PM to G8 or ICIS?

I left yesterday's ICIS Board Planning Session inspired by some very good discussion around focused engagement among the members leading to improved data quality and currency. The stars seemed to be further aligning when I turned on the radio to hear the PM put forth his views regarding collaboration among nations.

What really perked my ears was his use of the phrase Enlightened Sovereignty, which he defined as:

An expanded view of mutual interest, in which there is room for all to grow and prosper ... the natural extension of enlightened self-interest.

The basic notion here is that efforts and contributions made outside of one's own immediate self-interest will, in the end, result in improvements for everyone. It's a doctrine that has equal application for global economic recovery, disaster relief, and integrated parcel and address databases!

Many of our members (and some non-members) have been individually demonstrating their support for these ideals for some time. Yesterday, I saw it flourishing among the ICIS executive and it's our task as operational support to be its ambassadors in our outreach with the membership at large.

City of Vancouver Gift Wraps Parcel and Address Data For ICIS

If you haven't already seen the City of Vancouver's Open Data Portal - their online distribution site for GIS data - now is a very good time as they've just launched version 2. This enhancement provides many more data layers in several common formats in a very intuitive, accessible and eye-pleasing format. Its sets a rich and impressive benchmark for municipal data sharing.

Vancouver has never claimed to be the first ones to embrace open data (they acknowledge trailblazing efforts by Kamloops and Nanaimo - and the District of North Vancouver has also released an excellent site), but they're certainly carrying the standard forward impressively. And here's the windfall for ICIS - a set of layers preconfigured to meet ICIS delivery requirements! Vancouver has pupose-built a number of data extraction scripts to provide ICIS with the parcel and address data that we require in the format and structure that best meets our needs. This level of service demonstrates real leadership in collaborative data sharing and contributes greatly to the goal of province-wide cadastral and address databases.

Vancouver Technical Presentation Announced

ICIS has just accepted a kind offer from Safe Software to present on our innovative and interesting use of FME at an upcoming regional user meeting in Vancouver (March 29).

Don and Dale's morning session will surely be served up with their patented blend of illumination and fun, and we have the pleasure of sharing podium time in the afternoon with the City of Vancouver to share some user experiences.

I'm pretty excited about this one-two punch, which should give attendees a nice full spectrum story about municipal data prep and sharing and then how some users (us) are leveraging that hard work and data... I think it can provide a compelling example of how the right technology combined with the right attitudes can redefine data sharing from chore to a purposeful benefit.

I encourage you to check out the agenda and I hope to see all of you data producers, consumers and FME fans there!

2010 Project Charter Released for Comment

Based on our findings from the 2009 pilot program and some implementation goals for the new year, we have updated the BC Spatial project charter for 2010. You can find it here. We will be reviewing the content at the upcoming ICIS Board Planning Session (January 28 in Victoria BC). Comments are encouraged at any time.