At the 2015 Esri UC I put the Open Data application on my agenda to attend technical sessions and ask questions of Esri staff. I learned a lot, I learned what I needed, and I came home inspired to plan out and fire up new services and a new Open Data site. Within a short matter of days I had everything I wanted in place and was able to retire a burdensome and feature-bare GIS download page on the City…
I spent yesterday at TUGIS, Maryland’s GIS conference. It is an annual, one-day event, held at Towson University. As such, it is a bit of a sprint, especially when bracketed on either end by a double-beltway commute. The day started with the plenary which included a brief talk by Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Boyd K. Rutherford, who reaffirmed the new administration’s commitment to the importance of data and metrics in decision-making. Julia Fischer, the current MSGIC Chair, also gave an update…
The second meeting of the Maryland Open Data Council was held Friday, October 3rd at the Governor’s Reception Room at Maryland’s State House in Annapolis. Topics ranged from whether it is still acceptable for local governments and municipalities to charge a fee for GIS data, streamlining state Public Information Act requests, to a lengthy discussion on Montgomery County’s Open Data portal. Background “It is the policy of the state that open data be machine readable and released to the public…
Digital property maps and parcel information now free For the first time since offering digital maps depicting property maps and parcel data 19 years ago, the Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) today launched a free set of digital map data for Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore City under the state’s open data initiative. People interested in probing the wealth of MDP’s parcel geographic information systems (GIS) data can now download the files at no cost. To make data sought after…
The MSGIC Quarterly meeting in Prince Frederick, Maryland held a panel discussion this morning related to Open Data in the Geospatial Community. Use this blog to continue the discussion outside of the meeting by posting your ideas, comments, or anything related to Open Data! What is Open Data? Open Data is not a new concept in Maryland. Early initiatives applied the concept of data sharing amongst participating organizations and across governmental boundaries. Newer initiatives aimed to centralize and provide ready…
