Attendees

(Meeting handouts available on request. Call (651) 296-1208 or email: gc@mnplan.state.mn.us)
 

Introductions, Approval of Agenda and Last Meeting Minutes

Minutes from 9/8/98 and this meeting's agenda were approved. Cialek distributed a revised list of Committee member contact information [Handout: FY99 Standards Committee Members, November 1998].

GIS/LIS Conference Review

The positional accuracy presentation was very well received by an unexpectedly large audience of approximately 115 people. Since 10/1/1998, there have been over 400 accesses to the web page containing the positional accuracy draft report at http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/press/accurate.htm The metadata workshop was also well received. The overall Governor's Council presentation was well done but perhaps too general and not very well attended. There may not be a need to continue this type of overall session.

Business Items

Election of Chair and Assistant Chair: Cialek and Kotz were unanimously re-elected to the chair and assistant chair positions, respectively.

1999 Meeting Dates: Meeting dates for calendar year 1999 were determined (see Action Items on page 1). The February meeting will be devoted to a Committee Retreat (see below) and the September meeting will focus on GIS/LIS conference planning.

Committee Retreat Plans: The date for the Committee retreat was set for 2/16/1999. Cialek, Kotz, Maki, Patton and Wakefield will begin planning the agenda and logistics.

FY99 Workplan: Cialek announced that the Governor's Council approved the Committee workplan at their 11/10/98 meeting [Handout: Governor's Council Standards Committee Update, November 10, 1998.]

Committee Objectives

Maki outlined his proposal that the Committee re-examine its basic objectives in order to provide a context for its activities, to help determine whether proposed activities are within its scope, and to reveal activities that it may be overlooking. For example, a basic objective is to facilitate information exchange; the Committee has supported that objective through its work on metadata, clearinghouse, coordinate standard and positional accuracy issues. Additional activities to facilitate information exchange could include developing guidelines for data naming, exchange formats, unique ID#s, and physical infrastructure (e.g., a network of known sites refreshed by sponsoring agencies), cataloguing resources between agencies, and exploring ways to facilitate exchange between the GIS and IS communities. He also felt that the relationship between this Committee and the newly formed Governor's Council Data Committee should be clarified. The Data Committee is charged with identifying existing GIS datasets of statewide interest, identifying what other data is needed (using, among other things, the Governor's Council 1994 data needs survey), and developing ways to facilitate creation of the needed data.

The Committee discussed this at some length and agreed that it should be a major topic at the February retreat. Wencl noted that the Committee's goals need to fit within the goals of the full Governor's Council. Maki added that the relationship between the Standards Committee and the Clearinghouse Advisory Committee also needs clarification. The Standards Committee also has the opportunity to provide guidance for any standards needed for thematic data layers that are identified as needed by the Data Committee. Patton suggested that other Council members be invited to the retreat, as well as representatives of other groups such as the Community-based Planning team at MN Planning.

Keywords

Quam presented an overview of how library cataloging procedures, such as adding Dublin Core metadata tags and using structured keywords, can be used to improve searches for information on web pages. She heads the Foundations Project, a collaborative project which aims to improve public access to environmental and natural resources data and information. Zuriff is assisting with the project. She is a University of Minnesota librarian who is "on-loan" to the project for several months and will be cataloging relevant webpages at the DNR, the Department of Agriculture, the Office of Environmental Assistance, and MN Planning.

Dublin Core metadata consists of a basic set of 15 elements. If tags associated with these elements are added to a webpage in either HTML or XML format, then browsers can perform more intelligent searches on those specific elements. Sample screens showing creation of the metatags are included in Quam's handout [Handout: Foundations Project: Finding and organizing environmental information on the Internet since 1998].

Keywords can be entered either in "natural language" (any words are acceptable) or they can be constrained to a structured set of words contained in a thesaurus, a "controlled vocabulary". Although natural language is generally easier for a metadata or webpage creator to use, searching such keywords is difficult and inefficient. Many entries may be missed if all synonyms are not specified, and searches usually return many inappropriate hits. For example, typical internet searches are natural language, complete text searches that generally return an overwhelming number of mostly inappropriate hits. In contrast, a thesaurus provides a controlled vocabulary (only specified words can be entered), and cross-references ("See" to suggest synonyms, and "See Also" to suggest related terms), and can work interactively with a search (e.g., an advanced search screen can pop up a thesaurus to help the user choose a search keyword).

Currently, the Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines uses the natural language approach in its theme keywords and place keywords elements. Would a thesaurus approach be preferable? Zuriff is researching existing thesauri. For theme keywords, she mentioned the Library of Congress' Legislative Indexing Vocabulary and a NASA thesaurus as two possible models. For place keywords, possible sources are the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), FIPS 55 and the TGN Thesaurus for Art. If a thesaurus can be adopted, then the next step would be to make its implementation as user-friendly as possible. For the metadata creator, "suggestion systems" can recommend appropriate keywords. For metadata searchers, a "Content Classification Engine" (CCE Search) allows a user to focus their search results by refining their criteria to search within an initial group of results.

More information on the Foundations Project can be found at: http://www.bridges.state.mn.us . Anyone interested in working on the keyword thesaurus effort, particularly while we have the assistance of Quam and Zuriff, should contact Cialek.

Metadata

Rader reported that the forthcoming Fall 1998 issue of GIS/LIS News will contain an article announcing the availability of the DataLogr metadata entry tool; it is free to government, academic, and non-profit organizations within Minnesota and $90 to the private sector.

Kotz distributed a summary of anticipated changes to the federal metadata guideline, as covered by the FGDC's Richard Pearsall at the most recent national GIS/LIS conference [Handout: Anticipated Changes to the FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata]. The Standards Committee will need to track these changes to assess their impact on the Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines.

Clearinghouse

Maki announced that DNR has developed a prototype data delivery site which could serve as a model for other organizations' web-based tools. It is part of the Foundations Project and is linked to datasets within DNR's Core Database. They are still working on automated methods to maintain the site. The prototype relies on several DNR-established standards, including a standard dataset ID. DNR will document the minimum standards needed to use the prototype; the tool is intended to be generic and open-ended so that other organizations may use it as is or modify it to suit their needs.

Cialek noted that LMIC is considering purchasing ISITE-compatible gateway software from Blue Angel Technologies in order to facilitate searches for Minnesota data in the NSDI Clearinghouse. LMIC intends to create a gateway that could link to other nodes at Minnesota locations such as DNR and the University of Minnesota's Borchert Map Library. Cialek also noted that 52% of the Minnesota data listed on the NSDI Clearinghouse is downloadable on-line.

Elevating Standards

Cialek reported that he had presented two Committee initiatives to the Information Policy Council meeting for their review [Handout: A Proposed Guideline and Standard Presented to the Information Policy Council]. The first initiative is the Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines, version 1.2; the second is the Coordinate Specifications for Spatial Data Exchange Between Minnesota State Agencies. IPC will review each initiative, discuss them at their December meeting, and vote on whether or not they wish to recognize either or both of them as a state guideline/standard in January. IPC is still working out the details of the process for adopting guidelines and standards. Kotz reminded the Committee that the FIPS 55 Place Name standard is another possibility for review by IPC.

Cadastral Content Standard Workshop

The workshop has been scheduled for February 2, 1999. Lucy Botzek, Chuck Bryant, Dave Claypool, Jeff Grosso, and Chris Cialek are working on the arrangements; additional assistance is welcome (contact Cialek). Some financial support is likely from the GIS/LIS Consortium.

Positional Accuracy Standard

Cialek distributed the press release about the availability of the positional accuracy draft report [Handout: printout of: http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/press/accurate.htm]. In late October, he had sent a message announcing the report's availability to the NSGIC (National States Geographic Information Council) and NSDI mailing lists; since that time, several hundred downloads of the draft have occurred. When the working group has completed a revised draft, the Committee will request that the Council support publication of the final report.

The draft report was further publicized during a session that Ken Johnson and Mike Schadauer presented at the 1998 Public Engineers Technology Conference and Trade Show on 12/9/98. Also, Ted Koch from the Wisconsin Land Information Board contacted Cialek about a positional accuracy workshop he is planning for the Wisconsin state GIS conference on March 9.

Transportation Work Group

This agenda item was postponed due to time constraints.

The next meeting of the GIS Standards Committee is Tuesday, January 19th, 1999,
9:30 - 11:30, Room 301, Centennial Office Building, St. Paul, MN.

Minutes submitted by N. Rader