Attendees
 

Introductions, Approval of Agenda and Last Meeting Minutes

Minutes from 11/25/97 were amended to correct Kotz's title from "co-chair" to "assistant chair".

About the Standards Committee

In order to orient the large number of new attendees at this meeting, Cialek reviewed Committee activities, providing them with a packet of summary materials of the Committee's previous accomplishments.

Positional Accuracy

Schadauer reported on the status of the federal geospatial positioning accuracy standard. The review panel is still incorporating changes recommended during the public review process and is approaching Step 10 in the 12-step approval process. Barring unforeseen complications, the standard should be approved by late spring or early summer of 1998.

Schadauer summarized progress of the Committee's positional accuracy working group [Handout: Positional Accuracy Working Group]. In addition to tracking the federal standard, the working group is exploring ideas for educational materials on applying the standard, including creating a handbook and offering a workshop at the October 1998 GIS/LIS Consortium conference. The group is also brainstorming ways to measure other aspects of data quality, including possibly developing an index of overall data set quality. Other ideas are to translate numerical measures of accuracy into English terms that users would more easily understand and to provide guidelines on minimum accuracy levels required for particular needs.

Barnes suggested that the Education Committee could assist with distributing positional accuracy materials (and other materials developed by the Committee). Getting materials to a wide audience via schools, workshops, etc. will increase the usefulness and longevity of any standard.

Metadata/Clearinghouse

Kotz reported on the metadata/clearinghouse working group [Handout: Minnesota Metadata Clearinghouse Status as of 1/15/98]. Version 1.1 of the Minnesota metadata guidelines is on the Committee's website. DataLogr programming is complete(!) and its documentation should be delivered soon. Pete Olson (LMIC) has made good progress on the program to convert between DataLogr and formats required for the FGDC Clearinghouse. Coordination continues with the MetroGIS "Web Index" project, renamed "DataFinder."

Hardzinski briefly described the three Clearinghouse committees of Governor's Council: steering, access policy, and technical. Cialek noted that there are several alternate solutions to providing capabilities to search or query metadata records: FGDC, Data Finder, and possibly others. The performance of the FGDC Clearinghouse continues to be very slow. Improvement of the software and addition of mirror sites may improve performance. An interim solution may be to create a link on the Standards Committee page directly to Minnesota's metadata html files.

Coordinate Systems

Maki and Bryant reviewed this working group's progress [Handout: GIS Standards Committee: Coordinate Systems]. The group is proposing that state agencies adopt a standard coordinate projection system for data exchange: UTM Zone 15 extended, NAD83 datum, meters. The handout contained an appendix that provides the data needed to perform coordinate conversions in Minnesota in NAD83. A second handout was a map showing county coordinate zones, coded to show whether they use Lambert Conic Conformal, Transverse Mercator, or Oblique Mercator, and state plane system zones [Handout: State of Minnesota County Coordinate System Zones, NAD 1983].

The Committee debated whether it was advisable to define and codify county coordinate specifications, recognized through a formal state approval process. Harper pointed out many pitfalls to this approach, advocating instead that the Committee disseminate information and leave the responsibility for data exchange decisions to the counties. Consensus indicated that educational materials about county coordinate systems would be valuable. They could collect information in one place and could provide training in how to implement coordinate conversions, rather than only a list of parameters. The State Cartographer's Office in Wisconsin has already developed a similar piece for their coordinate conversions, and they are amenable to allowing Minnesota to adapt some of their materials. Help may also be available from other organizations; Mn/DOT, Itasca County, and Mankato State were mentioned. Also, software programs are available from Mn/DOT to convert from UTM to county coordinates.

Electronic Communication

Barnes summarized this group's activities [Handout: Minutes of State GIS Standards Committee Subgroup on Improved Electronic Communication]. They are investigating posting the committee meeting handouts on the standards website in addition to the minutes. They will also test making the committee email list available on the website so the entire committee could use the list. If this works smoothly, the idea could be expanded to a broader email list. The group will also test using fax communication for people who do not have email.

Announcements

Cialek announced that the Office of Technology's report to the legislature on reducing data duplication is nearly complete.

Cialek reported that about 25 people interested in data management issues at a state level, the Data Issues Group - - Information Technology (DIG-IT), met on 12/17/97. The group has ranked the need for data standards and guidelines as its highest priority.

Cialek represented Minnesota at an FGDC meeting last week at which 24 states attended. He emphasized the importance of state participation in the federal standards development efforts so that the state point of view gets passed along via the FGDC to national and international standards groups such as ANSI and ISO.

Rader informed the committee about a new website of educational materials about the Cadastral Data Content Standard: http://www.fairview-industries.com/welcome.htm . The site is sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management and includes an example of LMIC's public land survey data.

Kotz announced that a test site for the MetroGIS web index (Data Finder) has been developed. When the beta-testing phase is done, the site will be linked to the MetroGIS webpage, possibly as early as February 1998. Data Finder is meant to evolve, so suggestions will be welcome.

Bryant informed the committee about a National Geodetic Service (NGS) website: http://www.ngs.noaa.gov that describes NGS products, services, and geodetic PC software. The NGS phone is (301) 713-3242.

Discussion

Cialek asked new attendees for any comments. Horton noted that committee activities provide a model for documenting the Minnesota History Center's electronic records. Fox noted that websites need to be designed for "naïve" audiences who may need more explanation about fundamental concepts that the Committee may take for granted. Ring noted that many agencies desperately need standards for many types of data.

Action Items

• Working groups will meet before the next full Committee meeting to work on their action items.