National Spatial Data Infrastructure Partnership Programs: Rethinking the Focus (2001)
Chapter: COMMUNITY-FEDERAL INFORMATION PARTNERSHIPS
and support. The focus of the projects was on “the capacity to acquire, deliver and use geospatial data and tools in a decision making process.” The report also suggests that:
“…Federal grant dollars can provide an effective incentive for communities to embrace NSDI standards and serve as “seed money” for purposes of leveraging financial and technical resources from other sources…. The NSDI community should initiate and expand projects to initiate a national infrastructure that focused on community data and information needs and eliminates barriers that communities face in working with the Federal government to build place based information management systems.”
It is important to note that in June 2000, the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPR) gave a Hammer Award to the NSDI Community Demonstration Projects. The NPR is an interagency task force established in 1993 to find ways to make government “…work better, cost less and get results Americans care about…” (NPR, 1993). This award recognizes exceptional achievement in reinventing government. The Community Demonstration Projects were recognized because they show the benefits that can be realized by an expanded sharing of geographic information among federal and local agencies. While the Hammer Awards may not represent a very rigorous evaluation of the merits of these projects, the committee believes that it is significant that NSDI-oriented projects supported by the FGDC are being recognized as important ways to make government more cost effective and efficient.
COMMUNITY-FEDERAL INFORMATION PARTNERSHIPS
Development of the Community-Federal Information Partnerships (CFIP) concept was proposed in 1998 as an initiative involving several federal agencies; it evolved into a $20 million proposal in new federal funding in FY 2001. Its goals are similar to those of the Community Demonstration Projects, but encompass a much broader domain and with a much higher level of federal investment. The CFIP
