Welcome to a new Maine GIS Users Group Newsletter. This is exciting times for GIS in Maine and the Users Group. Our last MeGUG meeting in Portland was a huge success-many kudos again to Jim Thomas and Mike White for organizing the event. We heard from a number of users who shared interesting municipal applications and field questions from those in attendance.
We hope our annual meeting and users' meeting on May 21 is as informative-and a little bit fun too. We had a challenge scheduling this year's event around the NEGIS and other events, but look forward to a chance to meet acquaintances, learn about some interesting applications, and our second annual GIS student awards.
As for MeGUG, we now have the benefit of a part-time staff through Unity College. Kristie Barr is working as our Database and Administrative Assistant. Kristie helped put this newsletter together, helping set-up our meetings, and is reorganizing our membership database. We look forward to Kristie's help in strengthening our ability to communicate timely issues to you, our members.
As you likely have heard, I had the pleasure of serving on the legislative appointed committee that drafted the GIS Needs Assessment and the Strategic Plan to Develop the Maine Library of Geographic Information (http://www.appgeo.com/clients/maine/Final_Report/default.htm). The legislation creating the GeoLibrary passed and there is funding in the November environmental bond that will help support the creation of the GeoLibrary. MeGUG should members will be kept abreast of the developments of the GeoLibrary and should have an important role in providing input into its foundation.
I hope you can attend our Annual Meeting. We will be reviewing our goals for this last year and setting goals for the coming year-meeting topics, user questions, etc. Our organization is only as strong as its members and its members input into our collective effort.
Over the last year, Bangor Hydro-Electric Company (BHE) has implemented a number of applications, utilizing GIS technology, designed to improve efficiency and productivity and reduce costs. These applications affect several areas of BHE's operations are providing benefits to the company.
One example of these applications is the Joint Pole Tracking application. Many of the poles and other facilities in BHE's service territory are jointly owned with Verizon. Each company splits the cost of installation, maintenance and removal of these facilities. The application was designed to improve data on these jointly owned assets and to automate the joint billing process. Within the existing Work Order Design application, BHE staff can create, update and remove jointly owned facilities. After this work is complete, a work detail report (2093) can be generated from GIS, which replaces the manual, hand-written report generation. This application also enhances the joint billing process by eliminating the need for manual entry of detail items from the 2093 to generate a bill. Bills can be generated from the joint data in GIS. The automation of these two tasks will greatly reduce the time spent on this process.
Another application implemented at BHE is the Trim Notification application. This was designed to allow BHE staff to store customer requests for no tree trimming in GIS. Specific details about what a customer does not want trimmed can be stored in GIS and a symbol to represent the request will be placed at the customer's location. This allows staff to create a map for the tree trimming crews that includes a graphical display of the request and the specific details of the no-trim request. These maps make it easier for crews to see where the no-trim areas are and should reduce the number of accidental trims in no-trim areas.
These are just two examples of how GIS is positively impacting the operations at Bangor Hydro. To see a demo of another GIS application, be sure to attend the Maine GIS User Group Annual Conference on May 21st at Unity College. Hope to see you there!
Maine Public Service started doing GIS investigative work around 1995 but cost limitations made GIS a far reach. With development of other GIS software, the implementation of a project became closer to reality. Maine Public Service investigated a number of different programs and decided that staying with a program that was already familiar within the organization would be beneficial. MPS uses AutoCAD for engineering designs and schematic drawing and with the tremendous strides in the GIS forum, out came AutoCAD Map 2000. MPS started with a conversion of their facilities paper maps onto a digital base map provided by the Maine Office of GIS. At that time the facilities that were layered upon the base maps were just graphical. These maps are beneficial to the construction crews as well as the system operators. MPS decided to develop a GIS internally to marry with our current in-house developed CIS (Customer Information Systems). In the fall of 2000 two MPS employees went out to test the collection process. Four distribution circuits were collected using a Trimble Pro XR and a Fujitsu 2300 pen based computer. This data was then brought into AutoCAD and into an Access Database. It was realized that MPS personnel could not collect the distribution system as fast as a contractor.
In late July 2001 Maine Public Service signed a contract with Mountain Limited, Inc. to collect and record GPS (Global Positioning Systems) locations of 30,000 poles and approximately 40 equipment attachments per pole. Mountain Limited met with Maine Public Service Company to develop a data collection process and field personnel went right to work gathering data. This is a two-year data collection project with the remaining 30,000+ poles being collected by the middle of 2002. The attribute data and the GPS position is brought into AutoCAD Map 2000 and the process of printing maps for data verification is done. MPS personnel take the maps and do field verification on a random sample of points. Once the data is verified it is merged into an Access Database where the maintenance of the facilities take place. Once the data is merged into the database, the maps are exported out to a dwf format and used in a program called USView. USView is a viewing software that allows us to view the distribution system and see the sectionalizing devices, transformers and the customers that are attached to the transformers. We will be able to add all the data that was collected to the maps and have the ability to turn layers on and off to view the information needed. The USView program is just in the testing stages but we hope to push it out to the construction supervisors, dispatching within a few months and eventually into the line trucks as a digital mobile solution. We have been able to link our facilities data with our customer files on the AS400 system to allow a merged view of the data. This data will enhance Maine Public Service's automated mapping systems and in the long run, enhance power restoration efforts during electrical outages.
I have volunteered to design the MEGUG web site since 1998, when the site was located at Unity College for a semester. In 1999, Maine GIS User Group acquired its own domain name, with the URL address www.megug.org. The domain has enabled our further growth and development.
Designing web pages has taught me effective methods of gathering, archiving, and sharing information, while working with people who share a common interest in GIS. It is the People who make this task meaningful, as we network, learn about activities, projects, conferences, and products. The user group has allowed me to make friends in- and out-of-state while learning about GIS developments in Maine and New England. Apart from designing the MEGUG web site, I also have designed web pages for the Maine Rose Society, Sebasticook River Watershed Association, as well as my own web site.
One goal for the MEGUG web site design is to provide easy viewing and navigation, as the site grows and improves in the future. The site is worth bookmarking for information about MEGUG activities, as well as other information about GIS and GIS users in Maine. The current design includes the major categories of "Bylaws", "Newsletters", "Meetings", "Information", "GIS Student Project Contest", "Links", "Members", and "Contact".
We are working on an improved online database that applies CGI for MEGUG members to update their own profiles. I will keep you updated about this development. It is important to keep the membership list up-to-date, so that we can continue effective networking. We do have the capacity to design a discussion group online, but we have held off to avoid too many emails flowing into your mailbox.
I would appreciate you input, comments, and suggestions to better design our web page. Please feel free to give me your comments about contents and design. I can be contacted by email at sarihou@uninets.net. Please join me in designing a web site that will help people in the state know of MEGUG and our activities. We have been very active and productive in the past few years because of your support, and I have no doubt we will remain so in the future.
MEGUG recently hired Kristie Barr, a student in Ecology at Unity College to be the database manager to assist the conference details. Kristie has been an excellent work-study student at the Unity College. With the college encouragement, she wishes to be involved with the GIS users group. In Spring 2002, Maine GIS User Group works with Unity College Financial Aid office to provide a work-study position to assist the group in operation. Kristie was introduced in our previous board meeting. Board members welcome her new role to assist us in getting information out to you on time. Kristie will work with you and the board members to be a database manager. In addition, she will design newsletters, update membership database, and mailing conference notes.
In an effort to better manage our membership information, we have been developing an improved membership database and applications. The changes will ensure more timely information on our website, and will make tracking dues and registrations much simpler.
The membership database, which has been kept in Microsoft Access for the last several years, has metamorphosed from a simple listing of names and addresses to a repository of all of our member data. Unfortunately, along the way, several copies of this database were propagated, and different data was edited in different copies. Recently, Jim Thomas and settled on one copy of the database that was found to be more complete than the others. Since then we have been scrubbing the data to get it current and complete. Recently, Kristie Barr helped by verifying the membership list posted on our website with that in the database.
We've also been implementing web-based applications to allow certain organization officers to more efficiently maintain the data. The database now resides in one (and only one!) location. I have developed a CGI application that serves out the membership data to a web page to create the membership list you will see in the future when you go to that page in the website. Your data will be a live and current view of what is in our database. Additionally, I have begun the process of developing interactive forms that allow us to edit your data from any Internet browser. This will prevent us from needing to make copies of the database that led to some of the version problems we had in the past. Currently, we are able to add new members and edit the data for existing members.
What comes next? I plan to add the ability for members to edit and maintain their own profile. This will allow you to give more specific information about the GIS software you use, and your applications of it. A simple query interface could be added so that you could get a list of other users who use the same software you do so that you could contact them for help and advice.
Finally, we should soon have real on-line registration for conferences and meetings. I don't plan to include the ability to accept payment, but it should speed up and make the process of handling registrations more accurate. This should be ready for our Fall 2002 Meeting.
Any questions, comments, suggestions, diatribes, rants regarding the membership database and the web applications utilizing it can be directed to me at mwhite@photoscience.com. I appreciate your input.
Have you ever developed digital geographic data and wondered if someone else had already created what you need? Have you tried overlaying or joining data layers from different sources and been dismayed to find they could not relate? While State agencies have worked hard to provide standards and protocols for the organization of data, protocols and access within state government, there has been no way to knit the various GIS investments of local government, regional agencies and the multitude of private sector users into an integrated system that maximizes overall access, usefulness and efficiency for everyone.
In perhaps its biggest boost to the planning profession since passage of the Growth Management Act in 1988, the State of Maine is breaking new ground in providing coordination and outreach for the use of digital geographic information. A Steering Committee created by legislation enacted a year ago worked very hard between legislative sessions to conduct a statewide GIS needs assessment and develop a strategic coordination plan for the most effective and efficient deployment of GIS data and technology by the public and private sectors. Applied Geographics, Inc. (AGI) competed successfully to provide technical support for this project and worked intensively with the Committee to conduct the analysis and prepare a top-notch quality report.
This was not an ivory tower exercise developed in a vacuum from Boston. To characterize the status of GIS in Maine, the Steering Committee and AGI conducted more than 65 interviews with all major users of GIS technology in the State, and received feedback via on-line and printed surveys from over 400 individuals in every region, profession, and level of government. Many were distributed at the Maine Municipal Association convention. One can view the findings from each of these interviews, as well as the full report, by visiting the "Steering Committee page" on the Maine Office of GIS web site at http://apollo.ogis.state.me.us/sc.
A summary of the study's key findings and recommendations is listed below. The core proposal is to create a Maine Library of Geographic Information (affectionately referred to as the "GeoLibrary"), which will be governed by a board of all levels of government, private sector users, GIS vendors and the public and staffed by two core positions in the Maine Office of GIS. In addition to overseeing the development of the library, which will be an internet-based clearinghouse for geographic data, the board will be responsible to establish and enforce standards for all electronic geographic data that is funded by State dollars. This will ensure that data are properly developed, source referenced and available for repeated use by the public. The standards will build on those that have already been developed for state agency use (http://apollo.ogis.state.me.us/standards/standards.asp). Beginning as a requirement for all State funded data creation, over time the standards are expected to become the default choice for all professional use in Maine - and perhaps beyond, as all states at this time have the same problem to varying degrees.
Another responsibility of the library board is to provide technical assistance to local governments to ease their transition into GIS technology. This will be done through regional GeoService Centers. To fund a critical purchase of digital orthophotography at 1:5,000 scale, establish the internet site and provide an incentive grant program to local governments, a bond issue of $6 million was requested by the Steering Committee. With requests typically outweighing the bonding level deemed appropriate by the Legislature, the Geo-Library was approved at $2.3 million. The GeoLibrary funding will be joined with several other compelling projects in the Environmental Bond question that voters will have an opportunity to approve in November. MAP members can help educate the electorate regarding the value and long-range cost-effectiveness of this investment, as many will be unfamiliar with the technology and its promise to enhance decision-making.
While providing critical enhancement of key planning technology, the establishment of the "Maine GeoLibrary" should also further improve Maine's impressive ranking of the 5th most advanced state in the use of digital technology in conducting public business. For more information about the GeoLibrary's development, including ways to apply for nomination to the Board, contact Mary Ann Hayes at SPO (287-1009) or maryann.hayes@state.me.us.
Summary of Key Findings and Recommendations:
Current ISSUES:
Recommended SOLUTIONS:
The Steering Committee unanimously recommends the creation of a Maine Library of Geographic Information built on five pillars of identified need:
Publication Title: Maine Coordinates
Issue Date: November 1996
Statement of Frequency: Occasional
Authorized Organization: Maine GIS User Group
Issue Number: Vol. 6, No. 1
Notice: Mention of specific companies, products, or brand names does not imply support for or endorsement of those mentioned. Similarly, omission of specific companies, products, or brand names does not imply anything either.