project kickoff

The project: A Strategic and Business Plan Development in Support of the NSDI Future Directions Fifty States Initiative & Property Boundary Data Capture and Integration Framework was awarded on January 16 and kicked off in Augusta last week.

The Sewall Team (Bruce Oswald, Rich Sutton) presented an overview to the Board and solicited some high level input regarding schedule, strategy and tactics. Most discussion revolved around the land records component (presently ILRIS, but anticipating a possible name change shortly). Some other, smaller meetings were held as well, including one with the State CIO, Dick Thompson, and with a subset of the GeoLibrary Board's project team, including Greg Copeland, Bill Hanson, Marilyn Lutz and Dan Walters.

geospatial planning: 2008

The State of Maine is about to embark on a new geographic information systems (GIS) planning process. There will be two primary areas of investigation as this study proceeds. These are

• Updating and enhancing the GeoLibrary Strategic Plan of 2002 to bring it into alignment with the goals of the National States' Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) Fifty States Initiative. Plan update activities will focus on coordination with local governments, academics, and others; development of sustainable funding sources; and cultivation of political champions to grow future geospatial initiatives.
  

• Developing a functional specification for an Integrated Land Records Information System for Maine. This system design will feature a sustainable political and technical architecture that delivers parcel-level data statewide, including content from municipalities, county deed registries and additional public and commercial stakeholders, and will honor or extend existing process and data standards at state and federal levels.

This initiative is primarily funded by the federal government through the US Geological Survey's Federal Geographic Data Committee. The grant application was assembled by the Maine Library of Geographic Information (GeoLibrary) and Maine's Office of GIS and awarded in early 2007.