He is trying to secure more Federal money for Stratmap data development. It is good to have the NSDI model to which to conform. However, there are things NSDI can learn from the Texas effort. Taxpayers want answers to questions more that raw data. There is an emphasis on internet map servers and the power of GIS browser tools.
All initiatives however depend on good metadata.
There is a huge amount of material from the forum to be published on the FGDC web site. Mike Ouimet reminded all of the TGIC day away tentatively scheduled for July 16 th . He also stated that at the last TGIC meeting an emergency response subcommittee was formed. There are basically two types of groups, those that stay around and those that go away, i.e., standing and ad hoc. The majority of groups are ad hoc such as the SAPs, the LULC, and the standards groups.