Oct. 1, 2002 -- The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announced the U.S. Census Bureau will sponsor the second phase of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative, CIPI-2.
Census will use the OGC's rapid-prototyping process to develop two prototype systems: an online system to update governmental unit boundary information for existing incorporated places, and an OGC conformant server solution for Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (TIGER®) data.
The online editing system will be the first step to moving a currently manual system on the Web. The standards based server will allow Census' data to be used in conjunction with other local, state, and federal data and mapping services, including GeoSpatial One-Stop, a federal e-government initiative, the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) as a resource for infrastructure protection, and other efforts.
The Request for Quotations (RFQ) for this initiative will be available on Friday, September 27 at: http://www.opengis.org/info/techno/interoprequests.htm
The prototype editing system, called "WebBAS," will allow Web-based update of geospatial features by state, county, local, municipal and/or tribal governments as a partial replacement for the current paper-based Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). The BAS is currently a paper-based survey that consists of map sheets, 12 forms, 8 letters, 2 postcards, and 12 inserts.
The Geography Division of the U.S. Census Bureau, as part of the MAF/TIGER® enhancements program, aims to improve the spatial coordinate accuracy of TIGER®, expand the number of participants in the BAS, improve the response rate, reduce cost, and make additional update options available to local governments.
The pilot implementation of WebBAS will be based on OpenGIS® interface specifications, including Web Map Server, Styled Descriptor Layer, Web Feature Server and Geography Markup Language. The system will provide tools for the collection and approval / signing of detailed boundary change information, address break information, and base map feature insertion and update.
Ideally, there will be no need for printing or mailing any paper maps or forms, although initial usernames and passwords may be provided by U.S. mail.
WebTIGER aims to develop a standards-based Web server to serve TIGER® data and map images over the Web. The Census has used the TIGER/Line® format for a decade to make its data available to the public. Typically, GIS software or custom programs are used to make maps after the raw TIGER/Line® data has been translated into a proprietary format.
The TIGER/Line® format, however, changes from time to time, so the translator software must be updated accordingly. The online TIGER Mapping service, developed as a stand-alone prototype system in the last decade, serves TIGER data from 1998.
To promote vendor-neutral dissemination of TIGER® data and to reduce the software maintenance burdens imposed by periodic file format changes, the U.S. Census Bureau is exploring replacing TIGER/Line® files with a non-proprietary, standards-based, extensible and flexible encoding format, GML. The Bureau is also exploring a prototype viewer client as a successor to the TIGER Mapping Service, and to encourage public adoption of TIGER/GML™ as an open, standards based encoding for TIGER® data.
The OGC Census TIGER/GML™ pilot is being conducted as part of CIPI to maximize collaboration and sharing of development activities, technology enhancements, OGC Critical Infrastructure Collaboration Environment (CICE) testing, and web services delivery. The schedule for the initiative calls for responses to the RFQ to be submitted by COB Thursday October 17, 2002, participants to be selected by Thursday October 31, 2002, project kickoff on Tuesday November 12, 2002, and public demonstrations by the end of March 2003.
Critical Infrastructure Protection Initiative is part of OGC's Interoperability Program, a global, collaborative, hands-on engineering and testing program that rapidly delivers proven candidate specifications into OGC's Specification Program, where they are formalized for public release. In OGC's Interoperability Initiatives, international teams of technology providers work together to solve specific geoprocessing interoperability problems posed by the Initiative's sponsoring organizations. Questions about the Interoperability Program should be addressed to Jeff Harrison, Executive Director, [email protected], (703) 491-9543.
OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 220 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at www.opengis.org.
Source: Open GIS Consortium, Inc.
