Out of the Fog Technical Session
December 6, 1999

Pease Development Authority, Portsmouth, NH

Attendance: Chris Wentzell-Brehme and Andy Boyce, Island Institute; Paul Boudreau, DFO; Patrice Farrey, NEAq; Paul Schroeder, U Maine; Will Hopkins, Cobscook Bay Resource Center; Norval Collins, CEF Consultants; Seth Barker, ME DMR; Joe Pelczarski, MA CZM.

e-Atlas, Island Institute

Chris Wentzell-Brehme and Andy Boyce presented an early prototype of the e-atlas through a Powerpoint presentation. The e-atlas will use a new version of ARC internet mapping service (IMS), due out soon. This version allows programming through java and v-basic. It will take e-atlas two years to get something to showcase. E-atlas will be showcased at OOTFII to get input from public. Funding for this project is secure.

The e-atlas is designed to use links as chapters in a story with images, which will link to maps. The data will be illustrated through geography. Features of the e-atlas will include a query tool to allow the user to learn more about the data. The functionality and level of the query tools will depend on the theme the user is working on (theme will determine appropriate level).

Island Institute webserver has been farmed out to a consultant. In addition to this server, Island Institute will have 2 servers in-house. The first will serve the e-atlas and the second will serve maps only. They want to develop a map server that is highly scalable and produces maps quickly. Island Institute is hoping to have data available for download, for example, Bob Steneck’s data will be available from the Penobscot Bay Lobster project.

The purpose of the e-atlas is not to serve up data. Those who gather data are responsible for serving it. The e-atlas provides a view or 1st cut at seeing the data. Serving up the data requires a huge effort. The e-atlas is structured to serve GIS data or retrieve data from an Access database. It is not designed to go out to an outside source such as DFO or Woods Hole to retrieve data sets.

The e-atlas works on the supply side of data. It provides an interpretation beyond the coffee table pieces the Island Institute is known for. Over the next 6-12 months, the value will be on the demand side. Beyond 12 months, Island Institute will look at supply side – this process must remain dynamic. They are working with Paul Schroeder on supply side.

Next steps include experimenting with remotely located data that can be ftp’d and uploaded to Island Institute server. This step involves issues of technology and politics. GOMINFOEX should play a role in working with GOMC to work through political issues of data exchange and availability between U.S. and Canada. For example, U.S. has to sketch Grand Manan onto map bc coverage is not available. Marine Resources Center in Cornwalis and Cobscook Bay Resource Center in Eastport may be able to help circumvent politics.

DFO is working to create a service to produce Sequel server queries to fire off into Access database. As new data is collected, queries can be broken off as an Access database. These could be illustrated on e-atlas maps – you don’t need to show raw data on maps. Paul Boudreau volunteered to generate a query table in 10 min square resolution once/month and email to Island Institute for e-atlas for data sharing prototype. This may be a good pilot project to conduct test queries. We want to be able to generate a gulf-wide basemap of a theme. You can get virtually any data in 10 minute spatial cells – not necessary to house on server.

Creating live links, etc will require broad band. Decisions regarding telecommunications infrastructure must be planned and paid for. Must decide/negotiate where data will sit on servers to become available (as read only), and there is a strong need to create data standards. The FDSC (federal data standards committee) is setting data standards for the federal government. GOMINFOEX can lobby for the standardization of data, but should not be the group to set the standards. The NEFMC (new england fishery management council) has fish catch landings and gear type by species for all fisheries in ten minute squares (Mike Pentony – contact person). Ten minute square does not answer everything, but it is a good start. (On land, USGS standard is 7.5 minute squares). If there is primary data being collected simultaneously by a few researchers, such as the GPAC/GOMC salt marsh tracking system to restore salt marshes, that is a good place to start.

There was a lot of discussion warning GOMINFOEX members not to continue to reinvent the wheel. Putting data up on a server has been done many times before. Data is put on a server, the user can make maps, etc, but when the project ends, it all goes away. What hasn’t been done is to exchange information and data and create new maps. We should be conscious about trying to work towards this goal. We do not want to try to cramp everything into one interface – the e-atlas may not be the best venue to exchange map info. By exchange, we want data to be available for people to use, not necessarily to ship it to someone. We want a tool to go out and find the data.

What are GOMINFOEX short-term and long-term goals? Short-term, the e-atlas may be a good place to put data. Long-term, users should be able to get through the firewall and access data directly. There is a need to write down the vision for an information system which has been evolving over many years. Early on, information exchange was started to help decision makers communicate with one another; but now, researchers, decision-makers, and the public all need to view data. GOMINFOEX may be effective in helping to lobby for and set data standards. This may be a good issue for OOTFII. For example, Maine state government would need to do a major infrastructure upgrade to allow the Island Institute to access databases directly. CA/DS ten minute grids will help with the development of the e-atlas. If you can showcase technology on a map, this will help mitigate politics. It is easier for governments to see the need to make information available if they can see how it will be used.

Note: WebInclude software grabs source view code, not data.

Community Coordinates/Hands Around the Gulf

Paul Schroeder presented this project which focuses on community users of GIS. The web address for this project is http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~schroedr/diagrams/cch.html. GOMINFOEX has an organizational problem in soliciting participation from widely diverse numbers of Gulf of Maine people. There is a need for an ongoing and reflective organizational infrastructure. He envisions GOMINFOEX as creating models (which can be reproduced) to solve problems in the GOM.

Hands Around the Gulf is a project to provide people with a vested interest a framework to register their interest and find others. This is an interface from a completely distributed concept. People collect data, want to share it and create allies. It is community building. This project is an attempt to build a framework that can be generalized to meet a group’s needs.

The GIS of the future must include non-point and polygon data because there will be a social component of GIS. How do people define relationship and commitment to others? It is possible to create shape files to show geographical focus and then to query those shape files to see who has the same interests, etc. This will (hopefully) create an opportunity for people to participate without adding burden.

May want to use the GOMC contact list to register participation and interest for this project by adding “common coordinates” as a keyword. Paul Schroeder will add the url for this project to his entry in the contacts database.

SCIP (Sustainable Community Indicators Project)

Norval Collins presented this project which is a software program designed to allow communities to define sustainability and their relationship to a region or nation. The data in this program is available from pre-selected websites. The user must answer fields to use the data. The user then creates indicators of sustainability, which in turn, can be used by other groups. Groups can see how what they view as important relates to what others view as important. The software was designed for sophisticated urban user groups, so it is not relevant to coastal communities in its present state. It is easy to add data files for local data. It works on top of an excel, word, access and does not have a lot of build-ons.

The biggest problem in applying this software to coastal communities is that they need to be able to geographically select information to use – this software does not allow that. It makes sense to design a pilot program to adapt software to a coastal community setting. Clean Annapolis River Program was suggested as a potential group to pilot the software. They could use it to show their progress over time. In the GOM context, it could be used to serve as a context for information exchange.

The Cobscook Bay region has had experience in developing indicators. They came up with too many indicators and it became impossible to track. But there was a lot of value in identifying indicators because it helped them to identify gaps. To really focus, a group must develop 2 to 3 indicators to work with. It is an important process for communities to go through for the “community self discovery” it provides.

To adapt SCIP to coastal communities, Norval needs to get regional and provincial data into SCIP (lakes, water rights permits, fish kills, shellfish contamination, etc). Annapolis has two databases which need to be reviewed to create indicators.

The challenge will be to get a group together to go through the process. Communities need to WANT to become involved. There needs to be a common interest of groups looking to share and understand information and what others are doing.

Community groups have the sophistication to go through this process on their own because the program uses a “ bottom-up” paradigm. A bigger problem is working around the geographical selection issue. Water quality monitoring groups may be a good place to start with this software. Groups could enter what they are doing into a table with other groups. This could be imported into the e-atlas to create a GOM mosaic of water quality monitoring activities. Christie Dyer is creating a survey of water quality monitoring efforts around the Gulf and it will be up on the web