Governor Signs Bill to Establish State Geospatial Coordinating Board

The bill which establishes a Geospatial Coordinating Board for the State of Pennsylvania was signed by Governor Corbett on Wednesday, October 22.  This law will now be known Act 178.

The Act takes affect within 60 days of the signing, which is around December 22.  Please check back for updates on the process to form the new Geospatial Coordinating Board. PaMAGIC will have a voting position on the State Geospatial Coordinating Board and will be actively soliciting member involvement in setting priorities, and in delivering researched information in response to Board requests.

For more information on the bill, see press releases from  Senator Gordner's Office and Representative Cutler’s Office.

To review the provisions of this bill, follow link to Senate Bill 771.

PAMAGIC Technical Training Session at Central PA GIS Day

ArcGIS Online Best Practices
PAMAGIC is pleased to announce a technical training session at Central PA GIS Day on Wednesday, November 19 at HACC Midtown 2 Campus (1500 N. 3rd Street, Harrisburg, PA).  The session will be co-led by Carrie Tropasso (DCNR) and Tim Cooley (GeoDecisions) and focus on ArcGIS Online.  For more information, please see the Central PA GIS Day website

Building and Customizing Story Maps using the Map Tour and Map Journal Templates (Carrie Tropasso)
Story Maps combine intelligent web maps that incorporate text, photos, and interactive map-related functions.  ESRI has provided many templates to easily and quickly deploy Story Maps, and they allow you to download all of the code for a more customized experience.  This session will highlight all of the steps necessary to create and customize two story maps from scratch using the Map Tour and Map Journal Templates.  Customizations that will be covered include: hybrid hosting of images between ArcGIS Online and On-Premise; integrating clickable hyperlinks in description text; customizing story map point icons; changing template colors and header icons, and incorporating videos and multi-media.

Customizing Collector for ArcGIS (Tim Cooley)
Collector for ArcGIS is Esri's solution for field collection using devices such as smartphones or tablets.  Recently Esri released a Sign Inventory tool for Collector which is designed to help collect and categorize signs and poles in the field.  An overview will be given about downloading and setting up Collector along with the Sign Inventory database, which leverages the ArcGIS for Local Government model.  Steps will then be taken to customize the Collector for our specific needs from both the data management end and GPS accuracy.

Biographies
Carrie Tropasso is the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources GIS Technical Lead.  Her primary roles within DCNR are ArcGIS Online administration, story maps, collector apps, map service and web mapping/mobile application development, enterprise Geodatabase administration and to support the Department’s overall GIS efforts and strategic plan.  She has over 16 years of GIS experience both in the public and private sectors working on and managing projects of varying size and content all across the state.  In addition, she has a Master’s degree in GIS from Penn State University and is a GISP.

Tim Cooley started working at GeoDecisions 9 years ago after graduating from Penn State as a Geography major, and during this time obtained his GISP.  Tim has focused on a diverse set of GIS disciplines from tracking/routing for the Transportation Engineering Agency (TEA) to commercial insurance projects.  As part of his work for GeoDecisions, Tim spent time in Abu Dhabi helping to establish and modernize the GIS Department for the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council.

For those interested in attending, please contact Patrick McKinney at pmckinney@ccpa.net 
Room 220
3:00pm-4:45pm

Senate Bill 771 Passes - Biggest Step Behind Us

About 10 years after the first House testimony, Pennsylvania will have an official Geospatial Coordinating Board representing all levels of government, and public and academic sectors. Senate Bill 771 has unanimously passed the House of Representatives today, and awaits the Governor's signature!!

Thanks to Senator Gordner, Representative Cutler and their staffs for all their work and support to bring us to this point.  Thanks also to all the organizations and individuals that were part of the Coalition that worked very hard and with a great deal of patience to "get this across the finish line"

When the bill is signed, it will take affect within 60 days.  Planning will start very soon toward the formation of this organization.  Please check back for updates on the process to form the new Geospatial Coordinating Board.

For more information on the bill, see Senator Gordner's Press Release.

To review the provisions of this bill, follow link to Senate Bill 771