So a proposal for a National GIS “new deal” to save the economy has been making the rounds lately. You can grab a copy of the PDF here. It came to my attention while reading James Fee’s blog and a tidy little flamefest is afoot in the comments to his original post. I gave it a quick read and had a pretty good chuckle.
Haven’t we done this at least twice already? Anybody familiar with the USGS National Map Program? No? How about the National Spatial Data Infrastructure? Why don’t we just fully fund/fix one of the foundering programs out there already?
Lots of tasty funny business with a detailed read of the doc. Can’t you just see this thing fronted by a WebADF nightmare with national geoprocessing tasks? LOL
It’s sort of disappointing that this didn’t involve or come out of an organization like the OGC…or that there’s no mention of OGC initiatives that support an effort of this size and scale.
Sean Gorman has a good rebuttal over here. And I poached the following quote by Sean from James’ original post…
I don’t think anyone is going to complain about government funding for geospatial technologies – it has the potential to be a very good investment. The question here is how do you get the most benefit for the citizenry out of that investment.
I’d argue that perpetuating a proprietary legacy technology at an even more massive scale by tacking on a few buzz words – open standards, SOA etc. etc. is not the answer. Instead invest in making government data open and freely available in standard formats so that companies can innovate around it.
Nuff said!
Grassroots Group Releases NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper
January 23, 2009 – Today a collaborative grassroots coalition released a concept paper titled “NSDI 2.0: Powering our National Economy, Renewing our Infrastructure, Protecting our Environment.”
The NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper is available at http://www.nsdi2.net.
The paper notes that “the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will create jobs in the short-term and spur economic growth and competitiveness in the long-term. But this plan must be designed in a new way. We must make smart strategic investments that serve as a down payment on our long-term economic future, create millions of new jobs – and provide the American workforce with new skills.
To build a 21st century economy, we must engage Local, State, and Federal agencies and their partnering contractors across the nation to create jobs rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges, electric grids and schools – but these organizations need an updated online information network that will allow them to rebuild in a smart, efficient, environmentally conscientious and sustainable way. A National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), updated with vital environmental information, will speed economic recovery by producing jobs putting “green” shovels in the ground quickly and tie together ongoing government initiatives.
An “NSDI 2.0″ will leave the country with a public resource, a modern spatial data infrastructure that will become a foundation for new business and technology investment – including broadband infrastructure development efforts now under consideration. Most importantly, this framework provides a sustainable, long-term infrastructure and innovation investment that will create thousands of new jobs and contribute to the economy for many years to come.”
To learn more visit: http://www.nsdi2.net.
About the NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper
The NSDI 2.0 Concept Paper is a proposition offered by a collaborative grassroots coalition that advances a business case applicable to the entire geospatial and environmental sector. It embodies an inclusive, collective approach that is well positioned to provide widespread economic success throughout public, private, and non-profit organizations of all types and sizes. This paper represents (although unofficially) the consensus view of a collaboration between corporate entities, the non-profit sector, the open source GIS software community, as well as Municipal, County, Regional, and State Government Agencies who produce and rely upon the Nation’s critical geospatial and environmental data resources. For more information please visit: http://www.nsdi2.net.