Educational Sessions
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
8:00–8:45 a.m.

Challenges of a Comprehensive Integrated Maintenance Computer System for the City of Vic
Josep Fargas, DTEC Consulting, S.L.
Track: Public Sector
PS

Learning Objectives:

• Understand a city maintenance department reengineering process and knowledge acquisition.
• Learn about the challenges of decision-making in public space maintenance management.
• Understand how to integrate management applications with corporate municipal GIS.

The Maintenance Management Computer System of the City of Vic integrates maintenance of the whole city’s public space, offering citizens a better service and a better quality of public space and patrimony. The system— powered by a GIS engine—links databases; manages and analyzes graphical and alphanumerical information of urban furniture inventory elements; generates bills of work, bills of damage, and diverse reports; allows for planning tasks of elements maintenance; queries associated history of elements; and more.

GeoRSS: A Lightweight Location Encoding Standard
Raj Singh, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
Track: Internet and Web Services
E, G, PS, T

Learning Objectives:

• Learn to connect mainstream IT to geospatial IT.
• Understand the importance of standards in application development.
• Learn GeoRSS.

GeoRSS is meant to be the most terse XML encoding of location that is compatible with more sophisticated geographic encoding standards. The original goal was to add location to RSS feeds, but GeoRSS is becoming the standard for the 80% of the world that only needs a small bit of geographic smarts. We review the adoption of GeoRSS and discuss the integration of geographic and mainstream information systems.
Copresenters: Carl Reed, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

Mobile Data Technology: Getting It Right When Disaster Strikes
Jeremy Sadler, Osmose Utilities Services, Inc.
Track: Mobile Applications
A

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about field data requirements in a post-storm setting.
• Get a strategy for updating data used in GIS and utility systems.
• Understand hardware, software, and data format considerations.

In disaster-recovery situations, utilities need a mobile data-collection strategy that helps them quickly and effectively update the information used by the GIS, outage management, engineering analysis, and other key utility systems. A comprehensive strategy for validating field data—one that integrates hardware, software, and data format to best effect—is crucial to restoring a utility’s safety, reliability, and ability to manage its assets and respond to outages and other service problems.

3-D Geospatial Databases: Managing Large City Models and Scenes
Dr. Xavier Lopez, Oracle Corporation
Track: Enterprise Architecture & System Integration
A

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about the various types of 3-D data uses in geospatial applications.
• Discover the importance of 3-D data management technology.
• Be familiar with the integration of COTS (and open source) 3-D visualization tools with 3-D DBMS.

Application domains in utilities, energy, planning, and defense are applying three-dimensional data to differentiate their analytical applications. Software applications in these areas are intensively applying modeling, analysis, and visualization of 3-D geospatial data. This paper introduces a data management feature that increases the value while reducing the cost of 3-D solutions. This paper illustrates how application developers can use this new platform for handling 3-D surface models, point clouds, and city models in enterprise applications.

Best Practices with Open Standards
Greg Buehler, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.
Track: Enterprise Architecture & System Integration
A

Learning Objectives:

• Learn what standards are ready for organizational use.
• Decide if a new system is needed to implement these new standards.
• Understand how to include spatial standards in requirements.

By demonstrating true interoperability through the use of open consensus-based standards, such as those from ISO and the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), organizations are now able to spatially enable decision-making across the enterprise. We will provide insight on the elements necessary to advance a common set of best practices for the industry to use in guiding implementing of open standards based solutions across the IT infrastructure.
Copresenter: Sam Bacharach, Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc.

Phase Projects and ROI
Francisco Sarmento, Progress Energy
Track: ROI/Business Case
A

Learning Objectives:

• Understand distinct project approaches.
• Learn the importance of ROI on phased projects.
• Learn the distinction of hard and soft benefits.

This presentation will cover the AM/FM/GIS project currently being implemented at Progress Energy to upgrade and consolidate the current applications. It will present a brief history of the project, and it will present the phased project methodology and the importance of a solid ROI on the business case. The presentation will also cover hard and soft benefits and how they influenced the ROI.

Geocity—Building Common Ground
Richard C. Gorecki, City of Calgary
Track: Organizational Impacts & Project Management
A

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how to develop a strategic plan for corporate collaboration.
• Discover how to build collaboration around the use of geospatial information.
• Learn how to overcome fiscal and political barriers.

The City of Calgary has implemented a corporate program called Geocity. The overall objective is to drive collaboration between business units, in terms of the management and distribution of geographic information and services. There are complex challenges associated with implementing a program that crosses functional, political, and fiscal boundaries. A strategic plan has been developed based on the fundamental concept that geographic information be regarded as a key corporate asset.
Copresenter: Danielle Coulter, City of Calgary

Measuring the Impact of EGIS on Organizational Effectiveness
Jeffrey Meyers, Telvent Miner & Miner
Track: Organizational Impacts & Project Management
A

Learning Objectives:

• Get an overview of the key areas from which business leaders expect organizational benefits through enterprise GIS.
• Understand the key metrics that quantify organizational effectiveness.
• Gain a methodology for measuring and interpreting the results of organizational impact of enterprise GIS.

Geographic Income Indicators Based on Electricity Consumption—A Potential New Business for Electric Companies
Eduardo Francisco, AES Eletropaulo
Track: Business Intelligence/Work and Asset Management
E, PS

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the methodology to generate geographic electricity-income indicators.
• Understand the relationship between electricity consumption and household income.
• Understand potential benefits of a new business for electric companies.

Income indicators based on electricity consumption can be almost automatically generated by electric companies using GIS techniques and the integration between electricity consumption of residential customers and data of demographic census. This paper investigates the relationship between electricity consumption, economic classification, and household income, by means of comparing Brazilian Census Micro-Data with the customer database of AES Eletropaulo—a large Brazilian electric distribution company. This is a potential new business model for electric companies.
Copresenters: Felipe Zambaldi, Fundacao Getulio Vargas - EAESP; Francisco Aranha, Fundacao Getulio Vargas - EAESP

Integrating Network Design and Construction Activities into Operations Management
Sushil Kumar, GE Energy
Track: Operations Management & Damage Prevention
E, G, PS, T, W

Learning Objectives:

• Learn about issues in integrating design and construction into operations management.
• Understand GIS and operations, design, and process considerations for integration.
• Discover the value of bringing construction-related activities into operations management.

Workflows between engineering and operational applications are typically limited, and new construction changes are not seamlessly exchanged. Currently, this coordination involves manual and automated processes, which lack the ability to achieve timely and accurate changes from design systems into operational systems. This paper discusses the issues and alternatives related to construction design data and making it available to operations so that construction activities can be managed within operational tools like outage and distribution management systems.
Copresenter: Jim S. Tracey, GE Energy

Questions about Annual Conference 30?  Contact us!
Phone: 303-337-0513    Fax: 303-337-1001     E-mail: info@gita.org