The Geo Factor interviewed Jason Spalding of emGISt who recently started Find GIS, a Web site focusing on GIS in the state of Florida. Jason answered questions about his goals for the site and what’s happening in Florida.

TGF: What is Find GIS?

Find GIS is a comprehensive GIS Web site catering to the Florida GIS industry. The site includes, but is not limited to: Florida GIS data download sites, GIS resources (blogs, tools, and user groups), GIS staff contact information (state agencies, counties, and cities), and University GIS Departments throughout the state.

TGF: Why did you start it? What do you hope to accomplish with the site? What have you already accomplished?

I started Find GIS in order to upgrade my Florida GIS Data blogspot. I created the blogspot more than four years ago as a way to assist GIS users in tracking down Florida GIS data and to keep the Florida GIS Community in the loop on related industry news and events. It was also a central location for clients, customers, and users to so they could download their own GIS data.

With Find GIS, I hope to assist GIS users throughout the state by providing them a one-stop industry resource. I am a big believer in having GIS data available as public records as defined under the Florida Government-in-the-Sunshine Law (aka Florida Sunshine Law), which is part of our state’s public record statutes. I also hope to use the site as a platform for myself and like-minded users to make contacts within the industry that are willing to pursue innovative ideas with regards to GIS applications and Location Based Services. Even though companies such as ESRI have been around for decades, I feel that the industry in general is still in its infancy and is changing every day. One of my favorite “pastimes” is to brainstorm about new ways that the power of GIS, GPS, and LBS can be harnessed and applied to everyday life.

One of my top GIS industry-related accomplishments to date is my pursuit of obtaining Palm Beach County’s parcel shapefiles under Florida’s public records laws. It was nearly a year-long saga that I pursued through the Attorney General’s Open Government Mediation Program. Briefly, Palm Beach County had a resolution in place that required any private entity to sign a data license agreement and pay a $20,000 “License Agreement Royalty Fee” in order to be able to obtain a copy of and redistribute their countywide copyrighted parcel shapefiles. The obvious issues were that the parcel shapefiles were copyrighted public records, and were created using tax payers money. Therefore, the records should have been available at the cost of reproduction as defined under the Florida Sunshine Law. The end result was Attorney General Charlie Crist, now Governor Crist, issued an Attorney General’s Opinion in my favor and the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners voted to rescind their GIS information policy resolution. Anyone can now download the latest version of these parcel shapefiles from Palm Beach County’s FTP site at no cost.

For full details, please see the early 2003 news articles on Find GIS, as well as the Attorney General’s Opinion (AGO #2003-42) which was issued on September 3, 2003.

A few of my other minor accomplishments recently were getting my original blogspot to the top result (out of 1,000,000+ returns) for a Google search of “Florida GIS Data”, obtaining over 8,000 subscribers to the Florida GIS Data News Feed, and the launch and promotion of the Florida GIS Data Sharing Network. The network is a Google Group and forum of GIS users across the state that share their industry knowledge and resources. The group has recently surpassed 500 approved members, the majority of whom reside within the state of Florida.

TGF: What is your professional background? Your company affiliation?

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and currently hold an EI (Engineering Intern) license. I worked within the land development division of a local engineering firm for four years prior to developing a serious interest in GIS in 2002. At that time I started a small GIS consulting business, emGISt, Inc. (Enterprise Management & Geographical Information System Technologies, Inc.) which I continue to run today.

TGF: What is the business model for the site? How will it support itself or make money?

Good question! I need to put more thought into a long term business plan. Right now I am really just enjoying each day in the GIS industry and hopefully the site will get me somewhere in the grand scheme of things. I believe one should be passionate about one’s work in order to succeed in life and I definitely feel that Find GIS falls into the category of something I am passionate about.

To help pay for the services the site offers I plan on offering company advertisements through a variety of opportunities. In addition to the typical banner ads and newsletter sponsorships, I am going to try a new approach to advertising with a “Market Where You Map” ad campaign specifically for Florida GIS industry companies. I guess the idea is somewhat similar to targeted ads, but these will apply specifically to Florida.

A few examples of “Market Where You Map” advertisements are:

An environmental firm can post an ad about their services under the “Florida Conservation & Environmental GIS Data” page or a specified “Water Management District” page.

A consulting firm offering GIS services throughout Hillsborough County can post ads under our Hillsborough County GIS resources.

A GIS/Mapping company with offices in Orlando, Pensacola, and Vero Beach can post an ad to any, or all three, of our corresponding “City GIS” pages

TGF: What do you see as the most significant uses of Find GIS?

The most significant use of Find GIS is the ability of getting Florida’s raw GIS data into the hands of companies that have the knowledge and motivation to create something with it. The value is not just the data itself, but the analysis, end result applications, and potential economic growth from what GIS users do with it. From using Florida’s GIS data for potential site selection of new bio-technology firms to water management districts conserving wetlands, it is much more difficult to produce results if one has to go through red tape (i.e. data license agreements and license agreement royalty fees) every time one wants to obtain GIS data.

I definitely understand security issues and somewhat agree with keeping water, sewer, and drainage infrastructure data under wraps, but the fact of the matter is that nothing is really stopping anyone from obtaining hardcopy as-built drawings and recreating the GIS data themselves. This may require an additional interview with a homeland security firm, but if someone has ill-advised intentions, they will probably go to any length to obtain or recreate the data themselves. So we end up just denying access to people with good intentions.

The other significant use of Find GIS is to provide new GIS users with some level of knowledge of Florida’s data availability and Florida’s data costs. A “County Data Price List” is included on the website to give GIS users a county-to-county comparison of raw data costs. I know some companies make a living off a data acquisition fees, but I recall one company in particular selling a specific County’s parcel shapefiles for $8,000 back in 2003. The story behind the story is that anyone could go to that County’s GIS Department website and download the same exact parcels for free.

TGF: What do you think makes Florida unique or different from other states with regards to GIS?

I think Florida is unique with regards to GIS because our data is finally becoming readily available statewide at a reasonable cost. Many states are still behind in creating parcel shapefiles or are still going through the learning curve of whether or not the data should be kept under lock and key. There are parcel shapefiles currently available for sixty-four of the sixty-seven counties within Florida. By comparison, back in 2003, only six or seven counties had their parcel shapefiles completed.

On the government side, I think Alachua County, Lee County, Orange County, and the City of Jacksonville are a few of the leading GIS government sites in the state as far as presenting GIS applications to the average citizen.

There is also a big push now for statewide GIS coordination under the Florida NSDI CAP Grant Program. The program is officially known as “Strategic Planning for Enhancing GIS Coordination in Florida” and it is being spearheaded by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. A consortium of Florida state, local, and federal GIS managers applied for and received a Fifty-States Initiative grant for this statewide GIS coordination effort.

In the private sector, there are several Florida companies leveraging the power of GIS, GPS, and LBS to offer cutting-edge applications and services to their clients. Some examples are: GeoAge , GeoScopix, Global Mind, MapGorilla, and WeoGeo.

TGF: The site promotes easier access to data. Why is easier access to GIS data important to businesses?

Easier access to GIS data is important to businesses for many reasons. Going back to my answer as to what I see as the most significant uses of Find GIS, the value is not just the data itself, but the analysis, end result applications, and potential economic growth from what GIS users do with it. It is much more difficult and time consuming to produce results if you have to go through red tape every time you want to obtain GIS data.

As we have also seen with recent events, such as Hurricane Katrina and the wildfires in California and Florida, private companies can quickly be of assistance to those in need during a time of crisis. I know a number of GIS volunteers from Florida went to assist emergency workers in the aftermath of Katrina. Imagine how helpful it is if a large number of companies already have existing GIS data on their private computers and laptops. The flip side is that the government has horded their GIS data, and in one situation, the single facility that housed the data was destroyed. Valuable time is wasted recovering backup copies and the data still needs to be distributed to volunteers and emergency workers.

As an aside, it is currently still somewhat of a process to obtain GIS data within Florida, even with access through one-stop resources such as Find GIS. Every single government agency, county, and city within the state sets their own data acquisition policies. Some require a signed data request on company letterhead and payment upfront, others will accept an email or fax request and will send out the data with an invoice, and many still have some type of data agreement in place in defiance of the Florida Sunshine Law. The law clearly states that “a person requesting access to or copies of public records may not be required to disclose his or her name, address, telephone number or the like to the custodian, unless the custodian is required by law to obtain this information prior to releasing the records.” No such law exists in Florida for GIS data.

I personally appreciate the government agencies, counties, and cities that have taken the steps to set up FTP sites or data download sites, eliminating the need for paperwork. I know this still requires funding for maintenance and upkeep, but it also eliminates staff time of responding to data requests, burning CDs, etc. In a perfect world, every agency in the state would use the same procedure and have the same data policy in place.

TGF: What are the issues in pulling data from disparate sources and combining them in a GIS application?

Well, while I’m on the topic of a perfect world, it would not hurt if each government agency, county, or city used the same standard attribute table layout or nomenclature for common fields. The data content is basically the same, but there are a variety of field names for the same designation. As an example, a property owner’s name may be listed under “OWNER”, “PROP_OWNER”, “MAIL_NAME”, or “ADDR_NAME”, and may include first name then last name, last name then first name, just the last name with the first name in an adjacent field, or all property owners under one field.

After dealing with data from nearly every county in the state, another issue seams to be the standardization within one agency. I know this is the result of having multiple staff members enter the data, but I have always proclaimed that you could create a company whose sole business was to clean up government databases. Something as simple as a highway designation will vary from “Highway” to “Hway” to “Hwy” to “Hwy.” all within the same attribute table.

There are a variety of other issues, but they have more to do with specific GIS data layers or terminology. An example would be Zoning and Future Land Use layers. A given county may define a MR-3 zoning designation as “Multi-Family Residential 3+ units per acre” whereas a city within that same county may define a MR-3 zoning designation as “Multi-Family Residential up to 3 units per acres”. As a result, a different designation applies depending on where the parcel is located.

TGF: What are the biggest challenges facing the Florida GIS community?

The biggest historical challenge facing the Florida GIS community is the lack of a consistent statewide GIS coordination effort. This is currently being addressed under the “Strategic Planning for Enhancing GIS Coordination in Florida” program as mentioned above. Hopefully the issues will be clearly addressed and resolved this time around.

Dating back to the mid 1990s, there have been a number of efforts to coordinate GIS data resources through the Florida Geographic Information Advisory Council (GIAC), the Florida Geographic Information Board (GIB), and the Florida Geographic Data Stewardship Program. Unfortunately, all of them have failed, been abandoned, or been dissolved due to a lack of funding or a lack of state interest.

One other major issue I have seen is the redundancy of GIS data creation within the same county. It probably has something to do with absolute control of the data, but a few counties within the state actually have created two versions of their base parcel shapefiles, one within the County’s GIS or Planning Department and another within the County’s Property Appraiser’s Office. I think that it would have made more sense to share the cost of creating the parcels, rather then spend taxpayer money to create two versions of the same data layer.

TGF: What are potential new feature areas for Find GIS?

Due to a few recent requests, I am getting ready to launch three new resource feature areas which will include: GIS Case Studies, GIS White Papers, and a Call for Papers/Abstracts section.

If any of The Geo Factor readers want to submit any such content, I will post them for free. It’s a great way to share GIS knowledge as well as get some company publicity and recognition. Just use the Find GIS Contact Us form to send in a request.

TGF: What are your favorite blogs and Web sites for geospatial information? Where should those without much knowledge go to learn more about maps?

Other than The Geo Factor, there are a number of technical GIS blogs out there which offer excellent GIS insight and resources. I try to keep up with most of them, but there are many popping up these days. I think I would have a hard time specifically favoring one over the other. I kind of see it like the question, “What is your favorite movie of all time?” when a more intriguing question is “Whom is your favorite movie director?”

I have a very dry sense of humor and appreciate what the people over at Strange Maps are doing. Dave and Thomas over at GIS Pilot also post some amusing articles. In addition, I’ve been reading Chris Spagnuolo’s GeoScrum lately because I am interested in learning more on how Scrum is being applied in the GIS industry.

GIS newbies can visit a variety of online resources to learn more about maps. A great Florida resource is available through the University of Florida’s GeoPlan Center. A couple of national resources are ESRI’s “Ten Tips for Learning More about GIS” and USGS’s “How Does GIS Work?”

For young students, there are several GIS & Mapping Education resources listed on the Find GIS site.

For those looking to get their feet wet in a GIS career there are several private companies, including ESRI, that offer GIS courses through training centers. Other options are local community colleges or universities that offer night classes or continuing education courses. I have listed multiple university resources on Find GIS for any readers whom may reside in Florida.