FLORIDA GIS COORDINATION STRATEGIC PLAN

While employed by Fugro EarthData, the GeoPlanning Services staff worked with an ad-hoc GIS coordinating committee to implement a strategic plan for coordination of GIS activities in the state of Florida.

The project was directed by a steering committee of 21 members drawn from state government, local/county governments, regional governments, universities, private sector firms, and the federal government. Outreach to the GIS stakeholder community included participation in four regional user group meetings, hosting three half-day workshops ultimately attended by more than 150 users, developing an on-line survey for gathering information from a broad stakeholder community and in-depth interviews with 75 individuals from a diverse cross section of knowledgeable GIS users.

Interim deliverables included status reports, agenda and minutes from weekly steering committee conference calls, and agenda and meeting summaries from four steering committee meetings.

Project communications were handled through an e-mail list server and weekly project status calls with the steering committee. As a matter of routine, all steering committee meetings, as well as weekly project status calls when necessary were handled using a web conferencing service allowing all members to view presentations and documents undergoing discussion.

GeoPlanning Services remains active with the GIS Coordination committee in Florida through active participation in the steering committee’s weekly meetings.