Attendees

• Committee members will review the Committee's contribution to the Governor's Council annual report when it is distributed (final version is due 6/12/98).

Minutes from 3/24/98 were amended to correct the name of Rabuse La Mott's affiliation.

Coordinate Systems

Maki distributed a revised version of the proposed coordinate exchange standard [Handout: Coordinate Specifications for Spatial Data Exchange Between Minnesota State Agencies (5/12/98)]. Changes included: 1. clarification that the capability to provide data in the standard format should exist within all affected agencies; 2. addition of formal reference to the UTM projection; 3. addition of the word "extended" to "UTM Zone 15"; 4. deletion of the reference to "1986 adjustment" to NAD83; 5. expansion of section on manual projection parameters. The Committee felt that a note should be added to explain why no adjustment to NAD83 was specified: 1. the offsets are generally small enough to be negligible for most applications of state agency data; 2. adjustments are likely to keep changing; and 3. at present, most software does not readily support these adjustments. Data providers are encouraged to document whatever adjustment they use. The Committee felt that, given the knowledgeable audience for the standard, the reference to Zone 15 "extended" was sufficient. This raised the point that data providers should report any positional accuracy errors introduced by using the extended zone. The Committee voted to accept the proposed standard, contingent upon the addition of the "Note", and to forward it for consideration by the full Governor's Council.

Positional Accuracy

Schadauer reported that the Committee's positional accuracy working group is continuing to develop the Positional Accuracy Handbook, intending to have a draft ready for the GIS/LIS conference (October 7-9). The group held an informational presentation on 4/29/98 for several potential contributors of example data sets (Washington County, Lawrence Mapping, DNR, and Mn/DOT; representatives from the City of Minneapolis were invited but were unable to attend). They have been discussing practical implementation of the requirement to use a more accurate data set for testing; one idea for an example is to compare a 1995 data set of watershed basins compiled at the 1:100,000-scale to several more detailed site surveys. Wencl distinguished between testing existing data sets after the fact and incorporating accuracy assessment as part of the process when creating new data sets. For new data, developers would set a certain level of accuracy as the goal and use procedures designed to achieve that level. Maki noted that the standard doesn't really address thematic, interpretive boundaries, since they are fuzzy and often unstable, but that the handbook should mention this type of data. Cialek suggested categorizing types of data and recommending accuracy assessment procedures for each category.

Metadata/Clearinghouse

Cialek distributed the most recent draft of the MOU for DataLogr software [Handout: Memorandum of Understanding Between IMAGIN and LMIC, May 1998, DRAFT]. The IMAGIN Board is meeting today and will then respond to the draft. The Minnesota Attorney General's office has drafted an internal license that would accompany the software when it is distributed from LMIC to qualifying recipients in Minnesota. Cialek has been meeting with the Foundations project, now administered by DNR, to ensure that they remain aware of the metadata guidelines, DataLogr, and clearinghouse activities. The Federal Clearinghouse has a new, improved interface designed by Blue Angel Technology, accessed by choosing the "simple search" option at: http://agdc.usgs.gov/AGDCgateway.html . At present, the Minnesota Test Server node on the Federal Clearinghouse has about 50 full metadata entries, with 24 more in preparation. The newly formed Governor's Council Clearinghouse Advisory Group has had its first meeting and will be developing recommendations and providing oversight for clearinghouse efforts in the state.

Communications

Wakefield described progress on facilitating email communication between Committee members. All members should have received messages that tested two options: sending as regular mail or as attachments. The revised Governor's Council website is ready and portions of it will be moved on-line over the next several weeks. The standards pages can be accessed either by a direct link from the home page, http://www.gis.state.mn.us , or via the committees' page. Suggestions on either the email system or webpages are welcome.

Updates

1. IPO standards sanctioning process: Cialek and Bentley have redrafted this document to adapt it to the Office of Technology and are forwarding it to OT. Cialek will also raise this issue at this afternoon's Governor's Council meeting. Three candidates for sanctioning are: FIPS55 (Place Names), Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines, and the Coordinate Specifications for Data Exchange Standard.

2. Cadastral standard workshop: Cialek is talking with Fairview Industries about the possibility of holding a full-day workshop in Minnesota on the new federal cadastral standard. The Committee agreed that such a workshop should be held independently of the GIS/LIS conference and suggested that it could cover general topics in the morning and a specific topic in the afternoon. Kotz suggested addressing county concerns about what they might need to do to comply with the standard. Bryant will investigate funding from the GIS/LIS Consortium at their next meeting 5/18/98.

3. MetroGIS Standards Update: Kotz distributed information from the standards team's most recent meeting [Handout: MetroGIS Standards Advisory Team Update - - May 11, 1998.] The team has responded to a proposal to develop a Federal Government Unit Boundary Standard Proposal. The team also addressed a number of questions that were identified by the MetroGIS Data Content Team in connection with jurisdictional boundary issues. One conclusion was that a chart cross-referencing various county and municipality codes in use in Minnesota needs to be developed for the state (Met Council has already completed one for the metropolitan area).

Governor's Council Annual Report

Cialek reminded the committee that the Governor's Council was established by executive order; therefore, this year's annual report is particularly important since it will be used by a new governor after the November election. To help outline the committee's contribution to the report, Cialek distributed two items [Handout: Standards Committee 1998 Strategic Plan Issue Items] and [Handout: Governor's Council 1998 Committee Activity Report: Requested Content.] For accomplishments, the Committee listed: accuracy standard, including positional accuracy handbook in progress; metadata and clearinghouse development (stabilized metadata guidelines, DataLogr, test server, converter program); better communication via email; new web pages; more efficient use of committee time by restructuring into workgroups; coordinate specification standard. Under "Issues", the Committee noted the continuing need for a coordinate system handbook.

Cialek raised several suggestions for next year:

1. Faster turnaround time for meeting minutes, with increased emphasis on action items.
2. Extended meeting time? Committee recommended to extend the time only for one or two special meetings, such as the planning session before GIS/LIS.
3. Follow-up on 1997 Strategic Plan? Committee felt that this would be a good idea if the meeting/retreat focused on specific questions, such as how to prioritize standards. Much of the groundwork could be accomplished before the meeting via email.

Cialek will draft the Committee's contribution to the report and will circulate it for comment via email. The final version is due 6/12/98.

The next meeting of the GIS Standards Committee is Tuesday, June 9th, 1998,
9:30 - 11:30, Room 302, Centennial Office Building, St. Paul.

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Date this page was last updated: 03/04/15