October 2005 Newsletter
Cadastral Standard Approved
A finalized Cadastral Standard was approved by IGIC Board in September. Thanks to the Standards and
Recommendations Committee for their long hours and hard work in putting this together. You can view
the Cadastral and other standards at
http://www.in.gov/igic/standards/index.html.
Countdown to the 2010 Census Redistricting Data Program
The staff of US Census Bureau Redistricting Office will be presenting a 2 hour program on October 19, 2005
at 10: 00 am in the House Chambers at the Indiana State Capitol. The target audience for this presentation
includes election officials involved in redistricting as well as others, such as the GIS community,
involved in improving the base geography through such programs as LUCA, ACS, and BAS. In addition the
census staff will be discussing the census timeline. For more information, or a copy of the agenda,
contact Maureen Bard or Mark Stratton 233-9294 at the Legislative Services Agency.
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Online Metadata Tool
There is no longer an excuse for not creating at least minimally compliant metadata! Metadata is
documentation of your GIS data - it answers who, what, where, when and how your data was created.
The Northwest Indiana GIS Forum and the Northwest Indiana Center for Data &
Analysis at Indiana University Northwest Library announce the availability of an Online Metadata Tool,
jointly created with, and hosted by, the Indiana Geological Survey.
http://igs.indiana.edu/metadata/index.cfm
The project is intended to continue ongoing efforts of metadata instruction and compilation in
Northwest Indiana and now will provide metadata assistance statewide as well. The Online Metadata
tool was created with funding received from the US EPA region 5. The tool produces an FGDC minimally
compliant metadata record in text file format that can be saved to the user's local computer. The
text file produced is in the proper format so that it may be uploaded to a metadata clearinghouse
without further processing. The text file can also be imported into ESRI ArcCatalog software.
Persons wishing to compile metadata using this tool should be sure to print out the instructions for
its use also located on the site. In addition to the tool, the website offers numerous metadata related
resources including the Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata (CSDGM) Workbook, Version 2.0.
Look for additional fine tuning to occur on the website later this Fall. Protect your data investment with
metadata. Contact Cele Morris, cmorris@iun.edu for additional information.
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Attracting the Big Retailers
The City of Hammond wanted to persuade Wal-Mart to locate a new store in the community. Wal-Mart,
however, believed their other area stores already adequately met the needs of shoppers in northwest Indiana.
Using GIS, Hammond Economic Development staff created maps to analyze driving distances for Hammond
residents to existing Wal-Mart stores. The analysis showed long driving distances and awkward routes
for Hammond residents to reach existing stores. Using GIS, staff also analyzed existing Census map data
(e.g. median income) to show that Hammond residents fit Wal-Mart's customer profiles. After examining the maps
and reports, Wal-Mart agreed to build a new store in Hammond.
Building the new store created over 300 jobs - more than half of which are held by Hammond residents. It
generates $200,000 a year in taxes for the City and is ranked in the top 15% of regional stores for generated sales.
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Indiana National Guard Releases Web Portal
The Indiana National Guard has announced the release of COP: Common Operating Procedure. It
is a customizable web portal designed for use by National Guard, Homeland Security and First Responders.
The portal includes a customizable workplace, search functions and real-time discussion board. The goal
is to break down the communication barriers that can hamper response efforts during an emergency.
Indiana COP, currently in use by the Joint Operations Center, is available to all civil and military
employees in local, County and State agencies. Contact Jamie Dale at jamie.dale@in.ngb.army.mil for more
information or to apply for a password.
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Orthophotography Update
Last month we reported that EarthData started shipping aerial orthophotos. As of October 5, EarthData has
shipped 14,956 of about 70,000 tiles. Dewberry reviews each photo, and notifies EarthData if there are any
quality issues. As data for a full county is received, Pinnacle Mapping will prepare these for delivery to
that county. We expect the first deliveries to counties in mid-October, and anticipate all counties will
have data by the end of the year. Indiana University and IGIC are preparing to make the photos available
via the Internet. At the Indiana Association of Cities & Towns conference, IGIC President Alex Wernher was
able to pass along a plot of the first photo to Governor Mitch Daniel's staff. Jill Saligoe-Simmel and Jim
Stout presented an update of the project at the MidAmerica Arc User Group (MAUG) Conference.
You can follow EarthData's progress at the Project Tracker website:
www.edprojecttracker.com
Username: indiana1
Password: hoosier
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Grant Awarded to Distribute Orthos
IGIC, in partnership with University Information Technology Service (UITS) at Indiana University, has
been awarded a second FGDC CAP Grant for 2005. The funds will go toward internet distribution of the
2005 statewide orthophotography. UITS will host the data and support online, real-time access to the files.
"We're very excited about this opportunity," says IGIC executive director Jill Saligoe-Simmel. "This service
will support the IndianaMap, The National Map, Geospatial One-Stop, and the National Spatial Data
Infrastructure (NSDI) Clearinghouse node."
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Online Content On Demand: An RSS Primer
What is RSS?
RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites,
weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
Why RSS?
RSS solves a problem for people who regularly use the web. It allows you to easily stay informed by
retrieving summaries of the latest content from the sites you are interested in. You save time by not
needing to visit each site individually. You ensure your privacy, by not needing to join each site's
email newsletter. The number of sites offering RSS feeds is growing rapidly and includes big names like
Yahoo News and Amazon.
What do I need to do to read an RSS Feed?
Feed Reader or News Aggregator software allow you to grab the RSS feeds from various sites and
display them for you to read and use. Then it's just a matter of finding sites that syndicate
content and adding their RSS feed to the list of feeds your Feed Reader checks. Many sites display a
small icon with the acronyms RSS, XML, or RDF to let you know a feed is available.
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In Brief
The
Legislative Committee is meeting regularly again. Interested in joining? Check out the
committee webpages, or contact chair Phil
Worrall pworrall@pinnaclemapping.com, or subscribe to the committee listserv by emailing info@igic.org.
Job Postings. Looking for a change? There have been a number of job openings posting to the INGISI
website this month. Click here to see for yourself.
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Free Classes
HAZUS Courses
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security has announced the following free courses at the Indiana
Government Center in downtown Indianapolis. For more information, visit The Polis Center website at
www.thepoliscenter.iupui.edu/tpc/training.
Using ArcGIS for Emergency Management
November 21-22, 2005, 8:30am-4:30pm
This two-day, hands-on course is designed to empower emergency managers, planners, engineers, public safety
professionals, and others with the skills needed to visualize, query, and analyze information related to
disaster mitigation, response, recovery and risk management using ArcGIS. This course is recommended for
persons with no GIS experience, persons that have GIS experience in non-ESRI GIS tools, and persons that
have GIS experience in ESRI GIS tools other than ArcGIS.
Using HAZUS-MH for DMA 2000 Risk Assessment
November 28-30, 2005, 8:30am-4:30pm
This three-day course focuses on using the HAZUS-MH risk assessment methodology, data requirements, and
applications to assist local communities to conduct their risk assessments for DMA 2000 and to address their
disaster-related risk assessment needs. The course will involve hands-on computer exercises using the free
HAZUS-MH software to perform tasks associated with each step of the risk assessment process.
GIS Seminar Series
This seminar is part of the ongoing GIS Seminar Series, a partnership between The Polis Center at IUPUI and IGIC.
CAD/GIS Integration Seminar
October 18, 1:00pm - 3:00pm, IUPUI University Library
The speaker for this seminar will be Bill Kimbrell with Woolpert, Inc. Bill has extensive experience with
helping GIS and CAD users bridge the gap between these important technologies. He will talk about the different
ways to integrate these technologies and will present practical, real-world examples of how this goal can
be achieved. Realizing that some people want to transition completely out of CAD into GIS, while others need
to use both technologies hand-in-hand, he'll approach the subject from both perspectives. He will also address
the issue of working with CAD-based engineering and construction companies and discuss the idea of implementing
CAD/GIS standards and guidelines. There will be ample opportunities for audience interaction throughout the
presentation.
The seminar will be held at the IUPUI University Library at 755 West Michigan Street, Indianapolis, Indiana
46202. This event is free of charge to participants. Registration is available online at
www.thepoliscenter.iupui.edu/tpc/training.
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