Attendees
 

Announcements

Cialek reported that both the metadata workshop and the standards panel at the GIS/LIS Consortium Conference were well-attended and well-received. The October 15^th metadata videoconference was broadcast internationally, and approximately 125 people attended at the 14 sites in Minnesota. The Committee viewed the 10 minute videotape of the portion of the conference that detailed the development of the Minnesota metadata guidelines.

Cialek and Robert Horton from the Minnesota Historical Society will conduct a session on documentating data at the Computer and Information Management Symposium on November 6^th.

Committee Co-chair and Working Groups

The committee discussed the idea of establishing a co-chair position to assist the chair. R. Maki suggested that the co-chair could be responsible for coordinating the efforts of smaller working groups. These groups would assemble experts for a defined period of time to address specific issues such as metadata or positional accuracy. With increased emphasis on accomplishing Committee goals through these working groups, the whole Committee could meet every other month, rather than every month. Most of the next meeting will be spent discussing this change in committee structure and possible topics for these groups. Barnes will investigate setting up a listserver to facilitate communication among work groups.

Foundations for Integrated Access to Environmental Information

Jonathan Hubschman from MN Planning spoke about the LCMR-funded project Foundations for Integrated Access to Environmental Information. The project summary (Handout: Project Summary) describes the project's purpose as improving the public's access to the state's environmental and natural resources data and information. Emphasis is on the point of view of the "information seeker" rather than the agency that has the data. A blueprint will be created to guide the development of indexed data directories and advanced search and retrieval techniques to improve and integrate agency Internet web sites and make them available through the state's Northstar initiatives. In order to identify information needs and establish priorities, the Foundations Project is conducting surveys that ask the public what environmental information they want to know, and what sources they currently use to access this information. Hubschman provided survey results from the Minnesota Librarians Association (Handout: Foundations Project Survey Results). The present goal is to provide a cross-section of information, not the entire universe of what could be available. The project is funded for $650,000 over two years (completion date: June 30, 1999).

The Foundations Project is interested in learning from any relevant experiences of the Standards Committee. Opportunities for cooperation include reviewing drafts of the blueprint and prototype web sites, and providing insights about information needs of GIS users.

MetroGIS Interactive Web Index Project

Rick Gelbmann from the Metropolitan Council described the MetroGIS's Web Index Project (Handout: MetroGIS: Sharing information across boundaries). The project's goal is to develop a web-based interface that would allow a user to look for geographic data by subject, geography, or participant. The user could then request metadata, views, or the data, if available. The web design is intended to be flexible enough so that MetroGIS participants could index and link their own metadata, information, and data to the site.

MetroGIS has contracted with LBA Inc. to develop the web index. Phase 1 involves creating a prototype using data from a small number of organizations. Phase 2 will incorporate comments received on the prototype to produce a website of core datasets by April 1998. Efforts will focus on organizing the data so that it can support rapidly changing web designs and technology. The current plan is to use a private internet provider, but the site could move elsewhere in the future.

Committee discussion centered around the relationship between this project and the FGDC Clearinghouse. Will they be parallel or nested projects? Will they share a basic infrastructure and serve as two different ways to view the same data? Will updates need to be done in one or two places? Will these projects have a seamless look? The Committee also discussed the differences and similarities between the scope of the Foundations and the MetroGIS projects. Foundations is focusing on environmental information, includes more than geographic data, and has a very broad audience. MetroGIS includes more than environmental information, focuses on geographic data, and is aimed primarily at local users. It is very important that the Committee and developers of these projects keep in close communication.

Action Items

• Committee should be prepared to discuss the proposed Committee restructuring to rely more on working groups as well as expectations for the co-chair position.
• Barnes will investigate setting up a listserver to facilitate communication among work groups.