Virginia Geospatial Clearinghouse Workgroup

August 18, 2010

Spatial Data Clearinghouse

Trends and Solutions

Clive Reece

Outline

Clearinghouse Goals

Success comes from Focus

Web Services Considerations

If You Can’t Find It, You Can’t Use It

Data Clearinghouses Improve Access . . .

State clearinghousesdata.gov / geodata.govdata.gov.ukArcGIS.com

Geospatial Platform Concepts

Providers Consumers

A Geoportal Completes the Platform

Providers Consumers

Inventory Inventory and Catalogand Catalog

Access and Access and DistributionDistribution

Search and Search and DiscoveryDiscovery

Success comes from Focus

Three examples …

9.3 Tech Transfer Sessions ESRI © 2008

6

Oregon Spatial Data Library

• Site focuses on *downloadable* data

• Organized by framework categories

• Supports pre-packaged data or custom-order, user-specifed data packages

• http://spatialdata.oregonexplorer.info/GPT9

Data.gov

• http://www.data.gov

• Public access to Federal, high-value data

• Supports Open Government Directive

• Initial focus on downloadable data sets

• Geoviewer adds live viewing of data - Example a

- Example b

• Streaming large data sets requires rethinking …

Make it easy on publishers

• http://gptogc.esri.com

• Let users just enter a server endpoint URL - (don’t ask them for metadata)

DONKEY: They stink?

DONKEY: Oh, they make you cry?

DONKEY: ... You know, not everybody like onions.

“Metadata is like onions”

Web Services

Web Services go beyond “Data Download”

• Enables re-use of services

• Enables new applications and widgets (mashups)

• Enables better access to large data sets (e.g. imagery)

• Enables better collaboration

but we need to rethink how we architect projects …

Example: Data.gov

• Data.gov – new initiative to transparent government

• Should Data.gov build yet another catalog for data?

• Geodata.gov and Data.gov collaborated

• Geodata.gov now supplies Data.gov with 270,000+ downloadable datasets through an OGC Catalog Web Service

Web Services go beyond “Data Download”

• Enables re-use of services

• Enables new applications and widgets (mashups)

• Enables better access to large data sets (e.g. imagery)

• Enables better collaboration

but we need to rethink how we architect projects …

Silo 1Silo 1

Services approach…

Data

Services

Applications

Silo 2Silo 2

Data

Services

Applications

Benefits•Enterprise awareness•Enhanced access•Reuse data•Reuse services •Reuse infrastructure

Catalog

New Applications

Recap

• State clearinghouses are all about connecting data consumers with data providers … efficiently

• To operate effectively on the web, we need to design for connecting consumers with data provider *services*.

• Successful clearinghouses keep their efforts focused on specific business goals and making things easy for their participants.