial Technology and IT must converge  Remove proprietary barriers  Migrate stovepipe solutions Industry must make an investment in standards  Spatial Data Infrastructure  Metadata  Data access and interoperability - GML  Data warehousing  Data management and storage  Data distribution  Application interoperability

What’s the value? Better data = Better decisions = Better business Open = More Choices, Better Choices Solutions = Productivity Enterprise = Return on Investment Sharing data 1 = Sharing costs and investments Sharing data 2 = Making information available

Let’s stop thinking GIS- centric! GeoSpatial Sphere of Influence Where we began: - GIS centric What we should achieve: - Information centric

The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite. - Thomas Sowell

Users Viewers Doers Complex Thick clients High seat cost Simple Many Users Componentware Thin clients Use of GeoSpatial Tools in an Enterprise Centralized Distributed Web Services

GSDI : A Practical Reality

Where are we with GSDI? History  6 th year of operation  Formal Organizations  Members from more than 50 countries  Emerging and developed nations  Private and public sector  Individuals

GSDI Accomplishments  Adoption of open standards and interoperability as foundation elements  Establishment of common standards  Data, Processes, Systems  Education and Information Sharing in the relevant communities  Developing Spatial Data Infrastructures: the SDI Cookbook  Support of Strategy Development for National SDIs  Helping secure resources for countries beginning to establish SDIs  Promotion of policy-level recognition for SDI significance  Excellent Forum for best-practices discussion and sharing

Quote from the GSDI Brochure: Learning from the past, we focus on the future. The GSDI transcends political boundaries by working to attain sustainable development and maximize the use of resources on this planet we share.

Learning from the Past, we Focus on the Future The Technology Perspective

Technology Elements to Consider Data Management Data Collection and Revision Data Integration GeoSpatial Tools Data Distribution New Information Technology Adoption Scalability Interoperability

Technology Elements to Consider Data Management  What to consider  Use of standard database technology rather than proprietary formats or tiled systems  Control mechanisms in place for different aspects of your data  Multi-user Access  Security  Why  Protection of your critical data assets for the long-term

Technology Elements to Consider Data Collection and Revision  What to consider  Data Capture Productivity  Accuracy  Metadata  Industry standard database repository  Why  Reliability for decision support  Accessibility and control for downstream applicationn

Technology Elements to Consider Data Integration  What to consider  Support of multiple data types  Vector, imagery, terrain, 3D  Real-time access  View only, Read-Write  Ability to Ingest, not just translate  Conflation  Schema mapping  Feature data in one data model transformed to a new data model schema  Data Validation – QC/QA  Why  Reliable and up-to-date data availability  High/Improved data quality

Technology Elements to Consider GeoSpatial Tools  What to consider  Breadth and Depth of functionality  Spatial and Overlay Analysis  Applications  Integration rather than isolation  Map making  Extensibility  Using best of breed – potentially from different vendors  Why  To achieve high levels of productivity

Technology Elements to Consider Data Distribution  What to consider  Accessibility  Control  Usage  Why  Information availability – how, what and when it is needed

Technology Elements to Consider Scalability  What to consider  Handling anything from small municipality databases up to terrabytes of data provided to large numbers of users  Why  Ease of use  Ability to grow progressively without re-engineering a new solution

Technology Elements to Consider New Technology Adoption  What to consider  Ease of adopting new frontiers in technology  The past brought the internet, databases, wireless  What frontiers are awaiting us in the future?  Why  Taking full advantage and getting a return on investment on your technology investments  Reducing your cost of “upgrade”  How future-proofed are you?

Technology Elements to Consider Interoperability  What to consider  Data interoperability  Application/service interoperability  Why  To share data easily  Allowing you the freedom of choice for best of breed solutions  To free you from proprietary stove pipe solutions

Getting Started Think Big Start Small Get Feedback Scale Quickly Deliver Value

How? Think Big  Determine your customers - current and future - and their requirements for information  Create a long term vision for the enterprise Start Small  Begin by evaluating your current assets  Start a project that begins to build bridges to the future Get Feedback  Get your users involved!  Refine the workflow and dataflow based on input received

How? Scale Quickly  Plan your implementation phases, each with well-defined results  Begin implementation, get feedback, move to the next phase Deliver Value  Deliver incremental value as your phases are completed  This is what keeps a project going towards successful completion

Map Series Example GSDI From Global to Local … From Concepts to Practical Reality. Today.