DOE GIS core team - a best practice

Large government organizations such as the Department of Energy (DOE) are challenged with identifying and implementing best geospatial information management practices to ensure that operational needs are met and government objectives are achieved. Geographic Information System (GIS) professionals, complex wide within the Department, conduct spatial information management practices on a daily basis to complete a wide variety of science and engineering tasks. The DOE Office of the CIO recognized the wealth of geospatial information management knowledge within the DOE complex and formed the DOE GIS Core Team in 2001 as a result. The team is comprised of GIS experts-representing all major DOE labs, site facilities, and programs-who volunteer their time to address issues impacting the entire complex. These include the President's management agenda (with emphasis on the Geospatial One-Stop), homeland security, emergency response, site management, software and geospatial data licensing, and federal, national, and international standards governing the creation and dissemination of geospatial data. The strength of the DOE GIS Core Team is the wide diversity of GIS and scientific expertise represented on the team, which allows it to provide the DOE CIO's office with sound guidance on complex wide issues from a GIS practitioner's perspective. The Core Team's missionmore » is 'to foster technical excellence and communication, to identify and advocate best business practices, and to provide sound recommendations on policy and standards.' As a first step toward identifying best practices the feam conducted a survey of all known GIS assets across the DOE complex. The survey identified each site's GIS expertise, operating systems architecture and software applications, major project areas supported, and a number of other metrics important to the operation of a GIS organization. Results of the survey will be discussed, along with the mission of the Core Team. A broad overview of best practices utilized by many of the leading GIS organizations across the complex will also be provided.« less