The MSC, in its 1994 report, Promoting the National Spatial Data Infrastructure through Partnerships, stated (NRC, 1994; p. 1): “Cooperation and partnerships for spatial data activities among the federal government, state and local governments, and the private sector will be essential for the development of a robust National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI).” In this report, the committee articulated its vision of a partnership model. This model was built on the foundation of shared responsibilities, shared cost, shared benefit, and shared control. That same report reviewed some existing cooperative programs and partnership activities. These included:

• The Bureau of the Census’s State Data Program.

• The National Geodetic Survey’s program for incorporating local input into the national geodetic control network.

• NOAA’s partnership with South Carolina to build a state-of-the-art natural resource information management system.

• EPA’s cooperative program to help fund the Maryland Digital Orthophoto Program.

These are just a few examples of how federal agencies work with non-federal partners to help advance the development of spatial data. Some of these programs may be viewed as mechanisms for meeting agency mandates, whereas others are based on special funding arrangements. Clearly, such partnership activities would have

evolved out of necessity, innovation, or political motivation without the existence of the FGDC.

The MSC has always viewed the NSDI in the broadest possible context. It suggested that “The infrastructure includes the material, technology, and the people necessary to acquire, store, and distribute…geographic information that describes the arrangement and attributes of features and phenomena on the Earth” (NRC, 1993; p. 2). In its workshop report, The Future of Spatial Data and Society (NRC, 1997; p. 42), the MSC concluded that “The NSDI is comprised of consortia in which all stakeholders in the spatial data community play important roles, whether as federal, state, or local governments; corporations; academic institutions; or individuals.” This broad definition makes it extremely difficult to assess the status of the NSDI in its entirety; therefore, this study only focuses on the specific role of the FGDC as a catalyst in the process.

When the FGDC was given the explicit mission of coordinating federal spatial data development activities, it identified the need to establish a more formal mechanism for developing partnerships. This chapter presents a review of the FGDC partnership programs that have promoted various aspects of the NSDI over the past seven years. As a consequence of the MSC’s charge to provide external advice to federal agencies, the primary focus of this study is to review these specific FGDC-sponsored programs rather than to assess all the other formal and less formal programs sponsored or coordinated by non-federal groups and institutions that have also helped to promote the development of the NSDI. This review includes a brief discussion of each program and its objective, together with an assessment of the program’s effectiveness in addressing the goals of the NSDI. These assessments rely on: views the committee gathered through presentations made at its September 1, 1999, meeting; on past assessments the sponsors of partnership programs conducted and made available to the committee; on views participants expressed in a forum the committee convened at the August 1999, NSGIC meeting in New Orleans; on responses to a questionnaire the committee distributed to participants in federally sponsored partnership programs; and on the committee members’ experience and expertise. While it is impossible for the committee to conduct in-depth surveys, its members have extensive firsthand knowledge of the development of the NSDI, the programs of the FGDC,