New York State Office of Cyber Security
Geographic Information Systems Clearinghouse
Minutes of GIS Coordinating Body Meeting
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Held at DCJS, 4 Tower Place, Albany
Present:
Eileen Allen (SUNY Plattsburgh), John Barge (APA), Jason Baum (Town of Bethlehem), Bob Breglio (Central Research), Jim Gilmer (DCJS), Todd Fabozzi, Bill Johnson (CSCIC), Christine Kinn (Chautauqua County), Mark Storti (Schenectady County), Sam Wear (Westchester County), Elisabeth DeGironimo (Mohawk Valley Water Authority via telecom)
Other Attendees:
Austin Fisher (Fountains Spatial), Frank Winters (CSCIC), John Trimber (Sewall), Dave Casciotti (City of Albany)
INTRODUCTION OF NEW COORDINATING BODY MEMBERS
Jason Baum - Local Government
MINUTES FOR December 18, 2008
- Change: Tom Hart was present, John Barge present
Motion carried to accept minutes
REVIEW AGENDA
- No changes
Welcome from Sean Byrne DCJS Executive Deputy Commissioner
Jim Stanco - Chief, Criminal History Operations & Special Programs introduced Sean Byrne.
Mr. Byrne provided an overview of the importance of technology to the criminal justice community. He described changes in how fingerprinting is done, how fingerprints are matched using new technology, changes in DNA analysis and the creation of a geographic profile of DNA evidence. Mr. Burn continued on the value of offender data. We can now plot the location of every parolee in NYS. Field intelligence workers can query the offender data to narrow the pool down using know profiles and location.
Discussion on potential for CSCIC to become a NFP
- Review of information provided at the December meeting.
- Meetings with Budget, Union, DOB, and the executive chamber meeting showed support for the NFP.
- NFP status will not change function or responsibilities of the Coordinating Body.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE REPORTS
Private Sector (Austin Fisher)
- Recommended guidelines created for contracting for professional GIS services (revised 2-4-09). The group would like to have the guidelines posted on the clearinghouse site.
**Action Item: Bill will forward to CSCIC Legal for review
GIS ASSOCIATION UPDATE (Sam Wear)
- Next General Meeting is 4/2/2009 from 9AM - 1PM at NYSTA Offices in Albany. Agenda and scheduled will be on the list serve this week
- Creating and drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NYSGISA and SUNY ESF for collaborating, partnering and planning for annual NYS GIS Conference. Continuing discussions between NYSGISA and SUNY ESF. Expect to finalize MOU by end of March/early April
- Newsletter - NYSGISA will be publishing a quarterly newsletter on our activities, etc.
- Sponsoring two 6th-9th grade students for this year's TwiST 2009 GIS Summer Camp
- Meeting with NYS Association of Counties (NYSAC) President in April
- Continue to pursue outreach with NYS Society of Professional Engineers (NYSSPE)
- Membership fee - Established a $10 membership fee. Membership fee will be $5 for students. Will be able to pay annual membership fees/dues online at NYSGISA's website in March 2009
- Regional Meeting Update:
- Adirondacks/No. Country: Last meeting (11/18/08)....Next Meeting (TBA)
- Albany Metro: Last meeting (9/16/08)....Next Meeting (March/April 2009)
- Catskill: Last meeting (10/10/05 as reported on the region activity page)....Next Meeting (3/26/2009)
- Finger Lakes: Last meeting (12/4/08)....Next Meeting (4/14/08)
- Long Island: Last meeting (5/9/07)....Next Meeting (Fall meeting canceled...TBA)
- Lower Hudson Valley: Last meeting (4/4/08)....Next Meeting (TBA)
- NYC: Last meeting (Unknown)....Next Meeting (TBA)
- Southern Adirondacks: Last meeting (12/3/08)....Next Meeting (3/4/09)
- Southern Tier: Last meeting (2/9/09)....Next Meeting (5/09)
- Utica Rome; Last meeting (8/15/08)....Next Meeting (4/2009)
- Western New York: Last meeting (12/12/08)....Next Meeting (3/19/09)
- Committee Update:
- Legislative - Tracking any additional NYSAPLS proposed legislation. All is quiet as of right now
- Marketing - Website changes, newsblips, blogs, annual conference papers on website
- Business Development - Reviewing and developing database of GIT businesses within NYS
- Education - TwiST and other student training opportunities
- Membership - On-going membership database updates and improvements
- Conference - Will be tasked with setting up NYS GIS Conference seminars and assisting with speakers
- Regional Coordination (See Above)
CSCIC UPDATE
NYS RECOVERY and REINVESTMENT CABINET MAPPING (William Johnson)
Almost 20 state agencies have a roll in coordinating the projects funded by American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. CSCIC was asked by New York's Economic Recovery Cabinet to collect and coalesce GIS data representing all candidates, and certified stimulus projects. CSCIC is using CIRIS as a data store and secured display tool. CSCIC is working with OFT on a mapping site to display certified project to the general public.
BROADBAND MAPPING (William Johnson)
The state appointed a Broadband Council to create policy and a plan to make Broadband more universally available and affordable throughout the state. The State had no map of broadband availability when the Council asked CSCIC to assist in November. Many states have signed non disclosure agreements with the service providers to produce maps. This significantly limits what they can do with the results.
3 methods CSCIC used to map broadband availability.
- Cable broadband was estimated using address point density. A count a neighboring point within set distance was calculated for each address. When the density of neighbors was high enough, that point was considered served. The percentage of served was then correlated to household density on census block group. This process was tuned with feedback from a cable provider. The results of this correlation was then extrapolated state wide.
- DSL was predicted by determining which central Office switches support cable and buffering the locations by the distance that DLS signals generally cover. Many small telephone companies also use remote switches to cover their entire exchange area with DSL.
- 3g wireless broadband maps exported form 4 provider's websites and register to GIS. The resulting images were then digitized.
The Cable and DSL maps are currently being reviewed and validated by County CIOs and service providers.
MULTI STATE TERRAIN AND BUILDING (Frank Winters)
CSCIC advanced a proposal through OHS for grant funding to enhance terrain and building data for the Metro NY 3 state costal area. This being one of the most densely populated and heavily mapped areas in the world, a large emphasis in this proposed project was placed on data coordination. Multi-state grants are given special consideration in the DHS funding process. Unfortunately the other state partners declined. We will look for further opportunities to bring in grant money to support the recommendations of the GIS strategic plan.
CONFERENCES
2009 GeoSpatial Summit (Sam Wear, William Johnson, Austin Fisher)
- May 20th, from 8am - 5pm @ Proctor's Theatre in Schenectady.
- Reception May 19th, 6:30 - 9:00pm at Proctor's
- Sponsors are lined up. Speakers lined up.
NYS GIS Conference Update (John Barge)
- Key note speaker Duane Marble - early pioneer for GIS.
- 25th Anniversary at Lake Placid (Silver Anniversary) Sunday, October 25 to Tuesday, October 27, 2009.
- 2010 will be in Saratoga at the Hilton. October 24-26, 2010.
- 2011 - no location set yet.
CRIME MAPPING DEMO - FREANCE system (Dave Casciotti, City of Albany)
FREANCE: Albany Police use FREANCE as a Public Safety Application. The application provides a query based the address of the property in question from our tax assessors database. Once found the property is zoomed to and displays the owner and owners address. The client can then query the address for all Part 1 crimes, calls for service, persons living there who have been arrested anywhere, persons arrested at the residence, persons who have telephones such as 911 address, building permits, parolees living at the address, and probationers living there. The databases are static until dynamic links to the various databases are established. These links are in the process of being developed. The application will be available to all police, fire and building and codes. They are also able to read and enter data back into the system.
A Blackberry application mirrors the desktop application so the officers that are on foot patrol or car patrol see the information in real time.
In Erie, Monroe, and Albany, county wide crime analyze centers being established. Nassau County set up KIOSKS that an officer can go to and see where the crimes, such as burglaries occur. They can generate a PDF map.
Looking at areas where crimes are increasing over 2 or 3 years helps adjusting the man power to maximize effectiveness.
WORK GROUP REPORTS
Cadastral Work Group - John Trimber
John led a discussion on implementing the recommendations from the GIS Strategic Plan regarding parcel data. The discussion included what people need to be included, the concept of statewide GIS, and the inclusion of ORPS in the process. The work group needs to re-engage ORPS in the process. It was suggested to talk with SARA and others that provide grants because there are many grants that use ORPS data.
2009 COORDINATING BODY MEETING DATES
- June 11
- September 10
- December 10
ADJOURN


