It is about time

Twenty years ago this winter I made a presentation at a meeting of the Wisconsin Land Information Association showing clearly that government could be cheaper and more efficient through the use of geospatial technologies. But through the efforts of the Wisconsin Land Information Program and individual county leaders (usually LIOs) efforts could be coordinated to create further savings. We went on to document how a consortium of counties saved on image acquisition, how agencies coordinated to reduce duplication and how cooperation was improving outcomes.

Well, the US GAO has finally caught wind of these radical ideas. Their new report's title says it all, Geospatial Information: OMB and Agencies can reduce duplication by making coordination a priority. An interesting twist came in the section where they call out the FGDC for not making agency coordination a higher priority. There were some other interesting findings for GIS policy geeks, so head over and read it.