March 22

Contents

Editor's Introduction

This week I bring you news of two big recent acquisitions and report on how an employee of a small Texas municipality built a GIS for the town's residents, leaders, and staff from scratch. Plus, more details on an upcoming conference and a full load of press releases.

Please note: For the past two weeks in a row, I forgot to remove "TEST!!!" from the subject line before sending out GIS Monitor to the whole list. Both times I then immediately removed "TEST!!!" and sent the issue out again, fearing that most of the first batch had ended up in recipients' trash bins or spam filters. I will make sure it does not happen again. MY APOLOGIES!!!

Also, I just noticed that in our archives the link to the March 15 issue actually pointed to the March 8 issue. I fixed that. When you see errors, large or small, please point them out, by clicking on my name, below. Thanks!

—Matteo Luccio

Pitney Bowes Buys MapInfo, GeoEye Buys M.J. Harden Associates

Last Thursday, Pitney Bowes announced its agreement to acquire MapInfo for approximately $408 million to strengthen its growth in the location intelligence market and GeoEye announced its acquisition of digital aerial imagery provider M.J. Harden Associates. Here are excerpts from the respective press releases:

Pitney Bowes: "Pitney Bowes Inc. … has entered into a merger agreement to acquire MapInfo Corporation for approximately $408 million in cash, net of expected cash on MapInfo's balance sheet at the time of closing. MapInfo is [a] provider of location intelligence solutions. In the next seven business days, Pitney Bowes will commence a tender offer at a price of $20.25 per share in cash for the outstanding common shares of MapInfo.

MapInfo's location intelligence solutions tools and services are utilized by more than 7,000 organizations worldwide in virtually every industry. MapInfo generated $165 million in revenue for its fiscal year 2006. The company, established in 1986, is headquartered in Troy, New York and has approximately 940 employees worldwide with locations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Continental Europe, Australia and Asia. …

This acquisition strengthens Pitney Bowes' position in the growing location intelligence market and enhances its ability to deliver added value to customers worldwide, according to Michael J. Critelli, Chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes. 'At Pitney Bowes we have long understood the importance of location in connecting the right information with the right recipient. … This transaction extends our global reach, enriches our location intelligence offerings, and builds upon the growing software platform that we established with the acquisition of Group 1 in 2004. …'

According to Mark Cattini, CEO and President of MapInfo, '…We have created a market leadership position in location intelligence from a product, data, services, and industry expertise perspective. The combination of Pitney Bowes and MapInfo will dramatically expand our access to critical resources needed to further increase market awareness and our distribution capabilities around the world. In addition, from a long-term perspective, we believe there is a significant opportunity to cross-sell our respective solutions across our blue-chip base of more than 7,000 customers and the over two million Pitney Bowes customers worldwide. …'

The transaction is subject to the completion of customary conditions, and is expected to close in the second calendar quarter of 2007. It is anticipated that MapInfo will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pitney Bowes within its software segment. …

MapInfo is a global company and the leading provider of location intelligence solutions, integrating software, data and services to provide greater value from location-based information and drive more insightful decisions for businesses and government organizations around the world. Its solutions are available in multiple languages through a network of strategic partners and distribution channels in 60 countries. …

Pitney Bowes is a $5.7 billion global provider of integrated mailstream management solutions headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The company serves over 2 million businesses of all sizes in more than 130 countries through dealer and direct operations."

GeoEye: "GeoEye, the world's largest operator of commercial imagery satellites, today announced the acquisition of M.J. Harden Associates, Inc. from General Electric Company. M.J. Harden is [a] provider of digital aerial imagery and geospatial information solutions. GeoEye completed the acquisition of M.J. Harden's outstanding stock on March 15, 2007, and will operate the company as a wholly owned subsidiary.

M.J. Harden, located in Mission, Kansas, has about 60 employees. As part of the agreement, GE will continue to own and operate the pipeline GIS consulting, software, and data management business under GE's PII Integrity Services Division. M.J. Harden will continue to work together with PII to provide photogrammetry and geospatial services to support PII's Pipeline Integrity Services business.

The acquisition gives GeoEye access to M.J. Harden's digital aerial imagery capture capability, photogrammetry services, mobile and geographic information system technology, and implementation services, field data collection and other related services that provide customers with asset-mapping and corridor management solutions. Customers include utilities, engineering companies, developers and federal, state and local government agencies, among others.

'This acquisition enables us to provide satellite and aerial imagery along with geospatial solutions to our resellers and customers,' said Matthew O'Connell, GeoEye's president and chief executive officer. 'Since most of M.J. Harden's customers are in the commercial segment, we think we can help them do more in the federal government sector. At the same time, we hope to expand the products they offer their customers. The addition of M.J. Harden's expert staff and services to the processing capabilities already offered by GeoEye is a logical extension of our goal of providing the highest quality geospatial information to our customers.'

The deal will give GeoEye's customers access to M.J. Harden digital aerial imagery where customers may need higher resolution imagery than what is available from GeoEye's satellites. Digital aerial imagery is extremely complementary to GeoEye's imagery and is especially useful to geospatial professionals working for state and local governments, corridor mapping, as well as the utilities sector. …

Headquartered in Dulles, Virginia, GeoEye is the world's largest operator of commercial imaging satellites. GeoEye was formed as a result of ORBIMAGE's acquisition of Space Imaging in January 2006. The company is the premier provider of geospatial data, information and value-added products for the national security community, strategic partners, resellers and commercial customers. GeoEye operates a constellation of three Earth imaging satellites, possesses an international network of regional ground stations, a robust image archive, and advanced geospatial imagery processing capabilities. …

… MJH, an ISO 9001:2000 certified business, offers a wide-range of high quality photogrammetry and geospatial technology services. Services based on 50+ years of experience include: image acquisition, photogrammetric mapping, GIS consulting and implementation, and mobile data solutions. … Founded in 1956, MJH is located in Mission, Kansas."

Building a GIS for a Small Town

When she was hired four years ago as GIS Administrator for the City of Highland Village, Texas—a municipality with 14,000 residents in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex—Marikka Williams' only tools were a masters degree in applied geography, a couple of years of experience working with GIS, her intelligence, and her initiative. She had no support from more experienced GIS analysts because she was the only one on staff with GIS training and no plan to follow because it had not yet been created. So she started from scratch—by installing GIS software on her computer and then beginning to gather data. Two weeks ago, at the 30th Annual Conference of the Geographic Information & Technology Association (GITA), Williams described the process she followed to set up what is now a complex and growing GIS serving Highland Village's residents, city council, and staff.

Williams is responsible for maintaining a GIS, performing geospatial analysis, developing applications to facilitate geographic information delivery, and providing GIS services to all the departments in the city. She created a variety of databases; representative, analytical, and digital interactive maps; and exhibits for asset management, infrastructure maintenance, emergency management, recreational event coordination, economic development, and community outreach.

Her paper —which "outlines the structural design of a GIS tailored for a small municipality, illustrates how the GIS is utilized to facilitate municipal operations, addresses the challenges involved in the process of creating a comprehensive system, and proposes avenues for future improvement"—reads like a GIS Day presentation, listing all the desirable components and features of a municipal GIS. That's because, Williams told me, what inspired her to write it was the fact that when she started she did not have any guidelines. Writing the presentation helped her "stay focused" and she thought that it might help others who were just starting to build a local government GIS. Several such people, in fact, attended her GITA presentation, which was very thorough and articulate.

A needs assessment, she points out, should be done as early as possible in the process of building a GIS—both because it is more efficient and because it helps to generate support among staff. "I have found that it is better to meet with departmental representatives, individually," she says, "to discuss their needs and GIS products and to propose viable solutions." Once the assessment is complete, "it is possible to more effectively prioritize tasks, gather data, and develop an organizational scheme to house the data."

On the basis of her needs assessment, Williams came up with the following goals for the city's GIS:

• Enhance communication
• Ensure accountability
• Improve service delivery
• Track municipal assets
• Strategize maintenance
• Perform geospatial analysis
• Distribute interactive information
• Integrate with business practices
• Increase organizational intelligence
• Provide decision support

Williams is in the process of creating the following digital interactive solutions to provide city staff a means to query maps and their attribute data in a structured environment:

• Master incidents (dynamically activated combination)
• Public works (streets, utilities, animal control, code enforcement, inspections)
• Streets (streets, signs, lights)
• Utilities (water/wasterwater system)
• Animal control (unleashed, lost or expired animals)
• Code Enforcement (code breaking incidents)
• Inspections (building inspection and permits)
• Police incidents (citations, warnings, accidents, crimes, vacation watches, special event coordination)
• EMS (calls for service, special event coordination)
• Parks (special events/work orders)

"Each solution," she explains, "has different limitations but offers sufficient functionality to meet the needs of each particular project." One such system she created distributes information to upper management and city council members. It includes a self contained mapping system that hyperlinks users to maps via a centralized index portal and offers GIS interactivity. She built another self contained digital mapping system for the fire department that hyperlinks users to hydrant address maps, preplans, landmarks, and mutual aid territories through a Web interface. Yet another self-contained, interactive mapping system she built to coordinate emergency operations includes hyperlinks to a variety of maps. Another custom application that she created provides a city-wide interface for call takers and "provides a means to store information, generate data, interact with a map interface, route requests and generate reports associated with calls for service." "In an ideal situation," Williams says, "all municipal operations would be integrated into a GIS environment through customized applications."

All of the city's GIS systems are still in development. "Currently," says Williams, "the GIS data is logically organized and intuitively accessible. I can perform a variety of analyses and create any map but I am still working on refining the dynamic activation and interactive delivery aspect. While I have created some interactive solutions to deliver information these solutions lack the level of integration and interactivity that I desire to deliver."

Unlike those working for large municipalities, Williams explains, small town GIS professionals are often hired by the public works or planning departments but wind up serving all of the departments in the city, so they need to "be broad minded and maintain a generalized knowledge base."

I asked Williams to clarify a few aspects of her work.

1. How is the build-out of your GIS progressing?

   "Over the past four years it has matured a great deal and a lot has been accomplished in terms of laying the foundations for the GIS. Needs assessment is something ongoing. We still need to develop more of a consensus in terms of having the city actively use the tools that GIS has to offer. One of the challenges that we face is having people utilize the resources that are available to them."

   Which systems are fully operational?

   "I have three systems in place—one for the fire department, one for the staff and the city council, and one for emergency operations coordination (EOC). The fire department is the one most actively involved in the process; their application is fully functional. The staff have the technology at their fingertips to access all of the basemaps in the city, but they don't use that system very often; they would rather ask me to print out a physical copy. The EOC system is used only in an emergency."

2. What were your first steps in developing the GIS?

   "First I needed to talk to the Council. They needed to see what GIS had done so far and I wanted them to have that information about the city. So that system was mainly a bunch of PDF maps that they could zoom in and out of, hyperlinked to through an index. Then I gave them access to ArcReader, including instructions on how to use it, but I don't think that many people have used it."

3. What was the next step?

   "To more actively incorporate GIS with people's business practices, I began to customize products. The interactive map that I created for the fire department had limitations: they could not type in on the computer that is on their engine, they needed to have complete touch-screen capability. The prior system that I had built for the city council and staff would have allowed them to have touch-screen capability but it would have been very difficult for them to navigate through Adobe. They want to be able to access the data fairly quickly. So I came up with another solution, using Microsoft FrontPage. The whole system is hand-built; it is a combination of images of every part of the city and close ups of every address. It integrates the pre-plans for the businesses and it also has two kinds of index maps, where they can touch a polygon and go to the location or they can click on a letter and find the street and go that way."

4. How do you deliver data to staff?

   "They don't like to have to dig for information, they'd rather it be delivered to them. That prompted the application on which I am currently working, which is a Microsoft Access database with ArcReader embedded. I chose that route because we don't have a lot of funding for map distribution, so I have to find free ways to distribute my maps. Staff wanted some means of inputting and tracking citizen calls, so the system provided a database aspect and it also enabled the integration of a free ArcMap reader (enabled by ArcPublisher) that was also interactive."

5. What do you fear most about implementation?

   "One of my fears is that I am not sure how the technology is going to respond from the network point of view and as multiple people are trying to access it. Also, if you make people dependent on an application that you built, you are then in charge of support 24/7."

6. What kinds of analyses have you done?

   "Most of the GIS development I have done thus far has been in data collection, to form a solid data foundation. I have performed surface analysis to delineate the floodplain, to calculate distance from the fire station to all the intersections in the city, and to calculate impervious surfaces. I have also utilized statistical analysis in combination with surface analysis results to evaluate proposed methodologies for the drainage fee assessment and to develop algorithms that predict driveway coverage in areas that were obscured in the aerial photo. I plan to conduct advanced analyses, such as water modeling and storm drainage pattern analysis, in the near future."

7. What are some of your strongest sources of support?

   "I have a lot of upper management support. The city manager and the city council are very supportive of GIS. Typically there are one or two people in a department who see the utility of GIS. They will come talk to me and we will create a project. There is usually one person who will get other persons in their department involved. We will start a project and then, once they start to see an example, they give me feedback and it grows from that."

8. What about resistance?

   "There is resistance by some people who no longer need to do something they were comfortable doing. For example, if we are going to have a zoning change or something like that, you have to send out a notice to people within a 200-foot radius of that location. People were used to using the hand compass and making a circle and then writing down all the addresses. With GIS you can buffer and select all the addresses within it and export them to an Excel spreadsheet and mail-merge them. You can do in ten minutes what used to take maybe a couple of hours. So there is that general fear that technology is going to come in and make their job less important than it was—when really all it does is free up time so that they can do their job better. It is more of a support system in my mind than a replacement."

9. How do you overcome resistance to change?

   "I bring people in and show them what I am working on and how I've listened to what they've already told me and incorporated that into my program. Then I ask them, 'What am I missing?'"

10. Overall, how do you feel about your work so far?

    "No matter whether this becomes fully deployed or just serves as a rough draft, it will have served a useful purpose to integrate everything that we need in an example application. Where I would feel most confident with this is if were in a Web environment, because then people can access it remotely. People like using the Web a lot more than they like opening up an application."

NSGIC 2007 Midyear Conference

NSGIC's 2007 Midyear Conference will take place next week, March 25 to 29, in Annapolis, Maryland. A few weeks ago I wrote that "The program for this conference consists mostly of meetings."

Although, I'm told, "it is true that NSGIC has a reputation for its packed meeting agendas that last well into the evening and beyond," the organization sent me a more substantive description of its conference:

The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) is an organization of member states committed to advocating efficient and effective government through the prudent adoption of geospatial information technologies. Members of NSGIC include state GIS coordinators and GIS officials from across the country. Other members

include representatives from federal agencies, local government, the private sector, academia, and professional organizations. A small yet diverse group, the NSGIC membership includes nationally and internationally recognized experts in computer mapping and analysis, GIS data production and program management, and geospatial information policy.

NSGIC uses its conferences to bring together its members from various stakeholder communities with an interest in developing and promoting the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). Attendees discuss existing federal programs and seek to identify

solutions for common problems. The agenda consists mostly of plenary sessions that engage the whole audience. This is not a conference for those interested in deeply technical issues. Instead, the Mid-Year meeting in Annapolis provides a forum to discuss matters affecting national geospatial policy, especially coordination issues that

impact state GIS programs. It also provides an opportunity for interested members to visit with their congressional staff on Capitol Hill the final day of the conference.

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