Weaving. It means taking threads to make cloth, or strips of cloth to make blankets and other useful items. In weaving something new comes from bringing together, in just the right way, some core elements. GIS, too, makes something new by building up maps from data building blocks.

This month we bring you stories of efforts in Australia to weave together environmental data, the story of how the state of Arkansas continues to weave GIS into public policy, and how a young company, also from Australia, hopes to weave data contributions from all over the world into a powerful, stunning and useful interactive, 3D world map. All three are moving forward with the aid of OpenGIS Specifications.

Putting together a healthy state GIS solution is not easy, but most GIS users and politicians would agree, it's essential. Putting together one that embraces open standards, may soon be essential, too. While OGC puts a solid emphasis on the technology that enables interoperability, there's another side of the equation critical to making an open interoperable implementation possible: interoperable public policy.

Susan Cromwell, current Chair of the Arkansas State Land Information Board, is one leader who understands how state GIS, open standards for interoperability and public policy come together. Her history of work with Academic, Research, and Client Services at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and later at the State Office of Information Technology put her in a position to appreciate what open standards can do for technology in general, and GIS in particular. That history helped Arkansas choose interoperability early on, and grow it through the years.

The staff at Ping Interactive Broadband in Australia is tackling a problem as big as the earth. For some time the team has dreamed of a 3D interactive, Web-based world map. The application, they hope, will include a hypermedia viewer that renders geographic information in high-definition real time 3D over broadband networks. Another key idea: the platform will allow users to publish data into the system. With a grant from Telstra Broadband Fund, the project, called 3D Metanet Atlas Platform (3map), is moving right along.

by Maurits van der Vlugt And Jonathan Doig

A Data Sharing Challenge

"There is so much data out there, why can't we just use it?" If you work in geospatial technology, there's no doubt you've heard this sentiment. The question is even more important if these anecdotal numbers are anywhere near true: More than 80 per cent of all data has a spatial component, and more than 80 per cent of the time spent on spatial information projects is wasted on non-productive activities such as data acquisition, negotiation, loading and transformation.

In the state of New South Wales (NSW), Australia the Community Access to Natural Resources Information (CANRI) program has addressed this issue with significant success. CANRI has implemented a framework for online data sharing between NSW government agencies and community organizations using OpenGIS specifications The CANRI portal serves as the NSW focal point for all natural resource-related applications, atlases and metadata.