Wisconsin Geographic Information Officer Jim Giglierano is conducting a survey to better understand community needs for access to geospatial data. Jim recently distributed the following message with his survey link.
The Wisconsin geospatial community has had a long standing desire for more access to publicly available GIS datasets. Great progress has been made in the past couple years through the ongoing efforts of the UW Robinson Map Library and WisconsinView program, the Legislative Technology Services Bureau, the WLIP parcel project and many individual county/state/federal agencies GIS data websites. The Wisconsin Land Information Council directed me to develop a plan for a centralized data distribution system (in their words, a repository and portal) for public GIS data. Before developing specific plans, it would help to gather some basic information from potential users of such a system.
In addition you will be asked to think very seriously about how this system will benefit your work, your organization and customers. One can discuss and design all kinds of technologically wonderful features, but we will have to choose a path forward that can be successfully advanced and justified to decision makers. Currently, there are no funds budgeted for this purpose, so as users you need to be able to articulate to us which features are critical, having great value for you and your customers, versus a laundry list of nice things to have. After we have a good idea of the needs, it will be easier to figure up costs.
Once the survey data is collected, members of the WLIC will help interpret the results and present to the rest of the council. The council will discuss and provide direction for next steps towards developing a plan. This survey is the first step, therefore your participation at this point is crucial for discerning options to meet your most critical needs. Survey results will be made public, of course.
The Survey Form is here: https://goo.gl/forms/5E1b6YUxqpz3z3BI2
The form will stop collecting data on Oct 31, 2017. All responses are anonymous.
For more information, contact Jim Giglierano at (608) 267-6902.