The ICIS User Conference Synopsis

ICIS hosted the inaugural ICIS User Conference on September 19^th. Part of the motivation to conduct such an important event was to celebrate the tenth anniversary of ICIS and its accomplishments to date. It was evident that the many attendees representing all member segments benefitted from participating and that the event achieved the anticipated result.

Besides celebrating the first decade, ICIS had some very specific goals to realize from the event. There is always a need to validate the value of ICIS initiatives today in order to ensure that we are meeting member objectives and delivering on expectations. In addition, it is vital for ICIS to comprehend and brainstorm on potential needs and roles for ICIS consideration in order to build realistic plans going forward. The conference outcome exceeded in meeting these goals and provided significant opportunities for many years of planning and assessment to come. Clearly, ICIS must understand, facilitate, and forecast the growing need for interactive collaboration and data sharing to ensure success for the next 10 years. Data sharing is in its infancy and is being fuelled by many different initiatives including titles like “Open Data” and “Gov 2.0.” Getting a perspective on the priorities and associated details behind these initiatives and the real costs to act on them is vital to ICIS’ future and of high priority to the ICIS member community at large.

A lot transpired during the half day event. In order to maximize the limited time, all of the speakers were able to communicate their thoughts and ideas in a rapid manner which kept the energy and interest level high. The proceedings were recorded and the results are available for demand viewing in the new ICIS YouTube channel. 

The opening of the conference celebrated the present value of ICIS and the ICIS team highlighted the strategic results of today. Certain ICIS members emphasized the value of these results by sharing stories on how their respective jurisdictions and organizations have gained by being part of the ICIS member community.  These stories were shared by Shelia Mckay (Metchosin), Brian Goble (Sooke), Ruth Walper (Sicamous), Leeanna Rhodes (Treaty 8 Tribal Association), Ferenc Pataki (FortisBC Energy Inc.), Bill Hain (TELUS), Mike Bazowski (Shaw), Harry Mercer (BC Assessment Authority), and Dale Sparrow (GeoBC) and are available for viewing on the ICIS YouTube channel.

The balance of the afternoon focused on the “Future of Collaboration.” To set the stage, ICIS was honoured by the Honourable Stephanie Cadieux, (then) the Minister of Labour, Citizen Services and Open Government, who gave the Keynote speech on the topic. The Minister’s words were very well received as she complimented ICIS on its success and wished the Society well into the future. The Honourable Ms. Cadieux has since taken responsibility for a new portfolio (Social Development) and ICIS wishes her well. The legacy of her message remains clear and ICIS looks forward to collaborating with her former Ministry as we plan for the future.

The keynote transitioned to the ICIS Distinguished Member Panel on the Future of Collaboration. This part of the agenda led to a very lively and interactive dialogue. This session was invaluable in informing the participants on new ideas, concepts, and future projects which can leverage ICIS relationships and benefit ICIS members in the years to come. Planning for the future will not suffer from any lack for ideas or concepts. The distinguished panellists are Ken Johansson (CRD), Stephen Gordon (Saanich), Ferenc Pataki (FortisBC Energy Inc.), Bill Hain (TELUS), Sue Hanley (First Nations Technology Council), Nels Larsen (Vector Geomatics), Harry Mercer (BC Assessment Authority), Mike Thomson (LTSA), and David Hume (Ministry of Labour, Citizen's Services, and Open Government) and are available for viewing on the ICIS YouTube channel.

The culmination of the sessions led to some actions and directions for ICIS and the day concluded with a wrap up. (Once again, the final session is available via the ICIS YouTube library). The actions for all readers that may have been alluded to are the subtle hints to watch and benefit from viewing the ICIS User conference sessions. The specific outcomes have been deliberately omitted to further this encouragement. 

Simply, the future of ICIS looks very bright indeed and like the lyrics from an old Timbik3 song: “...the future’s so bright we have to wear shades.”

 As always, thank you for your ICIS support!

ICIS is On the Road Again

ICIS is on the road again visiting member Municipalities and Regional Districts to implement GeoShare tools and automate data workflows.

Recently, Steve Mark and Paul Van Nieuwkuyk spent two days in the Okanagan as part of their GeoShare Tour. Their first stop - the Central Okanagan Regional District.  Steve and Paul met with Regional District staff to update their GeoShare script to accommodate the delivery of addresses. Their second stop was with the District of West Kelwona. In a meeting with District staff, Steve and Paul talked about the benefits of the CivicSpatial GrantProgram and how it could assist them in their adoption of AdddressBC. The District also provided Steve with source data so Steve could start working on their GeoShare script. Their third stop was the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen, where Steve and Paul reviewed AddressBC delivery options and learned about the Regional District’s internal initiative to provide GIS data for their new Fire Dispatch service provider. At their last stop with the City of Penticton, Steve and Paul discussed the City’s current GIS system and plans to implement their GeoShare script before the end of 2011.

Face-to-face interaction with ICIS members is essential for building relationships and for facilitating the beneficial work results.  Member site-visits are also important to ICIS Operations because they:

• Provide an ongoing social network
• Give ICIS staff first-hand exposure to Member’s internal operations and workflows so services can be improved and expanded.
• Allow ICIS staff to initiate new workflows.
• Enable members to provide ICIS staff with feedback on how they use ICIS data and where they would like to see ICIS evolve in the future.

Steve and Paul are back on the road again this week, visiting Lower Mainland municipalities including the City of Langley, the Corporation Delta, the City of West Vancouver, and the City of Richmond.

ICIS is a non-profit society created to collaboratively share and integrate spatial data for the economic and social benefit of British Columbia.

ICIS Awards $25,000 to Columbia Shuswap Regional District

Columbia Shuswap Regional District received $25,000 through the CivicSpatial Grant Program to help increase the accuracy, consistency, and currency of spatial data shared with ICIS members.

Over the next two years, Columbia Shuswap Regional District will work in partnership with GeoBC’s Parcel Fabric Section to establish 100-150 GPS Cadastral Tie survey control points to improve the positional and relative accuracy of their cadastre. Enhancements will also be made to the attribution of land parcels with the use of the Master Parcel Table.

Upon completion of the project, approximately 22,000 parcels will be improved in relative and positional accuracy with increased conformity in attribution. The parcel fabric dataset will be repositioned to seamlessly match 4 municipal and 5 regional district jurisdictional boundaries. These developments will yield a higher quality parcel fabric dataset that will be delivered to ICIS members on a consistent basis.

All Local Government members of ICIS are eligible for CivicSpatial Grant funding.  For more information on the types of projects currently supported by the program, please visit the ICIS website under CivicSpatial GrantProgram. 

ICIS is a non-profit society created to collaboratively share and integrate spatial data for the economic and social benefit of British Columbia.

ICIS Receives Special Recognition at GITA’s Pacific Northwest Annual Fall Conference

In the spirit of collaboration, ICIS participated in GITA’s Pacific Northwest Annual Fall Conference on the Future of Smart Technology last month. At the conference, ICIS received special recognition from Geoff Zeiss for its work on creating a common shared database of utility and cadastral data for the province of British Columbia. He wrote an informative article about ICIS “GITA PNW: SharingCadastral and Utility GeoSpatial Data in British Columbia” and it is well worth the read.

ICIS is well known within British Columbia and familiarity with ICIS is growing beyond provincial borders. ICIS is often admired by other organizations and groups for its uniqueness. ICIS is a non-governmental and non-profit Society supported by its members to create, integrate, and maintain a timely, accessible, and accurate province-wide spatial database. Membership is entirely voluntary. Over 200 organizations and jurisdictions contribute GIS data to ICIS resulting in a multi-layer geospatial fabric accessible to all ICIS members. ICIS results are achieved through collaboration and trust.

Thank you to all ICIS members for your continued support and for making ICIS what it is today.

For more information on ICIS Membership, contact Ken Rigler, Membership Coordinator or visit the ICIS website.

ICIS is a non-profit society created to collaboratively share and integrate spatial data for the economic and social benefit of British Columbia

GeoShare Tools Automate Data Sharing!

Automation is a Key to Product Value
 

ICIS data sharing relies heavily on automation. In an environment where ICIS receives, organizes, aggregates, and redistributes content from more than 150 different data providers, it is necessary to automate, standardize, and schedule the data sharing workflows in order to provide members with the current and consistent data products that they require.

Configuration, not Custom Code

 

ICIS has developed a number of data sharing tools based on technologies in wide industry use, including FME from Safe Software and ModelBuilder from Esri. ICIS has developed script templates that are simple to understand and configure to match specific local specifications, meaning that our members can easily make use of these tools with very little outside assistance. These templates are deployed extensively within ICIS’ own operational environment, where they perform the bulk of ICIS’ routine data processes. We call this infrastructure ‘GeoShare’ and we are building out our automated data exchange network by sharing this toolkit with our members.

The GeoShare Network

GeoShare Tools perform several basic functions: data extraction and publication, remote data access and upload, data analysis and integration, and data reporting. ICIS members often use one of our extract and publication templates to automate the delivery of their data to ICIS. Others also use our remote data access and upload templates to acquire updates from ICIS and to refresh their own local data repositories. Our cadastral data providers have been quick to recognize the benefits of implementing GeoShare tools, both for the efficiencies achieved in automating their delivery processes, and also to support the improved quality to the common cadastre that comes from highly frequent of updates. As of the date of this release, both the ICF and Assessment Fabric cadastres are being delivered weekly with GeoShare tools from GeoBC and BC Assessment, and 34 of our local government jurisdictions are using GeoShare tools to deliver data to ICIS. More developments are coming every week.

Your GeoShare

Are you interested in automating your data workflows with ICIS? We have expertise and CivicSpatial Grants to help. Contact ICIS to see how the GeoShare tools can help you and help to improve ICIS data for everyone. 

ICIS Announces Two Newest Board Members

The ICIS Board of Directors is pleased to announce Mr. Brad Hlasny and Mr. Neil Gaudreault as their two newest Board Members.

Brad Hlasny, Manager of Base Mapping and Cadastre, GeoBC

Brad Hlasny became the Manager of the Base Mapping & Cadastre Section of GeoBC on April 1, 2008. His team is responsible for delivering the foundational digital maps and data that support the Province of British Columbia’s provisioning of cost effective, timely, accurate and relevant land and resource information services to British Columbians.

Since coming to the BC government from industry in 1993, Brad has helped modernize the geospatial & base mapping functions in BC through innovation and partnership. He has been an integral part of management and teams devising and delivering products and services to partners and clients such as the forest and oil & gas industries, government ministries/programs, utilities, local governments, emergency response services, etc. As a result, BC is nationally recognized as the leader in providing sound governance and effective base mapping and geomatic services.

Brad holds a diploma in Surveying Technology from B.C.I.T. and a Geomatics Engineering degree from the University of Calgary. He is a registered engineer (P.Eng.) in BC as well as a Canada Land Surveyor (CLS). He also sits on various Geomatic Boards, Councils and Committees dedicated to improving and promoting the utility of geomatics.

Neil Gaudreault, IT Manager, BC Hydro

Neil Gaudreault has over 20 years experience in the defence, telecommunications, and utility industries focusing on project delivery and IT Management. Neil has been with BC Hydro since 2006 and is currently responsible for supporting the GIS systems in the BC Hydro Transmission and Distribution group. Neil holds a Bachelor of Engineering Physics from the Royal Military College of Canada and served for 12 years as an officer in the Canadian Navy.

ICIS Joins Facebook!

Connect, Collaborate, Communicate! ICIS is now on Facebook. “Like” us today for timely information, news highlights, ICIS activities and events, useful articles and publications, and more!