** apologies for cross-posting ** 

Hi, all, 

The National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC) met on Tuesday and Thursday of this week. Here are the highlights of the meeting. This is long, but packed with interesting things, I can assure you! 

1. The agenda and meeting information has been posted here: https://www.fgdc.gov/ngac/meetings/june-2014/index_html 

2. Anne Castle (Assistant Secretary for Water and Science) 
* She noted that this is a critical time for the Landsat program. A team is working on the vision and architecture for Landsat 9. Right now Landsat 7 and 8 are both up and running giving an image of each spot of the earth on an 8 day cycle. Landsat 7 will stop being functional before Landsat 9 is launched leading to a slowdown in the rate of repeat imagery. There is a desire to minimize this gap to as small a time as possible. Also, the USGS and NASA are interested in creating a sustainable Landsat program in order to minimize work and stress around funding the next launch. 
* The USGS will consider a partnership between the FGDC and the Advisory Committee on Water Information (ACWI) to revive a subcommittee that will focus on bringing together water datasets that are kept by different agencies in different forms and accessibility. They will be brought together for the purpose of advancing decision making. This will provide a reference architecture for the long term collection, hosting, and dissemination of water resources in this country. 

3. The Geospatial Privacy Subcommittee discussion (chair: Doug Richardson, Exec. Director AAG), focused on the two important reports that have been recently released by the White House. If you have not read the reports, they are worth your time. Keith Clarke (UCSB) gave an overview of both reports and his take on their importance to the geospatial community. 
* Big Data: Seizing Opportunities . This is known as the Podesta Report. This report focuses on policy. It's a 90 day study to "examine how big data will transform the way we live and work and alter the relationships between government, citizens, businesses, and consumers." It does not single out geospatial data or privacy, but its inclusion is implicit. It makes specific policy recommendations, including to advance consumer bill of rights; pass National data breach legislation; extend law to non-US persons; protect educational big data; expand technology to prevent discrimination e.g. in pricing, amend the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. 
* Big Data and Privacy: A Technological Report . This is known as PCAST and focuses on technology. It was designed to complement the Podesta Report with technical literature and examples. It explicitly includes GPS, LiDAR, SAR, remote sensing , tracking data as "born analog". It includes Google streetview and Bing maps. The two sections to read are the "Examples and Scenarios" and "Technologies and Stratgies for Privacy Protection." 
* Keith's personal comments: Geospatial probably under-covered, as many key legal decisions have involved tracking and GPS. Elimination of overhead imagery resolution restrictions likely to have an impact. Read Kevin Pomfret's "Summary of Location Privacy in the United States" in the book Geographic data and the law (2012) and his memo " Wake Up Call for Geospatial Community? " Clear link between privacy rights and democracy. Expect much attention on geoprivacy in the years ahead. There exists a short-lived golden opportunity to combine practicality, study, law, government and business needs with technological solutions. (Kevin is a lawyer specializing in Spatial Law and a member of the NGAC.) 

4. The Landsat Advisory Subcommittee (chair: Roger Mitchell, MDA Information Systems) had an invited speaker, Tim Newman from the USGS. He noted that the two Landsat missions are collecting between 550 to 650 scenes per day with an 8-day revisit cycle. LandsatLook Viewer is now delivering 40,000 images a day. The group is focusing on creating case studies to show the dollar value of Landsat imagery to the American people. 

5. Gary Thompson (Chief, North Carolina Geodetic Survey) spoke about the new geometric datum that will replace NAD 83 in 2022. It has not yet been named. It will allow for plate motions and the coordiantes will have velocity components. It is designed to be "Earth Centered, Earth Fixed (ECEF) with positions represented as an X,Y,Z set with (0,0,0) located at the origin of the coordinate system - the center of the Earth. This created the most buzz at the dinner. People were trying to wrap their heads around all of the implications of this change. 

6. The National Address Database subcommittee (lead by Tony Spicci, Resource Science Supervisor, State of Missouri) has been working on compelling use cases for the value and utility of a NAD. This group now has an executive champion at the Department of Transportation, Richard McKinney, the CIO. The USDOT is 99% sure they will come up with the money to fund a requirements document to say what it would take to host a repository of addresses for the nation. There will be a 2-day summit to come up with the correct requirements. 

7. Jerry Johnston (GIO, Dept. of the Interior) gave an update on the Geospatial Platform. They are working on back end catalog enhancements, search updates, and improved collection management. They are working on the release of a new batch of Home Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) public data in support of President Obama's climate initiative. 

8. Butch Lazorchak from the Library of Congress's NDIIP Program stated that the National Digital Stewardship Alliance is currently finalizing the 2015 National Agenda for Digital Stewardship. It will be released at the yearly meeting in July 2014. One area of interest in the Agenda is how institutions like the LoC can "address the selection and collection of digital content at scale." He noted there will be opportunities over the coming months to provide input to the NDSA on digital geospatial information most important to a national collection. 

9. Vicky Lucas (Chief, Topographic Data Services, USGS) spoke about the 3DEP program. 3DEP stands for 3D elevation program. The new standard for elevation will be QL2 (vertical accuracy of 10cm) for the lower 49 states and territories and QL5 (5m) for Alaska. Only 4% of the lower 49 states currently meets the 3DEP quality goal with LiDAR coveraage. More than 1/2 of Alaska meets the goal. You can read more about this initiative here: The 3D Elevation Program. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. 

Best, 

Julie 

*** 
Julie Sweetkind-Singer 
Assistant Director of Geospatial, Cartographic and Scientific Data & Services 
Head Librarian, Branner Earth Sciences Library & Map Collections 
Stanford University 
397 Panama Mall; MC 2211 
Stanford, CA 94305 
(650)725-1102