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In the four years since the MetroGIS initiative was borne, significant
progress has been made to move MetroGIS from concept toward reality. The
following are some of the major accomplishments through December 1999 (other
accomplishments are detailed in the respective
annual reports):
- Within the first four months, consensus was achieved among broadly
diverse interests on a mission statement
and high level goals to direct MetroGIS's work and an interim organizational
structure with operating
guidelines was in place. (April 96)
- The policy bodies of each of eleven key stakeholder organizations
each unanimously adopted a resolution of support of MetroGIS's principles and
appointed one of its members to serve as a charter member of the MetroGIS
Policy Board to shape the policy for the upstart organization. (Fall 96)
- After a yearlong, consensus based process; the Policy Board endorsed
thirteen priority information needs
for MetroGIS. (May 97)
- The Policy Board endorsed 22 functions it believed appropriate for
MetroGIS to support as a mature organization. (Sept 98) Business
Plan to Prioritize
- Data sharing agreements were
executed by the Metropolitan Council, on behalf of MetroGIS, with each of the
seven metro area counties to share their data free of charger with other
government organizations that serve the seven county area. (Dec 96 - Dec
98)
- The Policy Board has endorsed regional data solutions and custodian
responsibilities for four of its thirteen priority information needs:
MCD/County jurisdictional boundaries, address for people, places and things;
parcels and unique parcel identifiers. See the MetroGIS pages
Information Needs Status and
About Information Needs for more
details.
- The Policy Board has endorsed standards for metadata, address data,
a regional projection and coordinate system, and coding for jurisdictional
boundary data.
- The Coordinating Committee has been reached agreement on
specifications for a regional census geography dataset. Policy Board
consideration is anticipated winter 2000.
- The Governor of Minnesota awarded MetroGIS with an Exemplary GIS
Project Commendation for the public-private partnership it fostered with the
Metropolitan Council, Mn/DOT The Lawrence Group (TLG) to provide free access by
government and academia to TLG's robust, addressable regional street centerline
dataset. (Oct 98) See the Awards page
for more details.
- MetroGIS Data Finder (www.datafinder.org) was brought on-line in April 1998.
- The Data Finder project has fostered preparation of standardized
metadata for numerous primary and regional datasets.
- Dr. William Craig, University of Minnesota and member of the
MetroGIS Coordinating Committee, received a grant through the 1999 NSDI
Benefits Program to finance his MetroGIS Benefits Study. This study, completed
Oct 99, clearly documented that stakeholders highly value the activities
supported by MetroGIS that foster data sharing and collaboration on commonly
needed GIS activities. The MetroGIS stakeholder community also values these
activities as highly as access to the actual data.
- MetroGIS was awarded a National Spatial Data Infrastructure
(NSDI)
Framework Demonstration Grant of $100,000 for its
Fair-Share Financial Model and
Organizational Structure Project>. The resulting study, completed
in Oct 99, provided the philosophical foundation necessary to prepare a
detailed Business Plan to guide MetroGIS to full implementation.
- MetroGIS was one of four regional GIS collaboratives from across the
country invited to testify before a U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee
as part of the June 1999 National GeoData Forum. See the
MetroGIS
Presentationspage.
- County-based GIS
Users Groups have been formed or are in the process of being formed in
Anoka, Carver, Hennepin, and Scott Counties in accordance with MetroGIS
principles to compliment the Users Groups in existence prior to MetroGIS in
Dakota, Ramsey and Washington Counties.
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