Louisville, KY to Adopt ‘Open by Default’ Data Plan
by brian-heaton

Louisville, Ky., is the latest municipality to officially embrace the open data movement.

Mayor Greg Fischer announced on Oct. 15 that he had signed Executive Order No. 1, Series 2013, which establishes an open data plan for Louisville. His remarks were made at the 2013 Code for America Summit in San Francisco.

Oakland and West Sacramento, Calif., both took a similar plunge this month, bringing the total number of cities to formalize open data plans to five in 2013. Tulsa, Okla., and South Bend, Ind., jumped on the open data train earlier this year.

The Louisville policy will include an “open by default” provision, which emphasizes proactive disclosure of data sets when they become available, as opposed to reacting to specific information requests.

According to a blog post by the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit transparency advocate, the executive order indicates that Louisville’s policy should be “firmly rooted in legal precedent” through the Kentucky Open Meetings and Open Records acts and will have a number of checks and balances to ensure information is disclosed. The U.S. government adopted a similar “open by default” standard in May.

In an interview with Insider Louisville, Michael Schnuerle, CEO of Metro Mapper, a GIS-based Louisville news hub, said while Fischer’s executive order is worded well, he has concerns with a few glaring omissions. He noted that unlike the policies in Philadelphia and New York City, Louisville lacks a clear timetable for the plan.

In addition, the Louisville executive order does not specify which city departments are covered by the order. It also isn’t clear whether the data will include historic information and various ways to download the data.

 continued…

first published week of:   10/28/2013

Madison County's new GIS plan makes files accessible on website
by aline?carambat

Only a few months into its implementation, Madison County's [MS] new Geographic Information System (GIS) plan has already made tides of information accessible through the county's website.

The service went live in January and is the first phase of a multi-year implementation plan, according to GID Director Chuck Carr.

“During the first phase, significant strides have been made in the area of information sharing, communication, and data management in Madison County (The Central Mississippi Planning and Development District), with the assistance of Kay Little, GIS Administrator, launched a customized web-based application using our virtual server and ArcGIS Server technology,” Carr said.

“This application, accessible through a seamless link on the official Madison County website, uses state-of-the-art programming language to serve up to 26 interactive layers of information.”

Using the Internet based GIS viewing tool, users are able to choose the data layers they wish to view from a menu of available information.  continued…

first published week of:   05/27/2013

MAPPS endorses US geological survey's 3D elevation program (3DEP)

MAPPS, the national association of private sector geospatial firms, has formerly endorsed the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) developed by the US Geological Survey (USGS).

“USGS should be applauded for its diligence developing the 3DEP program, identifying stakeholders in the public and private sector, and coordinating with Federal, state and local agency partners and the private sector in an effort to develop and fund the program,” said Dick McDonald, PLS, MAPPS President (T3 Global Strategies, Bridgeville,PA). “It is because of the partnership and the framework for the program that MAPPS endorses the program and will work in conjunction with USGS to make the program a reality for the benefit the citizens of the United States.”

In the endorsement, MAPPS urges the Obama Administration, Congress, and the states to cooperatively fund the program at its optimal level of $146 million per year. MAPPS conducted a market analysis that indicated that a public-private partnership would spawn economic growth using multiple-award USGS contracts for data collection services and increase the demand in the manufacturing for LIDAR equipment. The study showed that there is excess capacity in the private sector to complete the program in the near-term and over its proposed lifespan.

The primary goal of 3DEP is to systematically collect enhanced elevation data in the form of high-quality light detection and ranging (LIDAR) data over the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories, with data acquired over an 8-year period.

Details Here

first published week of:   02/11/2013

Massachusetts Municipalities Share IT Infrastructure in the Cloud
by sarah rich

What may seem like the neighborly thing to do is actually a practice that can help cities save money on IT services: sharing.

When Melrose, Mass., moved forward with an IT infrastructure upgrade and data center consolidation in 2010 after receiving grant funding from the state, the city developed a scalable model to allow other cities to share its multi-tenant cloud platform.  continued…

first published week of:   07/22/2013

Michigan and Utah Lead 50-State Report Card on Technology in Government
by news staff, govtech.com

Michigan, Utah, Pennsylvania and Virginia received top grades in the 2010 Digital States Survey, a comprehensive examination of state government technology practices conducted by the Center for Digital Government, the research and advisory division of eRepublic, publisher of Government Technology.

The announcement Tuesday, Sept. 21, revealed those four states were the only recipients of “A” or “A-minus” grades in the survey, which is conducted every two years. Michigan and Utah received the highest scores. Conversely, only three states – Idaho, Indiana and South Carolina -- received “C-minus” grades, the lowest given among the 50 states. continued…

first published week of:   07/08/2013

Microsoft Announces Windows Azure Government Cloud
by govtech.com

Microsoft is expected to launch a new government cloud offering through its Windows Azure platform, according to a Monday, Oct. 7 announcement.

While the new dedicated government community cloud does not have an official launch date yet, once available, it will exclusively host data storage, applications and infrastructure for federal, state, local and tribal governments. Everything stored in the Windows Azure U.S. Government Cloud will be hosted in the continental U.S. and managed by screened U.S. citizens or legal foreign residents, according to Susie Adams, CTO of federal government business for Microsoft.  continued…

first published week of:   10/14/2013

Microsoft Received 37,196 Gov Requests For Data Impacting 66,539 Accounts In First Half Of 2013
by alex wilhelm

Today Microsoft reported the number of data requests it received from various law enforcement agencies around the world in the first half of (calendar) 2013: 37,196. Those requests dealt with, at most, 66,539 accounts.

Microsoft reported that in full-year 2012 (calendar) it received 75,378 requests that impacted no more than 137,424 accounts. So, requests this year are roughly on par with the year prior. Unless something dramatic changes, the full-year 2013 (calendar) tally should end as roughly commensurate with 2012.

According to Microsoft, only 2.19 percent of requests “result[ed] in the disclosure of customer content data.” However, of those requests in which content data was released, 92 percent of those requests were from the United States government. So, if you have data on Microsoft services, likely the only government that can force access to that content is the United States. Take that as you will

Microsoft remains under strict government order to not list certain information regarding data requests. The company included a slightly bewildering paragraph in its report, in which it states that national security orders are not included, though National Security Letters are listed as part of the aggregate information:

Unfortunately, we are not currently permitted to report detailed information about the type and volume of any national security orders (e.g. FISA Orders and FISA Directives) that we may receive so any national security orders we may receive are not included in this report. We have summarized, per government direction, the aggregate volume of National Security Letters we have received.

first published week of:   09/30/2013

Microsoft, Google, Apple call for end to NSA’s bulk data collection
by jon brodkin

Eight tech companies have called on the government to limit spying to specific targets, overhaul the country's secret spy courts, and let service providers publish more detailed information about surveillance requests.

Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn issued an open letter to President Obama and Congress last night while taking out full-page ads in The New York Times and other newspapers. continued…

first published week of:   12/09/2013

Mobile GIS could help track little problems around DC
by geoff hatchard

Downtown DC Business Improvement District employees use a hand-held geographic information system (GIS) to track public space problems like broken fire hydrants. Could this technology also help DC government employees, like trash collectors?

ESRI, the company that makes the most commonly-used GIS software in the United States, has a quarterly newsletter called ArcNews. The spring issue has a story about a custom program that BID employees use to report issues with the trash cans, park benches, bus shelters, and other public assets in the BID.

The program sounds like a more sophisticated version of the SeeClickFix application that is re-skinned and rebranded as the DC311 app. The 311 app is buggy and could use work to make it more useful, but it's limited in scope and meant for the public to simply report issues, not address the process from start to finish. The application for the BID employees appears to do just that. continued…

first published week of:   04/15/2013

Montana Passes Broad Location-Tracking Protections
by govtech.com news staff

According to an article by the ACLU, Montana is the first state in the country to pass legislation requiring law enforcement to get a warrant before they track an individual's whereabouts or activities via their use of personal technology.

"Perhaps Montanans, known for their love of freedom and privacy, intuitively understand how sensitive location information can be and how much where you go can reveal about who you are," ACLU advocacy and policy strategist Allie Bohm writes. continued…

first published week of:   06/24/2013