igic.org

Contributed by Rick Hill, Indiana Geological Survey

The New IndianaMap - R3 WEBINAR
Tuesday, November 9th, 2:00-3:00pm EST
FREE

The GIS Atlas for Southwestern Indiana began in the fall of 2000 and has evolved over the past 10 years to what we know today as the IndianaMap. The IndianaMap is a custom Java Script and ArcXML application using ESRI’s ArcIMS technology. While it has served the citizens of Indiana very well, it is time for a new IndianaMap with enhanced capabilities and features.

IndianaMap - Release3 (R3) is a custom Silverlight application being developed using ESRI’s ArcGIS Server 10 technology. IndianaMap - R3 will be a rich internet application (RIA) that will allow users to
· View, interact, and download map layers with metadata
· View and interact with predefined thematic maps
· Build and save customized maps
· Access many tools to draw, search, query, and customize your maps

IndianaMap - R3 will provide fast delivery of maps using caching technology and a more dynamic experience by the easy incorporation of real-time data services such as weather radar, earthquakes RSS feeds, and access to additional map services.

IndianaMap - R3 is planned for release in the summer of 2011. Video tutorials will be available online and Training Road Shows will be scheduled for fall 2011.

Register at http://www.igic.org/training/seminars.html#inmap

Besides being a nice informal social and educational opportunity, our spring Geo-Dinner meeting this year gave our guests the opportunity to preview the facilities, food and services of the Horizon Convention Center in Muncie, as well as get a preview of Ball State Universities GIS Education capabilities. In case you didn't already know, The Horizon Center and Ball State will be the site for IGIC's 2011 & 2013 Annual GIS Conferences. IGIC's Conference Committee spends quite a bit of time evaluating and selecting our conference sites and their amenities, and last night's event surely reinforced our choice of Muncie! After dinner presentations were made by Jim Sparks, State of Indiana's GIO, and Angela Gibson, Ball State University Libraries GIS Specialist.

Angela Gibson's presentation was an eye-opener for me. Ball State Muncie with 20,000 students is about half the size of Purdue West Lafayette & IU Bloomington, but their adoption and availability of geospatial technology and education opportunities is second-to-none. In addition to major GIS programs in the Universities Geography Department and College of Architecture and Planning, the Universities Bracken Library provides GIS support to 19 other Departments/Colleges.

Angela explained that her boss, the Dean of the University Library, loves maps and is a huge advocate for GIS, and is responsible for providing access to GIS software and data on over 140 computers in Bracken Library for students use.

Angela is also a member of IGIC's Conference Committee, and she will be coordinating the hands-on workshops for our upcoming conferences that will utilize the Universities GIS lab and library facilities.

Jim Sparks talked about two very important topics concerning GIS in Indiana - data sharing and broadband mapping.

IndianaMap Data Sharing Initiative: Jim started out his presentation by talking about the 2007 Indiana Code that created his position (IC 4-23-7.3) and some of his legislated duties that include: Facilitating GIS data cooperation between units of the federal, state, and local governments; Integrating GIS data and framework data into a statewide base map; and providing public access to this GIS data. Jim also spoke about new Obama administration Open Government directives designed to provide more access to public information to help drive innovation and support accountability and transparency; and that we (the Indiana GIS community) have been doing this for more than 10 years, and should be proud of our efforts and a model for other states.

Currently, 85 of 92 Indiana Counties have agreed to share four key data layers (parcels, address points, road centerlines, and boundaries), and approximately 65 of those county datasets are available for viewing and FREE download from the IndianaMap. These data currently consist of over 2 million individual parcels and address points, almost half a million road centerline segments, and over 3,000 jurisdictional boundaries. Jim pointed out that this number will continue to increase each month as more county data is harvested and updated, and he sincerely thanked everyone for helping make this project such a success for the people of Indiana.

Indiana's Broadband Mapping Initiative: Mapping of Indiana's Broadband infrastructure is currently underway. This is thanks to the Indiana State Legislature passing a bill in 2009 to create a statewide GIS map of broadband availability (IC 5-28-33-3), and Federal ARRA funds (grants) becoming available in 2009 for states to fund this effort. Jim described why this is important to Indiana by quoting the Chairman of the FCC has stated “We believe that broadband is a critical infrastructure challenge of our generation. It is to us what railroads, electricity, highways, and telephones were to previous generations”, and that "a 10% increase in broadband availability means a 1.2 to 1.5 point increase in GDP.", and that is a big number! Jim described challenges for Indiana that include low broadband adoption rates of up to 70% in rural, low income, minorities, and elderly communities, and that about 10% of the nation's population doesn't even have access to broadband.

To meet National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) requirements, Indiana is mapping broadband availability by census blocks, including information of the wired service provider(s), technology used, advertised speed (up and downstream), as well as creating GIS files to depict availability of wireless broadband.

The (preliminary) map above is an example of one of the new GIS broadband map layers created for Indiana (a map that never existed before). Phase 1 of the mapping will be completed and delivered to the NTIA for review by the end of this month. Phase 1 consist of broadband maps based on data “in-hand” for the state. Phase 2 is already starting, and will immediately begin to improve the map with data requested from the service providers. In parallel to these efforts, ongoing quality control to verify the maps using federal (FCC) sources and crowd sourced (citizen address point level) survey information will be integrated into the process.

In summary, Jim stated that the initial results of this ongoing mapping effort should start to become available for publication on the IndianaMap by early this Summer.

Copies of these presentations are available here on the IGIC web site.

Join us for an afternoon this summer to catch up on the latest developments in GIS, technical innovations, or to learn what GIS is all about. IGIC members will receive continuing education credits toward GISP certification for all the spring and summer workshops! Register today for any/all of the seminars listed below!

Tuesday, March 30th, 2:00-3:00pm (EDT)
WEBINAR
FREE

For centuries, property parcel data has been publicly available on paper. In the past few decades, such information did find its way to computers when property assessment and billing practices were digitized, but access was cumbersome and not uniform among our counties. Difficulties in obtaining statewide information came to a head during the major overhaul of assessment practices spurred by the Indiana Supreme Court decision in the late 1990s. Trying to determine what the effects of new market-based valuation practices was difficult for many reasons, and trying to do so after the first new assessments in the mid-2000s found that much of the data available had significant defects in terms of usability.

At the same time, technology had advanced to such a level that the means of providing access to statewide parcel information could be achieved. The Indiana Business Research Center, with the assistance of the Lilly Endowment and with key support from the Governor’s Office and his administrative agencies, was able within the past two years to develop a system that would allow for the uploading by all counties to a single database, with tools that would also help them to target errors and discrepancies in their data. That system, along with new tools for web-enabled submission of sales disclosures on a 24/7 basis, have both created new statewide databases of information that can not just be used for official purposes, but to also make the information publicly available.

Carol Rogers of the Indiana Business Research Center will demonstrate these new utilities and provide examples of resulting uses.

Thursday, April 22nd, 2:00-3:00pm (EDT)
WEBINAR
FREE

The 23rd decennial census has just recently occurred. Fundamental to the census is an address list of every housing unit in the United States. That address list depends on geography and GIS in order for forms to find their way to the proper address. But it also means that the underlying map data for that address list provides significant information for anyone involved in using GIS locally. This webinar will provide background on the geographic aspects of the 2010 census and its corollary program, the American Community Survey.

Join Carol Rogers of the Indiana Business Research Center to learn more about MAF, TIGER, and other geographic products that will be available during the coming two years.

Tuesday, May 25th, 2:00-3:00pm (EDT)
WEBINAR
IGIC Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $20

GIS and stormwater management have always had a close relationship. If you're looking for ways to improve your own processes, or just getting underway, one of the best ways to start is finding out how others have succeeded. Join us to learn how two organizations have integrated GIS and GPS into their management, and how that has impacted their organizations and communities for the better.

Dan Niksch from the City of Crown Point and Melissa Mischke from LaPorte County GIS will share their best practices for GIS and stormwater management.

Tuesday, June 15th, 1:00-3:30pm (EDT)
Indiana State Library, History Reference Room, 140 N. Senate Ave, Indianapolis
IGIC Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $20

The Indiana Geographic Information Council’s Waters Workgroup has established a strategy to improve the US Geological Survey’s National Hydrography Data (NHD) for Indiana. This new hydrography layer will include updated and corrected stream and lake names, improved positional accuracy (aligned to photography no later than 2005), consistent hydrography densities (based on 6-acre drainage catchments) and updated features. Phase One of the project is now near completion. Come see the results and hear about this new USGS NHD layer for Indiana, what has been done to create it, and plans toward project completion.

Presenters will include members of IGIC’s Waters Workgroup: Mike Martin of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Phil Worrall of IGIC, and David Nail of the US Geological Survey.

Thursday, July 22nd, 1:00-3:30pm (EDT)
Indiana State Library, History Reference Room, 140 N. Senate Ave, Indianapolis
IGIC Members: FREE
Nonmembers: $20

Doug Marvel of Spatial Marvels and Steve Hatfield of Geoshack will begin with some basics about GPS, and then talk about applying GPS technology for field data collection. GPS “Networks” will be discussed to show how GPS users can utilize this valuable resource for their own data collection efforts. An overview will be provided of GPS data collection units starting with the most basic all the way up through higher-end systems. The seminar will conclude with some insights and trends into the future of GPS data collection for GIS.

Our annual GIS conference is just 1 week away!

This year our conference is February 23-24, 2010, at the Bloomington Monroe County Convention Center. Our 2-day conference offers in-depth hands-on and classroom workshops, plus over 40 presentations from both Indiana and National experts. We currently have 290 people registered, 28 Exhibitors, 4 Gold Sponsors & 1 Silver Sponsor. We also have a number of new events scheduled for this year, and I encourage everyone to actively participate in as many of these events as you can! Special events this year include:

We will kick-off our conference with a number of IGIC Board of Director events starting on Monday afternoon. Thanks to Anna Radue we will be meeting at IU's new Innovation Center for all of these meetings. Here is the Schedule for these afternoon/evening events:

3:00pm - 4:00pm - UITS Data Center Tour*
4:15pm to 7:15pm - IGIC Board Meeting*
7:30pm to 8:30pm - IGIC Board of Directors meet with Conference Sponsors & Vendors (Informal Presentations & Reception)**
8:45pm to 10:00pm - 2010 Board Member & Officer Orientation***

*All IGIC members, guests, and all others are invited to attend the Data Center Tour and the Board Meeting.
**This meeting is for IGIC Board Members and invited Conference Sponsors & Conference Vendors only.
***Board Member & Officer Orientation for IGIC Board Members only.

7:30am to 8:30am - Conference registration and Continental Breakfast in the Great Room
8:30am to 12:00pm - Off-site Workshops (optional - advance registration required)
12:30pm to 1:30pm - Lunch, President's Address, and Excellence in GIS Awards in the Great Room
5:15pm to 7:00pm - Sponsor Reception and Indiana Trivia Event in the Great Room

6:30pm to ??pm - Geocaching event with the IU Geocaching Club
7:00pm to ??pm - Social Orienteering Event

7:00am to 8:30am Birds-of-a-Feather Breakfast (Full Breakfast). We have planned 3 concurrent Birds-of-a-Feather Breakfast Sessions: