[Board] Objections? - California GIO Letter - Monday

[Brian Hamlin]

TO: Michael Byrne, GIO
     Office of the State Chief Information Officer
RE: ARRA Broadband Mapping Architecture Comment

Mr. Byrne -

   California is filing or has filed a State Plan for its implementation 
of the ARRA Broadband Initiative mapping requirement.

   You may be pleased to know that the California Chapter of OSGeo is 
taking the lead in the US for OSGeo multi-national, and intiating 
dialog at the Federal level strongly affirming the need for Open Geo 
Data and public access. Further, OSGeo is writing a one page white 
paper on architectural considerations for repository and revision 
control of broadband mapping geo data.

   It would be my pleasure to include your office in whatever way you 
deemed appropriate. I believe that with a new Federal committment to 
transparent government and public access to information coming from the 
White House directly, that there is an increasing opportunity for Open 
Source software and Open Standards geo data in the rapidly approaching 
implementation of the ARRA Broadband mapping objectives.

    As you know, OSGeo is the leading, on-the-ground, open source 
geospatial software development organisation worldwide.  We are an 
international nonprofit [US 501(c)3 pending] comprising more than a 
dozen mature geospatial software projects built by more than 500 
developers from the United States and around the world. As a coalition, 
OSGeo holds a  unique role in advocacy of open standarads and open 
source, in a world where industry  consolidation has produced a very 
small handful of huge private firms, with the inevitable market 
tensions associated with maintaining their positions.

   We believe that OSGeo is very much in line with the spirit and intent 
of the push for transparent government and public access science. As 
such there may be a special opportunity to raise the  bar for the kind 
of technology initiative as presented in the ARRA Broadband Initiative 
now and in the future.

   sincerely

   Brian Hamlin
   OSGeo California Chapter