News
Press Releases: Government to Government
April 12, 2006
Department of Interior and USGS Receive Excellence.Gov Award for Geospatial One-Stop
Award-Winning Portal Provides GIS Services, Applications, and Rich Data Content
Redlands, CA - The Department of Interior (DOI) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently won the Excellence.Gov award for the Geospatial One-Stop Web portal. In its sixth year of existence and sponsored by the American Council for Technology, the award was presented to five winners selected for demonstrating best practices in information sharing for federally led information technology program implementations.
“We’re honored to receive this prestigious award from the American Council for Technology,” says Karen Siderelis, associate director for geospatial information, United States Geological Survey. “We developed Geospatial One-Stop as a resource serving both government and private agencies as well as the general public. Its purpose is to help individuals and organizations share and access information to make better, more informed decisions. We’re grateful for the acknowledgment and will continue to make Geospatial One-Stop the best possible Internet resource.”
“GIS is playing an ever-increasing role in helping manage our world,” says Jack Dangermond, president, ESRI. “The Department of Interior and USGS are leaders in bringing the power of GIS to all levels of society through the Geospatial One-Stop Web portal. ESRI is privileged to serve these two government agencies and help them carry out their mission of providing geographic knowledge using the Internet.”
A panel of 23 judges from both the private and public sectors selected the top five winners from more than 80 applicants. In addition to the five winners, 20 programs were also honored as finalists. The announcement was made on February 15, 2006 in Washington, D.C., at a ceremony luncheon keynoted by congressman Tom Davis.
Geospatial One-Stop (www.geodata.gov) is a Web-based portal that provides a resource to discover and view maps, data, and other geospatial services from across the United States. The geodata.gov portal is used by state, local, and tribal governments, as well as the private sector and academia, to access and share geospatial information, improve planning for future investments in geospatial data, expand partnerships, collaborate on the development and implementation of standards for data sharing, and support the business and decision-making needs of governments and organizations.
The portal recently was an invaluable resource during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita; it made available critical information that aided federal, state, and local agencies in various emergency response activities. Virtual Internet communities were also established via Geospatial One-Stop to provide better information sharing and communication. Thousands of sources were made available using an interactive Hurricane Map Viewer and an interactive Louisiana state basemap. Maps and images were available for print, download, or e-mail.
Scott Cameron, deputy assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget (DOI) and managing partner of Geospatial One-Stop, attended the ceremony and accepted the award on behalf of the Department of Interior. In addition, Geospatial One-Stop partners honored at the awards ceremony included Hank Garie, executive director of Geospatial One-Stop; Karen Siderelis and Leslie Wollack of USGS; Pat Cummens of ESRI; Bert Jarreau of the National Association of Counties; and Bill Burgess, National States Geographic Information Council.
