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“Opinions cannot survive if one hasAt the same time, the domains of GIS and IS reflect spatial information content forRe: Benchmarks have blurred—or, better, blended. Plan- New York City, Nashville (Tenn.), and OlatheGraphics’ multiple-decade focus on enter- (Kansas) and are designing systems forBy John C. Antenucci prise implementations has served us well Cook County/ESRI and Columbus (Ohio).President and CEO with a customer Working with the Oregon Department ofAdministrative Services, we successfullye-launching Benchmarkscompleted a proof of concept that providedis a benchmark unto itself.real-time access to spatial information fromRIt represents a touchstone formultiple jurisdictions using industry-PlanGraphics which, while continuingstandard browsers while the user had noto deliver superior customer service,knowledge of the source or construct of thehas at the same time successfully dealtsource data.with the “failed” corporate marriage toDCX. Our focus remains on the public sector; ourservices and solutions are focused onAs it has been a while since we lastemergency preparedness and public safety,published Benchmarks, let me acquaintnon-emergency information disseminationnew readers with its intent. First, for those base of(e.g., 311 systems) and asset management—of us in the field of cartography and CIOs, CTOs, andboth infrastructure and real property.surveying, benchmarks have always IS managers. In the past sixThrough Benchmarks, we hope to keep ...
Voir
Re: Benchmarks
By John C. Antenucci
President and CEO
R
e-launching
Benchmarks
is a benchmark unto itself.
It represents a touchstone for
PlanGraphics which, while continuing
to deliver superior customer service,
has at the same time successfully dealt
with the “failed” corporate marriage to
DCX.
As it has been a while since we last
published
Benchmarks,
let me acquaint
new readers with its intent. First, for those
of us in the field of cartography and
surveying, benchmarks have always
represented a known starting point; for
those of us in the information technology
industry, a benchmark has always been a
comparative analysis technique for perfor-
mance and functionality. And for the master
distiller of Kentucky’s fine bourbons, each
has a benchmark or standard which they aim
to achieve, starting with a fresh mash and
volatile fermentation. PlanGraphics’ bench-
mark is the success that our clients achieve
in implementing systems and providing
business solutions that leverage spatial
information.
Our reputation as a consultant continues to
thrive, and our advisory services are
founded on more than 1,200 engagements.
Not as widely recognized are the size and
breadth of our system implementation and
system integration services, which now
represent 70 percent of our business
activity. The diversity of those integration
and implementation services is striking.
They include, but aren’t limited to, imple-
menting a catalog and retrieval system for
the National Imagery Management Agency
(NIMA)’s access to classified analog
products; integrating DB2, Oracle, and
ESRI’s SDE for Nashville-Davidson County,
Tenn., parcel records; and integrating GIS
and an engineering records document
management system for the Rhode Island
Department of Transportation.
During
Benchmarks’
hiatus, there have been
remarkable interest, acceptance, and growth
of all things spatial. GPS is now a ubiquitous
household tool, maps and routing from the
Internet common practice, and government
constituents’ demand for access to jurisdic-
tion databases more frequent.
At the same time, the domains of GIS and IS
have blurred—or, better, blended. Plan-
Graphics’ multiple-decade focus on enter-
prise implementations has served us well
with a customer
base of
CIOs, CTOs, and
IS managers. In the past six
months, we facilitated the development of a
strategic IT plan for Oregon State govern-
ment, having gained credibility though our
work on the State’s GIS strategic plan a year
earlier. We have designed and delivered
enterprise-based data warehouses that
reflect spatial information content for
NewYork City, Nashville (Tenn.), and Olathe
(Kansas) and are designing systems for
Cook County/ESRI and Columbus (Ohio).
Working with the Oregon Department of
Administrative Services, we successfully
completed a proof of concept that provided
real-time access to spatial information from
multiple jurisdictions using industry-
standard browsers while the user had no
knowledge of the source or construct of the
source data.
Our focus remains on the public sector; our
services and solutions are focused on
emergency preparedness and public safety,
non-emergency information dissemination
(e.g., 311 systems) and asset management—
both infrastructure and real property.
Through
Benchmarks,
we hope to keep our
community of clients abreast of each other’s
recent progress, as well as informed about
the exciting and ever-changing world of GIS.
As always our personal benchmark will
remain—our clients’ success!
A
s federal agencies increasingly
focus on locational information,
PlanGraphics has recruited
Tracye Turner to lead its federal business
development efforts. Turner has more
than 10 years of experience selling federal
network solutions and professional
services. “Her sales force at Northrop
Grumman was successful in selling
complex enterprise solutions into federal
agencies which tie into our business
development direction,” said John C.
Antenucci, president of PlanGraphics.
Some 30 federal agencies now use GIS,
Turner said. She believes that the federal
sector has renewed its focus on GIS
because “decision-makers will need to
access spatial information to compare it
with other spatial information and non-
spatial information.”
Furthering the Federal Focus
“For example, the federal government
may need to know transportation routes;
the location/speed/density of trucks/
vehicles; the location of gas and oil
pipelines, water/sewer pipes, and power
lines; the location of first responders;
3-D analysis of structures, etc.,” she
added. “Some of the reasons that they
need the information may be for econom-
ic development, planning, impact
analysis, commerce, forestry, natural and/
or man-made disasters, and more.”
Furthermore, Turner said, “The federal
government will need to take stovepipe
systems and integrate them for a number
of reasons which include cost and time
savings, intra- and inter-agency collabo-
ration, trend analysis, effective data
mining, and just the simple need of
seeing ‘the big picture’ in order to make
informed decisions.”
“
O
p
i
n
i
o
n
s
c
a
n
n
o
t
s
u
r
v
i
v
e
i
f
o
n
e
h
a
s
no chance to fight for them.”—Thomas Mann
By Jennifer Oberlin
Marketing Services Manager
M
uch speculation has been
occurring lately about the future
impact of GIS on IT. With the
convergence of the two, GIS is charting new
territory all over the IT world. No one knows
this more than long-time PlanGraphics client
Al Leidner,Assistant Commissioner,
Citywide Geographic Information Systems,
NewYork City Department of Information
Technology and Telecommunications
(DoITT). I recently had an opportunity to
talk with him about his career in the GIS
industry and where he thinks GIS is headed.
PlanGraphics:
When was your first
involvement with GIS? When and what was
your role? How did you get involved?
AL:
My career began in 1970 with the New
York City Planning Department. During my
initial job interview, I was asked to lo-
cate on a map where I lived. I an-
swered the question correctly and
got the job! During the 10 years I
was with the Planning Depart-
ment, I worked extensively with
maps of all kinds, but they were
paper maps, and I learned how
time-consuming it could be to
create them and modify them.
In 1978, having become aware of the
potential importance of technology to City
operations, I published a paper entitled
“Organizing City Government for New
Technology and Innovation.” However, at
this time I was unaware of GIS technology.
At the same time, as it turns out, a group
within the Department of City Planning
was developing a digital street name and
address database (Geosupport) linked to a
street center line map of the City (LION). In
1980, I moved to the Mayor’s Office of
Operations and began to coordinate the
introduction of technology, especially
microcomputers, into various City agen-
cies. I remember sending the first DOS-
based IBM PC to be received by the City, to
a detective in the New York City Police
Department. Other donated PCs from
different computer vendors were given to a
variety of City agencies.
I moved to the Department of Environmen-
tal Protection (DEP) in 1984, and while
working on a project there that involved
determining the locations of hazardous
materials in the City, I learned about the
power of digital mapping. I became more
familiar with City Planning’s work with
their new GIS systems and also became
aware that DEP was also starting work on
a digital map of the City’s watermains. I
started to add this all together and
realized that almost all the information
utilized by DEP had a locational compo-
nent and the same could be said for other
City agencies as well.
DEP design engineers worked in a CAD
environment and were developing a water
main base map that was a mosaic of as-
built drawings without true spatial
accuracy. They were also planning to
develop a citywide sewer map also using
as-built drawings. Because both maps
would be built to different accuracy
standards, we realized that they would not
be able to be used together. We recognized
that the only solution to this
problem was to develop an
accurate physical base map
and register both water
and sewer layers to it so
that these infrastructure
elements could be
related to each other.
We also understood
that an accurate physical base map could
be useful throughout City government and
began to think about a citywide mapping
effort.
City GIS supporters approached Gino P.
Menchini, then director of the Mayor’s
Office of Computer, Plans and Controls,
with the idea of developing a City base
map. Mr. Menchini supported the idea and
helped to organize and lead a citywide GIS
Steering Committee that consisted of
representatives from about twelve City
agencies. After obtaining funding, hiring
PlanGraphics as GIS consultants, and
developing map specifications, aerial
photography of the City was completed in
1996.
The next three years were spent developing
the digital base map which was completed
in 1999. This same year, Allan Dobrin
became the Commissioner of DoITT.
Commissioner Dobrin recognized the value
of GIS and saw it as a Citywide function.
He created a GIS division within DoITT
and hired me to manage it. One of my first
actions was to develop a strategic plan for
the further development of a Citywide GIS
Utility with the base map—dubbed
NYCMAP—at its center. With the continued
help of PlanGraphics, Hunter College and
other contractors, as well as the collabora-
PlanGraphics Client Profile:
Al Leidner, New York City
Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications
tion of dozens of agency GIS professionals,
the Citywide GIS Utility became a reality
in 2000 and included an Oracle-centered
GIS database.
PlanGraphics:
What influenced your GIS
attitude/career?
AL:
Perhaps my most important recogni-
tion about GIS was that it was a technolo-
gy with the potential to save lives. This
became clear as we thought about DEP’s
need to digitally map the locations of
hazardous materials so that information
could be quickly and accurately transmit-
ted to first responders. This perception was
reinforced by seeing the effectiveness of
computer mapping of crime through
NYPD’s Comstat program which helped
bring down the murder rate in NYC from
more than 2,000 to under 650 over the last
ten years.
Now, with the convergence of GIS and the
Internet, we are relying on Web-enabled
interactive mapping capabilities to
support public safety applications with
life-saving potential. For example, during
the first cases of West Nile Fever in New
York City, the Department of Health used
an Intranet-based GIS application to map
the location of dead birds, human West Nile
cases, mosquito traps, sewer catchbasins,
and wetlands, to support the targeted use
of insecticide in hot zones that has held the
disease in check.
Following the attack on the World Trade
Center, GIS was also used to meet over
2,600 requests for data by emergency
responders. We found that GIS was a very
effective tool that could quickly integrate
multiple kinds of data from infrastructure
layers to building plans to remote sensing
information and put it in a form that
responders required to be effective.
PlanGraphics:
What is the place of GIS in
relationship to traditional IT?
AL:
I think of GIS as an extension of the
IT revolution. Although use of computer
technology and digital data extends into
almost all aspects of City operations, data,
perhaps the most important component of
IT, often resides in isolated silos. GIS
allows data from across the enterprise to
be brought together in highly useful and
effective combinations, greatly increasing
the value of IT. A way to put it is that GIS is
IT on spatial steroids.
PlanGraphics:
What source did you derive
your vision/inspiration from?
AL:
The book,
The Magic Mountain
, by
Thomas Mann.
“A way to put it is that GIS is IT on
spatial steroids.”—Al Leidner
“Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.”—Mark Twain
G
IS technology is gaining recogni-
tion for the solutions that it
provides in situations that
previously would not have been
considered GIS-oriented. Plan-
Graphics has an exclusive
partnership and North American
sales agreement with Xmarc, a
company that provides a unique
tool kit which, coupled with PlanGraphics’
skill, offers solutions to both traditional GIS
customers, as well as some not-so-tradition-
al GIS customers.
Xmarc provides infrastructure software
solutions for wireless and Web-enabled
companies that need to manage, interact
with, and distribute critical corporate and
location-based data.
Xmarc’s Wireless and Internet Infrastructure
Software Environment (WIISE) enables
companies to optimize network performance,
visualize and manage corporate assets, and
develop and deploy customized location
applications to a variety of devices,
including mobile phones, PDAs, and PCs.
PlanGraphics, Xmarc
Offer New Solutions
Xmarc’sFormidaFire—
an advanced suite of
tools for developing
applications—and its
Web deployment option
link complex spatial data
and distribute the resulting
rich applications to clients
throughout the enterprise far
more quickly
and easily than
was possible
before.
NIMA Project
PlanGraphics’ Marcus Brothwell
just completed a project for the Na-
tional Imagery and Mapping Agency
(NIMA) Research Division. PlanGraphics
collaborated with IntelData, Inc., to develop
and implement the Graphical GeoSearch
(GGS) application using Xmarc technology.
NIMA’s Research Division operates
NIMA’s libraries and provides imagery,
imagery intelligence, and geospatial
information to support national security
objectives. The GGS application enables
members of the intelligence community to
more rapidly and accurately search for
information about geospatial products.
project with the Shanghai Sewer Company
to build a GIS flood control system that
provides real-time monitoring and control
for its storm water facilities.
New projects in China, as well as
elsewhere around the globe,
indicate that Li is correct about
the importance of GIS in
E-government solutions,
at home as well as
abroad. Several forward
thinking cities and
provinces in the Chinese
government are now
working with PlanGraph-
ics to facilitate information
collection and development
so that they can provide better informa-
tion to government agencies and other
public service organizations to use in
making sound decisions about urban
planning, construction, management, and
service provision. Most recently, Plan-
Graphics won a contract from the Shanghai
Environment Protection Bureau and the
Sichuan Urban Environmental Project.
Searches can be based on a geographic area
of interest, descriptive data about the map
products, or values of various non-spatial
attributes, e.g., geopolitical codes or stock
numbers.
“The architecture and functionality of the
application are designed for simple access
by any authorized user, not just GIS
specialists,” said John Antenucci, Plan-
Graphics’ president. It allows users to
customize, sort, save, and print the results.
A second release of the application for all of
NIMA with added functionality is expected
soon.
PlanGraphics’ International Division is “dedicated to
providing superior GIS consulting and system integration
services to its international clients.”—Minna Li
“Thereisnosubstituteforhardwork.”—ThomasEdison
P
lanGraphics’ newly established
International Division is “a result of
an increased focus on the internation-
al market, which will include a more active
pursuit of international projects funded by
the World Bank, the Asia Development
Bank, the U.S. Trade DevelopmentAgency,
and other international develop-
ment banks,” according to
Minna Li, a 12-year PlanGraph-
ics veteran who has been
named the division’s vice
president.
Li, a native of Tianjin, China,
with advanced degrees from
Beijing and Murray State universities, has
spearheaded several of PlanGraphics’
previous projects abroad. “With the
expedited economic development in China
during the past 10 years, finding ways to
better manage the development and growth
of the urban area has become an urgent
issue for local governments,” she says. “As
a result, GIS has gained more and more
popularity in China and many parts of the
world in the last five years.”
Many countries and their local governments
are struggling with problems of economic
growth and sustainable urban development
like those that China is facing, Li says.
Managing urban development and protect-
ing and restoring land and water resources
PlanGraphics’ International Expansion
are top priorities of many governments. The
Chinese government, to better assist its
operations and enhance its public services,
proposed a plan to develop a GIS-oriented
information management framework to
improve information sharing among
all the agencies
involved.
PlanGraphics boosted its
international reputation in 1995
when Shanghai Waterworks
Company awarded PlanGraphics
the opportunity to build a GIS-oriented
integrated water network operation system
to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness
of its management and operations. In this
project, Li managed a complete full life-cycle
system development, including a require-
ments analysis and logical design, data
conversion specifications, data QA/QC and
data conversion management, hardware and
software selection and procurements,
physical design, institutional structure and
training, database and application develop-
ment, and training. This project led to a
A New Strategy for Logistical Bottlenecks
By Mike Walls
Executive Consultant
R
ecently PlanGraphics staff, their
technical partners Xmarc, Inc., ESRI,
and the State of Oregon, successful-
ly completed a proof of concept application,
named DIMOND (Digitally Integrated
Mining of Oregon Networked Data). The
multiple technologies involved worked
together to provide a novel way of getting
around the logistical bottlenecks of
consolidating data from multiple sources in
the enterprise.
Traditionally, one of the biggest obstacles
to building a centralized repository of data
for an enterprise is the logistical effort
involved in updating the contents and
keeping them internally consistent. Finding
a solution to this problem is often feasible
for a one-time policy study, but has proven
difficult to set up as an ongoing operation.
Recent advancements in network-oriented
data management technologies, however,
have given us some options formerly not
available.
With this project, the team, led by Plan-
Graphics, was able to implement a proof of
concept for a “virtual data warehouse” in
whichWeb-based middleware eliminated
many of the obstacles to centralizing a data
repository.
The DIMOND Project
The key to the DIMOND project was the
elimination of the requirement to physically
centralize the data. Instead, we created a
virtual repository using middleware tools
from Xmarc and Oracle 8i Spatial to
manage metadata, and we utilized the
Web to display answers to users’
queries that are executed to
their desktop machines, thus eliminating the
need for a repository.
Users start a session by pointing their
Web browsers to the URL of the opening
screen. This downloads the core of the
proof-of-concept application, a custom-
written Java applet.
As users navigate through the application, it
appears to them that they are querying a set
of GIS tables and layers in a traditional cli-
ent-server application. Instead, they are
interacting with a middleware servlet that
looks up in Oracle tables the accessible
metadata for each data set being used.
The middleware then initiates a con-
nection to a series of translator serv-
lets, located at each of the data pro-
vider sites, which pass through the
query and package the response.
The middleware servlet consoli-
dates all of the responses into a
Web page that the user sees.
Each of these interactions was
coded by and managed us-
ing standard Java tech-
niques.
The data used by
the application
need not be
housed in a
central
location or
even in the
same file
format. Instead,
each query is
processed in real time
by the master copy of
the data at the custodian
agency. For the proof of
concept, we set up connec-
Common Problems with
Networking Data
tions to the various agencies’ data formats,
which are highlighted in the table below.
Implications
The implications are unlimited. The middle-
ware product from Xmarc eliminated the
need for centralized data. By consolidating
all of the responses from various data
provider sets into a user-friendly Web page,
we experienced no logistical bottlenecks,
and DIMOND became a success. The
collaboration between PlanGraphics, Xmarc,
and the State of Oregon proved that it is
technically feasible to build a virtual data
warehouse for Web-based interactions.
Agency
Oregon Department of
Administrative Services
Multnomah County
Oregon Office of Geographic
Data Coordination
Tri-Met (Regional Planning
Commission for Portland
MetroArea)
Data Formats
Oracle Tables
ESRI Shapefiles
Oracle Tables
ESRI Shapefiles
ESRICoverages
ESRICoverages
ESRI Shapefiles
Data Served
Counties
Federal Roads
Rivers
County Routes
Regional Street Network
City Limits
Urban Boundaries
Transit Routes
Transit Stops
Proof-of-Concept Project: Participants and Data Types
About PlanGraphics
Since 1979, PlanGraphics has
played key roles in designing and
implementing GIS, document
management systems, Web-based
solutions, and other IT applica-
tions.
Visit us on the Internet at
www.plangraphics.com, or call the
office nearest you:
•
Frankfort, Kentucky
(502)223-1501
•
Silver Spring, Maryland
(301)588-8535
•
Newport Beach, California
(949)260-8480
For more information about
Bench-
marks
, contact its editor, Jennifer
Oberlin, at (502) 223-1501 or
joberlin@plangraphics.com.
“Certitude is not the test of certainty.”—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
•
Different agencies use different
software and hardware to manage
the data.
•
The data are not uniformly accessi-
ble over the network.
•
A crucial data set is locked away
behind security firewalls or too slow
to access because of poor network
connectivity to the agency.
•
Data must be gathered via “sneaker
net” and hand-massaged to get a
consistent data set for analysis.
•
Data processing (the familiar
“Extract-Transform-Load” or ETL
process) can require significant
effort and time.
Copyright2002,PlanGraphics,Inc.“PlanGraphics,Inc.”andthetreelogoareregisteredtrademarksofPlanGraphics,Inc.
