Trending Geospatial

Army GIO Robert Burkhardt discussed the value proposition and major drivers for Geospatial in government—data, governance, standards and the “Big Enterprise”.

Robert Burkhardt is the Army Geospatial Information Officer (GIO).

From his vantage point, Burkhardt shared his first-hand view of Geospatial trends in government with the Geospatial Day audience.

“The first trend has to do with data—the sheer amount of it being collected from various video and satellite sources; and how to make the best uses of it?” said Burkhardt.

For individual users, the best example is how your Smartphone can process satellite imagery, 3D mapping and navigation tools to show you where you are at all times. “These apps are changing the way we live as handhelds create data as well as consume it,” said Burkhardt.

For organizations that need to acquire data, the trend is even better. More and more companies will be collecting raw information in the future. Now there is foundational data at sub-meter levels. “Data is quickly becoming more of a commodity, with prices heading lower,” noted Burkhardt.

No More “Coffee & Doughnuts” Governance

Governance used to be very informal or non-existent said Burkhardt. But leaders are quickly changing this “coffee & doughnuts” attitude towards governance. They now understand the problems of having huge amounts of data; but they also know they can make better decisions if they had the availability of data at right time and place.

“Recognition of the problem is causing them to say I need some form of governance,” said Burkhardt. “It doesn’t have to be linear from top down, but governance nonetheless; they also see the solution-based piece of layering that shows patterns we didn’t know before, allowing people to make much better decisions.”

The key to success is partnerships with state, local and federal government agencies, NGOs, the Open Geospatial Consortium.

“So the governance process is not necessarily ‘coffee & doughnuts’; it has to have teeth to certify, to direct, to give policy, to move money, to have compliance matrixes on people who are building systems. Those are the kinds of things now that leaders are demanding from the Vice Chairman of the Joints Chiefs to the lowest combat team commander,” said Burkhardt.

Standards & Data Models

Burkhardt strongly supports the notion of independent data. “We want to separate the data from all the apps, from the software and hardware. We want to make it independent; then you can write apps based on data, not the proprietary hardware or software you may be using. This is a key concept to bring about standards and organizing back office functions.”

Burkhardt is looking for the “sweet spot” on standards. “We want to find that sweet spot of the minimum set of standards; what is the minimum set of standards necessary to share information and have it line it up geometrically so we can fuse it and have it line up from a topology so we can understand it and understand what we are looking at.”

He urged standards be adopted across the board whether federal, state, local or NGO. “We need to establish standards for tactics, techniques, and procedures; we need to standardize how you do your work. Do you go to imagery first? Those kinds of things are tactics, techniques and procedures that are driven by technology and availability of the data.”

Data models, critical for sharing complex Geospatial data, include the NFDD, the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s (NGA) data model, which may become the DOD’s geospatial data model in the future, and AGDM, which is the Army’s geospatial data model.

Big Enterprise

Digital semantics is just as important as speaking using precise language in everyday business meaning that data models need to be worked said Burkhardt.

“We can’t afford to do an API translation between one and another and another and keep paying for all of those translations,” noted Burkhardt.

For Burkhardt, it comes down to the idea of the “Big Enterprise” and the disciplined sharing of data — which is Geospatial’s inherent value proposition.

“Because data is oriented in space and time and if the geometry and taxonomies are right for fusion. Now you see patterns didn’t know existed and you can begin to anticipate of what is happening next,” said Burkhardt. “You can make better sense of the world and as a result make a better decision. ■