Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 04:44:08 -0700 Subject: GovAccess.047: NASA funds shared regional map resources [excerpt from Smart Valley press release] From michaelm@svi.org Mon Aug 29 18:43:54 1994 From: "Michael C. McRay" Subject: NASA Awards $3M Grant to Create Bay Area Digital GeoResource To: Smart Valley Mail List NASA Awards $3M Grant To Create Bay Area Digital GeoResource Area-wide resource will promote sharing of vital geographical and environmental data among local communities PALO ALTO, Calif., -- August 24, 1994 -- NASA announced today that it had awarded a $3M grant over three years to create the Bay Area Digital GeoResource system (BADGER). This non-profit community service, conceived by Lockheed Missiles & Space Company and Smart Valley, Inc., will offer on-line Internet-based display and processing of geographic data of the San Francisco Bay Area. The geographic database will be developed from satellite and aerial imagery, maps and datasets. In addition, NASA will support the development process by bringing their own digital imagery and datasets on-line, as well as contributing to the project's scientific efforts through the NASA Ames Research Center. ... The BADGER system will focus on simplifying the acquisition, sharing and dissemination of vital geographical data. Specifically, it will provide a system capable of depicting environmental features, census data, demographic information, property lines, municipal zones and similar operational databases. The information will enable Bay Area communities to better execute regional emergency planning and operations, environmental impact reporting, hazardous materials management, utility planning and maintenance, traffic congestion management, commercial marketing and land development. The project will create a marketplace for geographic information services, leveraging technology, expertise and systems previously maintained for defense and scientific purposes. ... To accomplish BADGER's goals, Lockheed and Smart Valley, Inc., a non-profit organization developed to foster a regional version of the National Information Infrastructure, will create a non-profit team called the Bay Area Shared Information Consortium (BASIC). The goal of BASIC will be to promote and maintain the BADGER service. BASIC will provide training and outreach services to enlist support among the user community. Organizationally, Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc. leads the BADGER effort. Lockheed will be guided by an Advisory Committee led by Smart Valley, Inc. to coordinate the self-funded activities supporting the contract effort. Members of the current BADGER team (and associated partners) include: Development Team: Lockheed Missiles & Space Company International GeoMarketing Company Core Software Technology Science Team: NASA Ames Research Center University of California at Santa Cruz User Team/Project Contributors: Santa Clara County Municipal Public Works Officials Pacific Gas & Electric Company Pacific Bell Santa Clara Valley Water District City of Mountain View City of Sunnyvale City of Cupertino County Of Santa Clara Sierra Club, Loma Prieta Chapter Value Added Resellers, Data Vendors, and Technology Providers: Trimble Navigation Hammon, Jensen & Wallen Enterprise Integration Technologies Barclay Mapworks Other value added resellers to be added during the project The team will develop a functional BADGER Alpha prototype during the first two years and conduct a Beta rollout of BADGER services during the last year of the contract. The team will grant ownership to the BASIC consortium for software developed under this contract and will license other proprietary software from vendors. Smart Valley, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to creating a regional electronic community by developing an advanced information infrastructure and the collective ability to use it. Smart Valley’s mission is to facilitate the construction of a pervasive, high- speed communications system in conjunction with information services that will benefit all sectors of Silicon Valley: education, health care, local government, business and the home. Smart Valley, Inc. is affiliated with Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a broad-based, grassroots coalition of initiatives begun in 1992. At it's campus adjacent to Stanford University, the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory (LPARL) is the largest corporate research and development facility in the U.S. aerospace industry. The BADGER effort will take place within LPARL's Software Technology Center (STC), the corporate focus of advanced software research and development. The STC conducts a balanced program of independent research, contract research and development, and support for Lockheed product divisions, including technology transfer efforts such as BADGER. --------------------------------------------------------- Michael C. McRay Project Coordinator Smart Valley, Inc. 1661 Page Mill Road TEL: 415/843-2053 Suite 200 FAX: 415/843-2222 Palo Alto, CA 94304 NET: michaelm@svi.org --------------------------------------------------------- &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& This is neat, timely, technologically viable and much-needed. But we need to make sure that regional base-maps developed with public tax funds remain *public* property, available to those [tax-payers] who are paying for them; not *proprietary* maps owned by high-profit vendors-to-the-wealthy. --jim Jim Warren, columnist for MicroTimes, Government Technology, BoardWatch, etc. 345 Swett Rd., Woodside CA 94062; voice/415-851-7075; fax/415-851-2814 >> To join or drop the GovAccess list, email to jwarren@well.com . << >> Permission herewith granted for unlimited reposting and recirculation. <<