Boots on the ground & NSDI 2.0 info network

There's been alot of discussion about NSDI 2.0 - so it might be helpful to take a look at one of the key concepts - that geospatial data and environmental data should be maintained locally, closest-to-source, and then shared with the Nation through an online information network.

What's this mean? Well you can think of it as supporting 'boots on the ground' - except instead of war the US is in a fight for economic recovery, managing our environmental issues, and transforming ourselves with the next generation of knowledge-based jobs so we can remain an economic leader.

To do this our front-line troops are local governments and local contractors that support them - not big system integrators. These 'boots on the ground' need 'actionable intelligence' - the necessary information immediately available in order to deal with the situation at hand.

A steady stream of accurate spatial & environmental data - flowing up through a standards-based NSDI 2.0 from the data collection & production 'front lines' - is going to be the one of the best ways to develop actionable intelligence to aid in planning and decision support for road, bridge, electric grid and school rebuilding projects.

What standards? Well, harmonizing the functionality of existing EPA Exchange Network infrastructure with NSDI 1.0 and open geospatial services, community GML schemas, and innovative data maintenance and integration frameworks based on GeoRSS and Atom are a good start for NSDI 2.0.

- Jeff